Teaser Tuesdays

The Triumph of Katie Byrne by Barbara Taylor Bradford

"No one answered. The barn was empty. Taken aback, Katie stood for a moment frozen to the spot. Her eyes scanned the room swiftly, and straightaway she noticed the disarray." (p. 31)

This is what 17 year old Katie Byrne discovers when she goes to retrieve her backpack from where she left it with her two best friends. While she was gone, something terrible happened to them...

I could call this the week of Cheap, Trashy, Romance Novels. Temporarily tired of quality paperbacks, ones that I must read slowly so as not to miss every nuance, I've delved deeply into the torrid romances I bought at the AAUW Used Book Sale last week.  Not normally accustomed to such fare, I must say it's a pleasant change of page. For awhile, anyway. 

Teaser Tuesdaysis a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:  

• Grab your current read


• Open to a random page


• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page


• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)


• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers

 

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

Title: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
Author: Katherine Howe
Publisher: Hyperion
Number of pages: 362

What book is most important to you? What book would you search for without sleeping? Let me guess...for some, it might be a Bible, for others a rare, out of print, or first edition copy of some beloved text.  It could be a history book documenting some world event, a science book revealing some mysterious cause and effect, or a particularly lovely illustrated fiction book. But, for Connie, her search lies in the physick book written by Deliverance Dane.

In Salem, in the late 1600's, women were often accused, tried and killed for being witches. But, what if they really were? What if they had the ability to heal, and were so misunderstood that they were murdered out of fear? And, what do legacies contribute to our present lives?

These are the questions Katherine Howe explores in her terrific novel The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. When graduate student Connie, at her mother's request, goes to prepare her grandmother's house to sell, she discovers a Bible. Inside the Bible is a key, and inside the key is a scrap of paper which reads Deliverance Dane. So begins the mysterious trail of discovering exactly who Deliverance was, what she was capable of, and how her life effects Connie's. Not to mention those around Connie.

While I suspected many of the things that happened in the book before they were fully revealed, I was surprised at the ending which is always an unexpected pleasure. Other aspects of the book which thrilled me include: the fantastic recreation of the dialect not only of the East coast, but of those who lived in Colonial America; the relationship between Connie and her mother, Grace, an ex-hippie of sorts with a gentle, reassuring spirit; Connie's love relationship with steeplejack, Sam.

It was a delightful book with a truly refreshing premise and conclusion.

All These Books for $22.50?!

The AAUW holds a Used Book Sale in our town every summer, and every summer I miss it. Until this one.

I refused to go the very first day, when the entry fee was $6.00 just to walk in the door, but I made sure my butt was there yesterday. First thing.

I barely made it out of the collector's room where I started. There were old, old, old books; the kind that crumble when you open them, and it takes a real expert to know their value. But, there were also these:

The Cabin by Dale Mulfinger and Susan E. Davis: "The cabin presents 37 inspirational cabins from all over the country, showing how people are building, reclaiming, and transforming this unique American dwelling for a chance to enjoy the best that cabin living has to offer. Based on design, shape, age and material, the cabins are divided into four distinct styles: rustic, traditional, modern and transformed. Whatever the style, each is a classic American getaway." (I'm going to build, and live, in a cabin one day. Just see if I don't.)

The Widow's Broom by Chris Van Allsburg: "Some of Minna Shaw's neighbors don't trust her clever broom. "It's dangerous," they say. "It's a wicked, wicked thing." Minna disagrees. She appreciates the broom's help around the house. She enjoys its quiet company. It seems perfectly innocent and hard-working to her. But one day two children get a well-deserved thrashing from the broom. For her neighbors, this is proof of the broom's evil spirit. Minna is obliged to give up her dear companion."  (This, in anticipation of Carl's RIP IV Challenge.)

Accordion Crimes by E. Annie Proulx: "Accordion Crimes opens in 1890 in Sicily as an accordion maker completes his finest instrument-nineteen polished bone buttons, sleek lacquer-and dreams of owning a music store in America...Within a year, the accordion maker is murdered by an anti-Italian lynching mob, but his instrument carries Proulx's story into another community of immigrants the German Americans, founding a town in Iowa...The music of the accordion is their last link with the past-voice for their fantasies, sorrows and exuberance-but it, too, is forced to change." (It's a first edition!)

Realm of The Dead by Uchida Hyakken: "Realm of the Dead is set in a dark and mysterious world where logic and reality are subject to constant chance and where ideas about identity and self and continually questioned." (You guessed it, for the Japanese Literature Challenge 3, and quite possibly one of the prizes.)

Baudolino by Umberto Eco: "It is April 1204, and Constantinople, the splendid capital of the Byzantine Empire, is being sacked and burned by the knights of the Fourth Crusade. Amid the carnage and confusion, one Baudolino saves a historian and high court official from certain death at the hands of the crusading warriors and proceeds to tell his own magical story." (I have to know more about my Italian heritage, even if it's fiction, and all I've read of Eco so far is The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loanna.)

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole: "This wildly inventive comic masterpiece exploded on the literary scene like a time bomb in 1980. The rest is publishing history. Critics and readers adored A Confederacy of Dunces, and the book went on to win the Pulitzer Prize...In the center of it all is one Ignatius J. Reilly, an obese genius from New Orleans, a flatulent frustrated scholar deeply learned in Medieval philosophy and American junk food, a brainy mammoth misfit imprisoned in a trashy world of Greyhound Scenicruisers and Doris Day movies. Minding his own business on Canal Street one day, Reilly gets hauled off by a cop for no worse offense than looking suspicious. The experience is so traumatic that Reilly and his long-suffering mother repair to the Night of Joy bar, drink themselves to the fringes of oblivion, and promptly plow their old Plymouth into a building..." (For the ongoing Pulitzer Prize Challenge, plus, I'm thinking of Chris at Stuff as Dreams Are Made On here with the setting.)

The Day My Mother Left: by James Prosek: "When Jeremy is ten years old his mother walks out o him, his father and his sister and never looks back. Jeremy discovers that his mother took his Book of Birds, a collection of his painstaking drawings of the wildlife surrounding his home, with her when she left. As Jeremy struggles with the anger, hurt, and loss he feels at his mother's abandonment, he throws himself into re-creating his Book of Birds. While he does so, he discovers more about himself than he ever knew." (I have a long going interest in parental abandonment, unfortunately from  experience, and I'm always hoping to grasp something new about it.)

Being Perfect by Anna Quindlen: "Trying to be perfect may be inevitable for people who are smart and ambitious and interested in the world and its good opinion...What is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself." (Again, I have long term experience with this topic which I still haven't quite achieved. ;)

My mother, and one of my closest friends, sent me a clipping last summer from the Chicago Tribune. It showed a couple on their patio each engrossed in a book. The author wrote about how this couple read All Summer Long.  I hold that image in my mind, not only because it gives me a connection, but also because it gives me an excuse.

Happy Reading!

Darkwood by M.E. Breen

Title: Darkwood
Author: M.E. Breen
Publisher: Bloomsbury, May 2009
Number of pages: 273

As you can imagine from the excellent illustration on the cover, Darkwood tells the tale of Annie Trewitt who lives in Howland with her Uncle Josh and Aunt Prim. But, it is not a very nice place to live.

Her parents are gone, her sister, Page, is gone, and the light is gone. Howland is covered with darkness, such a complete darkness most cannot see, and it is not only a literal darkness. There is a darkness of character as well.

We meet such characters as Frank Gibbet, who appears to be planning a takeover. We meet creatures such as kinderstalk, resembling dogs but much, much larger and fiercer. We meet Smirch, Chopper, Pip, and Rube who all work at the Drop.

The Drop is where the unfortunate must work to pry ringstone from the rock. Ringstone is incredibly rare and valuable, perhaps equivalent to our world's diamonds, and many have given their lives in mining it for Gibbet.

But, Annie does not give up her life or her intention to get to the king. Will she make it? Will she tell him of all that's going on at the Drop? Will she escape the darkness that is her life? And, what about the kinderstalk; are they friend or foe?

That is what you will discover when you read this book.

My favorite parts were:

• 
  
  that Page and Annie can communicate with the kinderstalk through a language called Hippa


• 
  
  that Annie has two faithful cats, Izzy and Prue, who save and comfort  her numerous times as they accompany her on her quest. (This is in tandem with my new found love for cats!)


• 
  
  that Annie befriends two delightful sisters named Serena and Beatrice who also provide encouragement and support when it is most needed.

The part I didn't like was that this novel seemed a bit contrived; quite magically, just the right character, or just the right chance event, would suddenly appear from no where. Perhaps, for a Young Adult book, this wouldn't be alarming to the reader. But, for me, I was a little put off.

Other stops along the tour can be found here:
A Patchwork of Books, Abby the Librarian, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Cafe of Dreams,  Hyperbole, KidzBookBuzz.com, Never Jam Today, My Utopia, Through a Child’s Eyes, Through the Looking Glass Reviews

Once Upon A Time 3 Challenge: Completed!

Sadly, today is the end of the Once Upon A Time 3 Challenge hosted by Carl V. at Stainless Steel Droppings.

Being challenged to read from the genres of mythology, fantasy, or fairy tale, the books which I completed are these:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Darkwood

Savvy
The Book of Lost Things
A Game of Thrones

Magickeepers

The Dragon of Trelian 

Far and away my favorite of the stack was A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. I loved it so much, in fact, that I have purchased the four subsequent novels in his Fire and Ice chronicles, of which A Game of Thrones is first.  I'm absolutely enamored with the characters and events in this series.

The one liked the least was The Curious Tale of Benjamin Button. How such a great film, in my opinion, was made from such a shallow short story is beyond me. But, then again, there are those who love F. Scott Fitzgerald and those who wonder what all the fuss is about.

The books I read which are for children, or Young Adults, are: Savvy, Magickeepers, The Dragon of Trelian, andDarkwood. Of those, my favorite is Savvy because the characters are so very winsome; one just longed to know Savvy's family in person and perhaps take a ride with them on that crazy pink bus.

So, thank you, Carl, for once again hosting the Once Upon A Time Challenge. You lead me from the shelves where I normally head into strange and marvelous new lands. I'm so glad to have you for a tour guide.

Friday Fill Ins

This week's questions are from Tamy at 3sidesofcrazy:

1. All children alarm their parents, if only because you are forever expecting them to fulfill your expectations which is not only impossible, but a bad idea.

2. Show me a good loser and I will show you a person who doesn't play sports.

3. Eating broccoli, or liver, is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs at one time. (Skip the liqueur, add in caramel!)

4. Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy spending time in jail (thank you, Illinois governors) and manipulating people with rhetoric.

5. I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine work and running a home.

6. It is impossible to think of any good meal, no matter how plain or elegant, without bread or pasta in it.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to seeing a movie (perhaps the one released today with Sandra Bullock), tomorrow my plans include riding my bicycle and Sunday, I want to honor my father on Father's Day with a special meal I've prepared!

Kafka On The Shore

Title: Kafka On The Shore
Author: Haruki Murakmi
Publisher: Knopf, 2005
Number of pages: 436
Rating: 5 out of 5

I love this book (as you can see from my first review), and every time I read it I love it more.

I've been wondering why I love it so much this time around. Is it because I understand it completely? Certainly not. Is it because of the mood? Probably that's more accurate. But,  it is also a fabulous puzzle...a riddle with no apparent solution...there's no nifty neat conclusion all tied together with a bow on top.

It's taken me a long while to appreciate that kind of book. I usually want answers; that undoubtedly comes from being an elementary school teacher for far too long. Now I'm content to suspend my disbelief, go along for the ride, see where Murakami is taking me.

Here he takes me along a journey with a fifteen year old boy who's named himself Kafka. In a fit of teenage angst, or because of an Oedipal complex, he's run away from his home and father to an obscure village where he thinks he can escape a prophecy about his mother and sister, a village where he hopes he'll never be found.

What he does find is a library with a transexual librarian named Oshima, a boss named Miss Sakei (who may be his mother), a character named Johnnie Walker (who may be his father), a girl named Sakura (who may be his sister), and parallel to Kafka's story is that of Nakata (who may be his missing other half).

It's a complex world that Murakami creates, one deliberately confusing by his own admission. "Kafka on the shore contains several riddles, but there aren't any solutions provided. Instead, several of these riddles combine, and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes shape. And the form of this solution will be different for each reader. To put it another way, the riddles function as part of the solution. It's hard to explain, but that's the kind of novel I set out to write."

What may be a bit clearer is that Kafka On The Shore is loaded with themes. There are themes every where you look: popular Japanese culture, magical realism, sexuality, music, World War II, imagination, dreams, prophecy and the power of nature. It's almost exhausting to see how these tie together, or what kind of solutions Murakami had in mind as he wrote.

Maybe he wanted me to be more concerned with how these themes work for me, the reader,  than how they work for him, the writer.

Here's how they work for me:

• Having an 18 year old son, which may be a far cry from 15 on some levels but isn't really so far in others, I can understand the great emotional turmoil which comes with growing up. There's so darn much to sort out about one's self, one's parents, one's place in life. I loved reading about Kafka's journey and his quest. ("Why did my mother abandon me when I was four?" he asks. A question surely worth pondering, in my opinion.)


• I loved how Nakata brought the truck driver, Hoshina, enlightenment. Here is Nakata, who cannot read and lives on what he calls a sub city (government subsidy) bringing an appreciation of classical music to Hoshina. Hoshina is enraptured by Beethoven's Archduke Trio, a most beautiful piano concerto, which I had to download on my iPod after listening to it myself.


• I loved that Kafka retreated to a library when he ran away, and that he found immediate solace and understanding in the people and books there.


• I loved that Kafka made his way into the deeps of the forest, while the entrance stone which Nakata gave his life to lift was still open, and there found forgiveness for his mother.

If every time through this book lends itself to new insights, and I suspect that strongly to be the case, then this will be just the second time around in a long succession of unveilings to come. You owe it to yourself to read this book.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

In Shanghai, life flows like an endlessly serene river for the wealthy, the lucky, the fortunate. For those with bad fates, the smell of desperation is as strong as a rotting corpse. (p. 41)

That, my friends, is about all the hope you're going to find in this book.

I really struggled with it.

It dragged me endlessly from one betrayal, rape, death, and illness to another.

On almost every page someone was wounded by someone else, either emotionally or physically. Husbands and wives, parents and children, cultures and classes, and even governments and citizens were at odds with each other. The only relationship that we're left to believe in is the one of these sisters who, despite every adversity imaginable, cling to each other in devotion and love.

If you have a sister, then perhaps this book is for you. As for me, the characters, and all the other events in these 309 pages, have simply left me with an enormous heartache.

(I am in a huge minority here, as almost every review I've read shows great affection for this novel. Why not see for yourself? I have two copies to give away; simply leave a comment below for a chance to win one of them.)

Find other stops along the tour here:
Monday, January 18th: Booking Mama

Tuesday, January 19th: Booking Mama author guest post

Tuesday, January 19th: Savvy Verse & Wit

Thursday, January 21st: Book, Line, and Sinke

rFriday, January 22nd: Word Lily

Animal Houses at The Morton Arboretum

I rode my bike in one of my favorite places this morning: The Morton Arboretum. Do you remember the Big Bugs exhibit from last summer? Well, this summer it's Animal Houses. 



There are homes for the raccoon...







the beaver...





dragonflies...



and even polywogs.



But, my favorite of all is probably the home for me: a path encased with sunshine.

The Painter From Shanghai

Title: The Painter From Shanghai
Author: Jennifer Cody Epstien
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. 2008
Number of pages: 406
Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Resembling an Impressionistic painting itself, only drawn in words, is this lovely, imaginative work from Lisa Epstein. It gives us the portrait of Pan Yuliang, a famous painter from China, of whom I was woefully unaware until reading this novel about her.

It reminded me in many ways of Memoirs of A Geisha because I was brought into the eastern culture of China as well as the brothels there. When Yuliang was a child, her uncle sold her to a house of prostitutes; she had imagined that she would follow her mother's footsteps as an accomplished artist in embroidery. With insurmountable courage, Yuliang learns to survive in this difficult life even falling in love with one of the girls, Jinling.

Perhaps fortunately for her, she is rescued when tax inspector Pan Zanhua falls in love with her and takes her away from that environment. Pan Yuliang discovers that she can draw, that she has a passion for art, and she overcomes even more obstacles to become a student at the Beaux Arts in Paris.

While on many counts she was a revered artist during her lifetime, there were those who criticized her for the nude portraits that she painted. Curious as to what her paintings were like, I found two which are pictured below:

This is one of the many she painted with the subject of women and their baths. Then, when I read further in the novel I found a passage written after an encounter with her lover, Xudun, which I believe pertains to this painting:



"Instead, she forces her focus to the canvas before her. She lets her unmade decisions, her confused affections, her unfinished letter (Beloved husband) hover beyond her thoughts, like white moths tapping at her happiness. She will  think about it all later.  After the painting's painted. And after it's dried, wrapped, delivered to the salon. After she meets Xudun again in one week, back at the Cafe de Cluny, and has had a chance to think away  from these paint-thinner fumes.

For today, there is just this: her new-old skin. Her blank canvas, Mirror Girl, watching her with languid interest. Arms folded behind her head, Yulian takes in the lazy eyes, the flushed cheeks. The sated flesh.  Humming to herself, she reaches for her palette. She will, she decides paint herself just like this: in her lush chair, her skin the color of a summer sunset. A triad of color:p each and gold and rose pink. A neutral violet for unity and control-qualities she'll examine, for today, on the canvas alone. (p. 332)

I thoroughly enjoyed the portrayal of Yuliang's life as an artist, as well as a woman. It always encourages me to see how the pain one endures can be turned into something good.

"Has it ever occurred to you that our wounds are what drive us to create?...After all, loss in one arena compels us to compensate in others. Think about the senses. The way loss of sight leads to heightened senses of smell, touch and hearing for the blind. What if the same is true of the creative process?  What if those who've lost something compensate for it in their work? In that case their damage helps them. It's what compels them to create." (p. 251)

Jennifer Cody Epstein’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:
Tuesday, June 2nd: The Literate Housewife Review

Wednesday, June 3rd: Book-a-Rama

Thursday, June 4th: Book Nut

Monday, June 8th: She is Too Fond of Books

Tuesday, June 9th: S. Krishna’s Books

Wednesday, June 10th: Becky’s Book Reviews

Thursday, June 11th: Redlady’s Reading Room

Monday, June 15th: Dolce Bellezza

Tuesday, June 16th: Peeking Between the Pages

Wednesday, June 17th: A Work in Progress

Thursday, June 18th: Beth Fish Reads

Monday, June 22nd: Pop Culture Junkie

Tuesday, June 23rd: Do They Have Salsa in China?

Wednesday, June 24th: Bookworm with a View

Thursday, June 25th: So Many Precious Books, So Little Time

Friday, June 26th: Savvy Verse and Wit

Monday, June 29th: Nerd’s Eye View

The Fey by Claudia Hall Christian (Win A Copy Here!)

Last summer, I visited the blog of Claudia Hall Christian. During the course of our visits, it became apparent that we both love books; even more exciting was the fact that Claudia was in the process of publishing her first novel: The Fey.

She asked me if I would be willing to read the draft. "Willing?!" I asked, "I'd be so honored!" and so she sent me a binder with her book enclosed.

When I began reading The Fey I felt like I was embarking upon a journey much like one that Robert Ludlum took me on when I first read The Bourne Identity. It is a book of terror and intrigue, suspense and mystery; I could not put it down.

Here is an official blurb:

Released from Walter Reed Hospital, Sergeant Alexandra Hargreaves settles in her hometown of Denver, Colorado. With her family and friend close, and her enemies even closer, she strives to collect the pieces of her shattered life.

 Then everything falls apart.

Haunted by the past and terrorized in the present, Alex must reach past pain, through memory and beyond the grave to find her self, and her future.

"The Fey is a romance for people who hate romances; a thriller for people who don't like thrillers; If I'd read this on the bus, I swear I would have missed my stop." James Creasey, Denver, CO

The Fey is the first book in the Fey series.

I have a copy for one lucky winner. I'd like to give you mine, but it's autographed personally to me, and I just can't part with such a gift. However, if you'd like to win your own, please leave a comment suggesting why thrillers are such a compelling read. (If you don't win, you can buy a copy of your own here for 10% off the list price by using this discount code: FSBXEJJG.)

As for me, I not only am drawn to the action, but the female character in this book is one of such strong intentionality I can't help but admire her.

Friday Fill-Ins

 

 

 

1. I grew up thinking that when I was older I would know all the answers.

2. eBay was the last website I was at before coming here looking for prizes for the Japanese Literature Challenge which begins here  in July.

3. Why don't you play more, worry less?

4. Journaling, reading my Bible, and listening to my iPod help me relax.

5. Thanks for the comments you leave.

6. Asking questions as a main form of making conversation is very off-putting.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to drinking Prosecco with my husband, tomorrow my plans include eating an Indian dinner at one of my student's homes and Sunday, I want to go to brunch after church!

Did You Hear Me Scream?

I know you've heard me cry.

For those of you who've been reading about my son and High School since 2006, and encouraged me since this post, I wish you could see my joy now.

I called the school for which he took the Algebra 2 exam for the third time and discovered he passed it. Just like John F. Kennedy, Jr. and his law exam, it takes some guys a few tries to get things right, apparently.

So, the heir apparent has graduated from Naperville Central High School. His grandfather is the class of 1949, I'm the class of 1979, and by the skin of his teeth my son is the class of 2009.

Thanks for bearing with me along the journey. Today is a miracle.

Chicago In The Mist, And A Day At The Art Institute

If you go through Millenium Park you'll find fountains on which photographs of faces are projected. If you wait long enough water shoots from their mouths, and then the picture changes to someone new.

This is the majestic Bean, whose real name has been long forgotten.



One can't help being captivated by the beauty of this sculpture.



My mother and I playing as everyone does inside the mirrored facade of 
The Bean.



Here is the sound system over Millenium Park where concerts are free at noon...



and a view of the Pritzger Gardens with the skyscrapers ensconced in vapor.



This was my favorite painting in the new wing, one done by the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian.



My uncle caught me looking at a Marc Chagall.



Even the place settings in the Terzo Piano restaurant are modern and artistic.



This famous bronze lion adorns the entrance to the Art Institute off of Michigan Avenue. His partner resides opposite to his left. They have welcomed me to a place of wonder since I was a little girl.

Sunday Salon

It always amazes me when the right gift comes at the right time. It amazes me even more when it's a gift from a friend I've never officially met, but obviously one who knows my heart.

When I came home on Friday I found this in my mailbox:



It's an Advanced Reader's Copy of Max Lucado's newest book, Fearless. It was sent to me by a friend whom I shall leave anonymous for now, but who often touches my heart so deeply. She knows how anxious I've been lately.

I am practically a resident expert on fear; it has slowly reared its head until all I can do is thump it soundly with all my might. This book has arrived just when I need it most.

In my Bible reading yesterday night I came across this apt verse:

"An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up." Proverbs 12:25

How true that saying is...

And, in other news from around the blogging world, we have an announcement from Becky about a challenge within a challenge: she invites us to choose one of the gospel books (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) and really study it this summer. I'm not quite sure what I'll do yet, but I'm tossing around the idea of reading John in every translation I own: King James, New King James, New International Version, American Standard Version, Revised Standard Version, New Living and the Living Paraphrase. That would make a total of 7 times, and I think looking at all the translations for one book would shed some new light on it through successive reads.

So, this Sunday Salon seems to be centered around a Sunday theme. Maybe that's a pattern I'll continue to use because they're tied together so nicely.

New York Times' 100 Best Books

A – B

The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow

All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren

American Pastoral by Philip Roth

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Appointment in Samarra by John O’Hara

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

The Assistant by Bernard Malamud

At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Beloved by Toni Morrison

The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

C – D

Call It Sleep by Henry Roth

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell

The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

A Death in the Family by James Agee

The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen

Deliverance by James Dickey

Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone

F – G

Falconer by John Cheever

The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

H – I

A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

Herzog by Saul Bellow

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul

I, Claudius by Robert Graves

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

L – N

Light in August by William Faulkner

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Loving by Henry Green

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

Money by Martin Amis

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Naked Lunch by William Burroughs

Native Son by Richard Wright

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

1984 by George Orwell

O – R

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion

Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth

Possession by A.S. Byatt

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

Rabbit, Run by John Updike

Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow

The Recognitions by William Gaddis

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

S – T

The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

The Sportswriter by Richard Ford

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carre

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

U – W

Ubik by Philip K. Dick

Under the Net by Iris Murdoch

Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry

Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

White Noise by Don DeLillo

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Pulitzer Prize Winners

The Pulitzer Prize Challenge

2009 - Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

2008 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

2007 - The Road (McCarthy)

2006 - March (Brooks)

2005 - Gilead (Robinson)

2004 - The Known World (Jones)

2003 - Middlesex (Eugenides)

2002 - Empire Falls (Russo)

2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Chabon)

2000 - Interpreter of Maladies (Lahiri)

1999 - The Hours (Cunningham)

1998 - American Pastoral (Roth)

1997 - Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer (Millhauser)

1996 - Independence Day (Ford)

1995 - The Stone Diaries (Shields)

1994 - The Shipping News (Proulx)

1993 - A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain (Butler)

1992 - A Thousand Acres (Smiley)

1991 - Rabbit at Rest (Updike)

1990 - The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Hijuelos)

1989 - Breathing Lessons (Tyler)

1988 - Beloved (Morrison)

1987 - A Summons to Memphis (Taylor)

1986 - Lonesome Dove (McMurtry)

1985 - Foreign Affairs (Lurie)

1984 - Ironweed (Kennedy)

1983 - The Color Purple (Walker)

1982 - Rabbit is Rich (Updike)

1981 - A Confederacy of Dunces (Toole)

1980 - The Executioner’s Song (Mailer)

1979 - The Stories of John Cheever (Cheever)

1978 - Elbow Room (McPherson)

1977 - None given

1976 - Humboldt’s Gift (Bellow)

1975 - The Killer Angels (Shaara)

1974 - None given

1973 - The Optimist’s Daughter (Welty)

1972 - Angle of Repose (Stegner)

1971 - None given

1970 - Collected Stories by Jean Stafford (Stafford)

1969 - House Made of Dawn (Momaday)

1968 - The Confessions of Nat Turner (Styron)

1967 - The Fixer (Malamud)

1966 - Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter (Porter)

1965 - The Keepers Of the House (Grau)

1964 - None given

1963 - The Reivers (Faulkner)

1962 - The Edge of Sadness (Edwin O’Connor)

1961 - To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)

1960 - Advise and Consent (Drury)

1959 - The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (Taylor)

1958 - A Death in the Family (Agee)

1957 - None

1956 - Andersonville (Kantor)

1955 - A Fable (Faulkner)

1954 - None

1953 - The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway)

1952 - The Caine Mutiny (Wouk)

1951 - The Town (Richter)

1950 - The Way West (Guthrie)

1949 - Guard of Honor (Cozzens)

1948 - Tales of the South Pacific (Michener)

1947 - All the King’s Men (Warren)

1946 - None

1945 - Bell for Adano (Hersey)

1944 - Journey in the Dark (Flavin)

1943 - Dragon’s Teeth I (Sinclair)

1942 - In This Our Life (Glasgow)

1941 - None

1940 - The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)

1939 - The Yearling (Rawlings)

1938 - The Late George Apley (Marquand)

1937 - Gone with the Wind (Mitchell)

1936 - Honey in the Horn (Davis)

1935 - Now in November (Johnson)

1934 - Lamb in His Bosom (Miller)

1933 - The Store (Stribling)

1932 - The Good Earth (Buck)

1931 - Years of Grace (Barnes)

1930 - Laughing Boy (Lafarge)

1929 - Scarlet Sister Mary (Peterkin)

1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Wilder)

1927 - Early Autumn (Bromfield)

1926 - Arrowsmith (Lewis)

1925 - So Big (Ferber)

1924 - The Able McLauglins (Wilson)

1923 - One of Ours (Cather)

1922 - Alice Adams (Tarkington)

1921 - The Age of Innocence (Wharton)

1920 - None

1919 - The Magnificent Ambersons (Tarkington)

1918 - His Family (Poole)

From The Third Storey Window

One takes the risk, when completing a meme, of being boring beyond belief. (Or, completing sentences in alliteration.) However, because the lovely ds tagged me, I'll give it a go...if you fall asleep you can cut to the chase and just read the last few.

1) What is your current obsession? Reviewing books by request from authors or publishers.

 2) Which item of clothing do you wear most? Panties?


3) What’s for dinner? Pasta, hopefully, but sadly not McDonald's any more. Those were the days...

4) Last item you bought: It had to be either a new lipstick or a new book. Probably the later because I'm way addicted to the Songs of Fire and Ice series, and I had to buy what came after A Game of Thrones since the stupid library never has the book I want available.

5) What are you listening to? Songs of praise and worship by Third Day, or classics like Debussy, or my favorite women like Joni Mitchell or Melody Gardot.

6) If you were a god or goddess who would you be? I'd be an Angel of Mercy.

7) Favorite guilty pleasure: Collecting more perfume than I can use in a lifetime.

8) First spring thing? Getting on my Specialized Hard Rock bicycle and taking her on the trail.

9) What’s your favorite film? Do not even laugh: Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. ("You just keep thinking, Butch, that's what you're good at.")

10) What are you reading right now? I'm about to start Murakami's Kafka on The Shore for the second time around. I suggested it for June's Book Club, I'm leading it, and I'm not even sure I understand it completely.

11) Name the fictional character who has made the most lasting impression on you: Dagny Taggart from Atlas Shrugged.

12) Funniest thing you ever saw in your life? a huge cockroach coming out of the submarine sandwich at a party. My friend and I looked at it, then at each other, and sat back down without serving ourselves. When he tells the story he says, "It was so big it cast a shadow on the wall..."

13) Lucky talisman? I don't believe in luck, just in wisdom and God's protection.

14) Who is your hero/heroine? I have to get back to you on that.

15) Words of wisdom? "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowlege Him and He will direct your paths." Proverbs 3

16) Four words to describe yourself?  Stranger in this world.

Bad Girls Don't Die

Title: Bad Girls Don't Die
Author: Katie Alender
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion Books, April 2009
Number of pages: 346
Ages: 12 and up

When the publicity contact for Disney-Hyperion asked me to review this book I initially thought, "Disney does books, too?" I somehow have them trapped into my mind as films, or amusement parks, and I can see this book fitting beautifully into either one. The Haunted House made a perfect setting for this novel in my imagination.

If you like the voice of a High School Junior, that often trite, soul searching, I'm-not-fitting-into-the-group-no-matter-what kind of teenage angst, this book is for you.

If you like ghost stories, uncovering the mystery behind a haunted house and its past inhabitants, this book is for you.

If you are ever creeped out by the way that dolls suddenly seem to open their eyes and stare right into your soul, this book is for you.

I must admit to having a few clutches while reading this book, moments when I wasn't sure the characters could possibly escape the force of evil they were contending with.

I'm grateful to say that it had quite a satisfactory ending. One you might not want to wait until autumn to discover.

 You can check out the trailer on You Tube here. It's very, very cool.

The Dragon of Trelian

Title: The Dragon of Trelian
Author: Michelle Knudsen
Published: May, 2009

A princess and her sisters, a mage and his apprentice, a wedding, a death plot, a dragon and a horrific creature called a slaarh are all intricately woven into this magical tale expertly told by Michelle Knudsen, author of the New York Times best-selling picture book Library Lion. This is her first novel, and it is a captivating one.

First, we meet Calen who is the apprentice to Mage Serek. He suffers Serek's scorn and sarcasm because he longs to convince his master, and himself, that he is indeed worthy of becoming a true Mage himself.

Calen is tardy returning from an errand when he meets Meg, one of the King of  Trelian's daughters. A beautiful princess, she longs to be treated as a person, and the two become fast friends.

Meg realizes that she can trust Calen with a very special secret: she has met a baby dragon, hidden him in a cave, and they have begun to link, which is to say they have an inseparable understanding and attachment to one another. The story of Meg, and her dragon, Jakl, is one of my favorite parts of this story.

"It was incredible. For a moment Meg immersed herself in the wonder of what she was feeling. Jakl's energy pulsed through her veins until she imagined she must be glowing with the sheer force of it. She felt his joy in flight, in speed, the pleasure of stretching his wings and the warm fire that was building within him. Above all she could feel his abundant love for her and his gratefulness that she was finally linked with him completely-the way she was supposed to be. That shamed her; she hoped he could sense in return how sorry she was to have kept him at arm's length for so long." (p. 250-251)

Unfortunately, she cannot keep him secretly hidden away forever. Nor, can she and Calen continue their friendship without danger. While hiding in a tower to watch the tourney, Meg and Calen overhear a private conversation between Wilhem and his mother, Sen Eva. They are planning the murder of Meg's sister who is betrothed to Prince Ryant for whom Wilem is the trusted senior advisor. When Meg hears this plot, she is so overcome she gasps aloud, and is discovered by Sen Eva. From there the story catapults into a fast paced adventure of magic spells and escapes, of dragon rides and lies, as Meg and Calen work together with Jakl, to protect Meg's beloved sister from betrayal and death.

With magic and a dragon, friendship and her family, Meg leaves childhood behind and steps into the recognition that she has the power to choose for herself as a maturing young woman.

Visit other stops along the tour here:

A Christian Worldview of Fiction, Abby the Librarian, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Cafe of Dreams,  Homeschool Book Buzz, KidzBookBuzz.com,  Novel Teen, Reading is My Superpower, Reading to Know, Small World Reads, The 160 Acrewoods, Through a Child’s Eyes, Through the Looking Glass Reviews