denise

Homeport by Nora Roberts

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 21:25:41 +0100

I admit it - I am jumping the gun. We picked our third book that we are reading together as a group and even though it's due next month I already finished. It was a smart, suspense-filled art heist of a ride. For those people who enjoy USA's "White Collar" and such movie classics as "The Sting" but are in the mood for some romance, this is perfect.

B&N Says ~

Where passion lives...

The Maine air was bitter cold and frigid as Dr. Miranda Jones returned to the family home after a busy lecture tour. But her blood turned to ice when, out of nowhere, she felt a knife held against her throat. The unseen assailant stole her bags, slashed her tires . . . and disappeared. Shaken and bruised, Miranda was nonetheless determined to put the assault quickly out of her mind. Then comes a distraction in the form of a summons to Italy to verify the authenticity of a valuable Renaissance bronze of a Medici courtesan known as "The Dark Lady." However, instead of cementing Miranda's position as the leading expert in her field, the job unexpectedly nearly destroys it when her professional judgment is called into question. Emotionally estranged from her mother, her brother immersed in his own troubles-and a bottle-Miranda, desperate to restore her reputation, has no one to turn to . . . except Ryan Boldari, a seductive art thief whose own agenda forces them into a reluctant and uneasy alliance. Now, it has become frighteningly clear that the incident that day in Maine was not a simple mugging, and that "The Dark Lady" may possess as many secrets as its beautiful namesake once did. For Miranda, forced to rely on herself-and an enigmatic partner who offers her suspicion and an intoxicating passion-the only way home is filled with treachery, deception, and a danger that threatens them all.

AND!! If you are a sucker for old movies like I am check out How to Steal a Million with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole - it's streaming on Netflix!

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself."
~ Neil Gaiman

Winterling by Sara Prineas

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 03:01:58 +0100

I totally judged this book by it's cover and I was soooo RIGHT!! Ha-HA!! I saw this on a display while at work and immediately wanted to be the girl in the beautiful patchwork jacket with the blonde braid riding a fierce black horse. Who wouldn't want to be her? The book starts out with an Anne of Green Gables feel: young girl living with her grandma on the edge of a small community. The girl is more at ease with nature and doesn't fit in at the school in town and can't stand to be inside learning all of the healing charms and mixtures that her Grand-Jane is teaching her. She feels trapped and finally finds her "way" to an adventure in a different world through magic. The book then takes on a Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe feel but make no mistake - this book is entirely it's own thing. And I absolutely LOVED it.
I would pair it with Tuesday's at the Castle and Chalice and wholeheartedly recommend all three.

B&N says ~ “We live here, my girl, because it is close to the Way, and echoes of its magic are felt in our world. The Way is a path leading to another place, where the people are governed by different rules. Magic runs through them and their land.”With her boundless curiosity and wild spirit, Fer has always felt that she doesn’t belong. Not when the forest is calling to her, when the rush of wind through branches feels more real than school or the quiet farms near her house. Then she saves an injured creature—he looks like a boy, but he’s really something else. He knows who Fer truly is, and invites her through the Way, a passage to a strange, dangerous land.Fer feels an instant attachment to this realm, where magic is real and oaths forge bonds stronger than iron. But a powerful huntress named the Mór rules here, and Fer can sense that the land is perilously out of balance. Fer must unlock the secrets about the parents she never knew and claim her true place before the worlds on both sides of the Way descend into endless winter.

“When you handle books all day long, every new one is a friend and a temptation.” ~ Elizabeth Kostova

Cristin this one's for you....

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 04:47:55 +0100

I did it, and I liked it.
Holding the Dream was well written, suspenseful and fun - a great relaxing read. Of course there was plenty of romance but I was not expecting the mystery aspect and it really reminded me of a grown-up Nancy Drew. I found myself needing to continue and read Finding the Dream and will probably go back and read the first sooner or later too.

B&N says ~ Roberts continues her three-part saga of the Templeton Hotel dynasty with the story of Kate Powell, the serious, pragmatic, adopted cousin of the Templeton heirs, Josh and Laura. Margo Sullivan, the housekeeper's daughter and heroine of Daring to Dream, is now blissfully wedded to Josh and expecting their first child; Laura has divorced her cheating husband and is struggling to raise her two daughters; and Kate learns that she has been accused of embezzling funds from her clients' accounts. Byron De Witt, who replaced Laura's ex-husband at Templeton's helm, offers Kate emotional and physical support and ends up falling like a rock as he joins forces with the Templeton clan to clear her name.

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

Mon, 14 May 2012 15:50:11 +0100

Definitely a change of pace from what I have been reading. Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork is classified a teen book but it doesn't follow the recent trend of "paranormal romance". We follow 17 year old Marcelo through a summer of experiences outside of his comfort zone which sounds ordinary enough except for the fact that he lies possibly somewhere along the Autism spectrum. He refers to himself in the third person, he can hear "internal music" and his special interests lie in religion, religious texts and an ongoing conversation with a rabbi. Marcelo takes care of the ponies at the special school he attends, lives in a tree house and doesn't understand people. But for the summer he is forced to step into the "real world" at his father's law firm mail room, take the train, navigate the city, interact with people, and figure things out on his feet. We look at the world through his eyes and judge people through their actions and his naivete, a refreshing look at what is acceptable behavior and what isn't, or shouldn't be.

There are definite reasons why this is listed as a teen book. When confronted with the "real world" with adults Marcelo is often faced situations that involve sex - something that he is not personally familiar with or thus-far interested in. Some parts are crass and very blunt and not suitable for younger readers, but all are handled with an even hand and filtered through Marcelo's logical thought process.

Let me wrap up before I just dictate the whole story to you... I completely enjoyed this book and it blew way passed my expectations. A book from the perspective of something who think about things completely differently, mashed with a John Grisham lawyer thriller mystery. Thumbs up - do it! :D

On a side note, as someone who has had some experience working with people in this population I often keep my eyes peeled for books of this nature. And while I have not read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night (I know, I KNOW! I'm getting to it!!) I have read several that I have found very fulfilling. They all have won a certain award called the Schneider Family Book Award. "The Schneider Family Book Awards honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences." You can find out more about this award on the ALA website. http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/awards/1/detail

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
Rules by Cynthia Lord
A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass

“We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.” ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

April Meeting

Tue, 01 May 2012 04:21:49 +0100

Another successful meeting! What a great group of ladies we have in this book circle that read such a variety of different things - it's always inspiring!! Since the last meeting I managed to get two more books under my belt. The first came highly recommended from a fellow bookseller.

The Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone explores the Thorne Rooms which are housed at the Chicago Art Institute. I've been there and somehow missed these - kicking myself, and will have to go back someday. Jack and Ruthie are best friends who discover a magic key that allows them to shrink and visit the rooms in a completely new way. Once inside these historically accurate and incredibly intricate miniature rooms they are able to travel back in time. Definitely a young reader but lots of fun - and there's a second book out already - recommend!!

B&N says~ "Almost everybody who has grown up in Chicago knows about the Thorne Rooms. Housed in the deep inside the Chicago Art Institute they are a collection of 68 exquisitely crafted miniature rooms. Each room is set in a different historic period, and every detail is perfect. Some might even say, the rooms are magic. Imagine—what if on a field trip, you discovered a key that allowed you to shrink so that you could sneak inside and explore the rooms' secrets? What if you discovered that others had done so before you? And that someone had left something important behind? "

The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Titanic Tragedy by William Seil
Since the Titanic interest had been re-sparked by the one hundred year anniversary of the tragic sinking there were books aplenty at the store and being advertised on my Nook. There was a special deal on this one and since I am still on Kate and Leo overload from seeing that movie *blush* four times at the movie theater when it was originally released - I couldn't stomach watching the movie and opted to remember with this instead. This series was written by several different authors in the mid-nineties and was recently also recommended to me by a fellow bookseller. What with the new movie franchise and the highly successful BBC series, Sherlock Holmes has also had a resurgence of popularity. I enjoyed the book and will probably try another title out of the series. It was definitely a lighter read than the original Doyle stories and it's spoken dialogue reminds me of the Ritchie films (without all of the fighting sequences). Entertaining and feels true to what I know of the characters - I would recommend this book.

B&N says ~

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson board the Titanic on its ill-fated maiden voyage, where Holmes is to carry out a secret government mission.

Soon after departure, highly important submarine plans for the US navy are stolen. Holmes and Watson must work through a list of suspects which includes Colonel James Moriarty, brother to the late Professor Moriarty - but will they find the culprit before tragedy strikes?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's timeless creation returns in a new series of handsomely designed detective stories, encapsulating the most varied and thrilling cases of the world's greatest detective.

Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 02:14:54 +0100

Our first book that we read as a whole group - and I would call it a success. A very dear friend of mine recommended it as something fun and lighthearted and she wasn't wrong. We time jump between 1991 with a graduate student working on her dissertation and then back to the Salem Witch Trials. The beginning reads a little campy like a mystery or innocent romance novel but after the halfway point the plot picks up speed and the ride is a lot of fun. It made me want to read more things about the Salem Witch Trials like The Crucible which I somehow missed in school, and also watch "Hocus Pocus". Recommend it!!

B&N says ~ Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie's grandmother's abandoned home near Salem, she can't refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key secreted within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest to find out who this woman was, and to unearth a rare colonial artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge of herbs and other, stranger things.

“I am simply a 'book drunkard.' Books have the same irresistible temptation for me that liquor has for its devotee. I cannot withstand them.” ~ L.M.Montgomery

Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 01:38:23 +0100

After having loved the movie "Little Women" with Susan Sarandon, Claire Danes, Winona Ryder, etc... since I was a little girl I was flabbergasted to know that Ms. Alcott had written additional books about the March family. My grandmother gave me a beautiful copy of Little Women when I was young and I had to give it a few goes before I actually got through it. Finding Little Men in a collection of children's classics for my Nook was a true treat. It also reminded me of part of the reasons that I wanted to become a teacher... and how far we have come from these "experimental" type schools. I sometimes wonder if progress has really been made.

B&N says ~ Louisa May Alcott's charming, although now somewhat dated, companion piece to the perennially popular Little Women highlights the life of the wildest of the March sisters, Jo, now married to "her professor," and presiding as the harried but happy mistress over the Plumfield Estate School—home to a small group of needy boys, relatives, and sons whose mischievous antics and emotional upheavals provide ample opportunities for Alcott to share her personal philosophy about learning and life. Filled with pathos and humor as well as insights into the mysterious world of childhood, Little Men entertains and educates in equal measure.

“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.” ~ Maya Angelou

Wing Nut by MJ Auch

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 05:05:19 +0100

I just finished a book called WingNut by Mary Jane Auch, a local author who has been a favorite since she visited my elementary school. A quick read, but emotionally moving. It reminded me of the books Ingrid Law recently wrote called Savvy and Scumble. WingNut doesn't have the magic element of the other two but there are definite correlations of young struggling families with strong preteen kid characters that really start to figure out what is important in life. The relationships that are cultivated within these pages remind me of the kind of person I wanted to grow up to be... I hope I am still on that path.

B&N says about WingNut ~ Twelve-year-old Grady Flood and his mom, Lila, have been on the road ever since Grady’s dad died seven years ago. When their old car breaks down, they find themselves stranded in rural Pennsylvania where Lila gets work as a cook and caretaker. There’s nothing out of the ordinary in that, unless you factor in her new boss. Old Charlie Fernwald, a skilled mechanic and bird enthusiast, is definitely out of the ordinary. In fact, if Grady’s not mistaken, Charlie is a certifiable “wing nut.” For the time being, Grady figures, he can help Charlie with his birds and maybe even learn how to fix a car engine. But before he can do either, something goes terribly wrong.

B&N says about Savvy ~ Thirteen is when a Beaumont's savvy hits - and with one brother who causes hurricanes and another who creates electricity, Mibs Beaumont is eager to see what she gets. But just before the big day, Poppa is in a terrible accident. And now all Mibs wants is a savvy that will save him. In fact, Mibs is so sure she'll get a powerful savvy that she sneaks a ride to the hospital on a rickety bus with her sibling and the preacher's kids in tow. After this extraordinary adventure - full of talking tattoos and a kidnapping - not a soul on board will ever be the same.

B&N says about Scumble ~ Nine years after Mibs's Savvy journey, her cousin Ledge has just turned thirteen . . .But Ledger Kale's savvy is a total dud -- all he does is make little things fall apart. So his parents decide it's safe to head to Wyoming, where it's soon revealed that Ledge's savvy is much more powerful than anyone thought. Worse, his savvy disaster has an outside witness: Sarah Jane Cabot, reporter wannabe and daughter of the local banker. Just like that, Ledge's beloved normal life is over. Now he has to keep Sarah from turning family secrets into headlines, stop her father from foreclosing on Uncle Autry's ranch, and scumble his savvy into control so that, someday, he can go home.

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”
~ Charles Wiliam Eliot

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 01:08:26 +0100

For any of you who did not tune into the Oscars last night and see the winner of Best Short Film - here it is. One of the best things I've seen.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

“Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.”
~ J.R.R. Tolkein

Let's Back Up A Moment...

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:41:00 +0100

I read some really wonderful books last fall and they are definitely worth a mention. I highly recommend all six of them.

The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman
Perfect for the bibliophile who loves fairytales!
B&N says ~ "Elizabeth has just started working as a page at the New York Circulating Material Repository - a lending library of objects, contemporary and historical, common and obscure. And secret, too - for in the repository's basement lies the Grimm Collection, a room of magical items straight from the Grimm Brother's fairy tales. But the magic mirrors and seven-league boots and other items are starting to disappear. And before she knows it, she and her fellow pages - handsome Marc, perfect Anjali, and brooding Aaron - are suddenly caught up in an exciting, and dangerous, magical adventure. "

Wildwood by Colin Meloy
Reminiscent of the Chronicles of Narnia and the movie "Labyrinth" but it is completely it's own thing. This is labeled as Book 1... hmm.
B&N says ~ "Wildwood is a spellbinding tale full of wonder, danger, and magic that juxtaposes the thrill of a secret world and modern city life. Original and fresh yet steeped in classic fantasy, this is a novel that could have only come from the imagination of Colin Meloy, celebrated for his inventive and fantastic storytelling as the lead singer of the Decemberists. With dozens of intricate and beautiful illustrations by award-winning artist Carson Ellis, Wildwood is truly a new classic for the twenty-first century. "

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
2011 Newberry - loved it.
B&N says ~ " Abilene Tucker feels abandoned. Her father has put her on a train, sending her off to live with an old friend for the summer while he works a railroad job. Armed only with a few possessions and her list of universals, Abilene jumps off the train in Manifest, Kansas, aiming to learn about the boy her father once was. Having heard stories about Manifest, Abilene is disappointed to find that it’s just a dried-up, worn-out old town. But her disappointment quickly turns to excitement when she discovers a hidden cigar box full of mementos, including some old letters that mention a spy known as the Rattler. These mysterious letters send Abilene and her new friends, Lettie and Ruthanne, on an honest-to-goodness spy hunt, even though they are warned to “Leave Well Enough Alone.” Abilene throws all caution aside when she heads down the mysterious Path to Perdition to pay a debt to the reclusive Miss Sadie, a diviner who only tells stories from the past. It seems that Manifest’s history is full of colorful and shadowy characters—and long-held secrets. The more Abilene hears, the more determined she is to learn just what role her father played in that history. And as Manifest’s secrets are laid bare one by one, Abilene begins to weave her own story into the fabric of the town. "

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
Written by the author of Hugo Cabret this book tells two stories ~ one through gorgeous illustrations and one through text. They come together in a perfectly composed way.
B&N says ~ "Ben and Rose secretly wish their lives were different. Ben longs for the father he has never known. Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a puzzling clue in his mother's room and Rose reads an enticing headline in the newspaper, both children set out alone on desperate quests to find what they are missing."

Chalice by Robin McKinley
Robin McKinley is my all-time favorite author and I recommend anything she has ever written. She is wonderful.
B&N says ~ " Mirasol is a beekeeper, a honey-gatherer, with an ability to speak to the "earthlines" - the sentient parts of Willowlands, where she lives. The concerns of Master, Chalice, and Circle, who govern Willowlands, have nothing to do with her - until the current Master and Chalice die in a fire and leave no heirs to take their places. The Master's closest relative has been a priest of Fire for the past seven years; he is not quite human anymore. And then the Circle comes to Marisol and tells her that she is the new Chalice, and it will be up to her to bind the land and its people with a Master, the touch of whose hand can burn human flesh to the bone. . . . "

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George
This book was like eating candy ~ such a treat.
B&N says ~ " Tuesdays at Castle Glower are Princess Celie's favorite days. That's because on Tuesdays the castle adds a new room, a turret, or sometimes even an entire wing. No one ever knows what the castle will do next, and no one-other than Celie, that is-takes the time to map out the new additions. But when King and Queen Glower are ambushed and their fate is unknown, it's up to Celie, with her secret knowledge of the castle's never-ending twists and turns, to protect their home and save their kingdom."

“In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.” ~ Mark Twain