Making a (Birthday) List

At Christmas, I decided to put together a few wish lists for my family and it worked like a charm. My husband had a long list of items to choose from and I was still surprised because I didn't know which ones he would choose.



Well, my birthday is right around the corner and I have updated my two wish lists.


WISHPOT


AMAZON

See all the crafty and bookish things?


I HIGHLY recommend keeping an online wish list. You never know when a friend might be looking and send you a random gift!


What's on YOUR list?

MATTERHORN by Karl Marlantes

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.

I am not a fan of war novels. There are not the type of book I generally seek out. When this hefty tome landed on my doorstep, I thought it was going to be very hard to get through.  I was wrong.

MATTERHORN follows newbie Lieutenant Waino Mellas as he begans his tour in Vietnam with Bravo Company.  Bravo Company is charged with occupying a large hill and leveling it out to make a landing zone and command post.  They name this desolate place Matterhorn. The book follows Matterhorn out into the jungle as they make an ill-fated journay to another location. The Company is eventually ordered back to Matterhorn where they must engage in the fight of their lives.

In the beginning, I struggled with all of the military jargon and the large number of characters. I couldn't keep it all straight and had to rely heavily on Marlantes' charts and glossary. About 100 pages in, however, I was hooked. I could not put this book down. Marlantes has a real skill in making the reader feel as if he/she is really there with the Marines.  I wanted to cry along with them as they were beaten down physically and emotionally. And I too felt their frustration when orders came down that didn't seem to make any sense from a military viewpoint but were instead largely political. I marveled at just how much these men went through and wondered how anyone could survive it intact. Marlantes manages to cover a lot a ground. Not only does he offer a realistic depiction of what it was like for these men in the jungles of Vietnam but he also reveals the political aspects of war and their effects on the men who carry out the orders.  Marlantes reminds us just how young these men were and how much they were asked to do. He also brings out the race conflict present within the military which I had never really thought about before.  The main character, Mellas, is both a noble and extremely flawed individual.  The reader feels frustrated and contempuous of him at times while at others rooting and hoping for him to survive and overcome.

BOTTOM LINE: Highly recommended. A very powerful, gripping and eye-opening book. Once I got into it, I raced to the end.  Even at almost 600 pages, I think there was much more story to tell. This book combines provides a great deal of action while never losing the human element.  I think most readers will find much to like here.

Take What You Need, Give What You Can

I'm currently working on MATTERHORN and THE INFINITIES by John Banville but I'm really slow so I thought I'd check in with all of you with some non-book thoughts.

I began blogging in 2003 with the idea that my blog would be a kind of online journal that would enable my friends and family to keep up with me. I never really saw the potential for blogs to be anything else. It is amazing how blogs have transformed our world. CS Lewis said that we read to know we are not alone and I think blogs have proved that fact. No matter what you are going through or what interests you have, there is likely to be a blog out there by someone going through the same thing.

I decided two things a long time ago:

1) I decided I will not pursue growing my blog for profit.  I like being small and I like not having my blog covered in advertising.

2) I decided that one blog cannot cover everything. So, I added a religious blog and a crafting blog and left this one as a personal/book blog. I think it works pretty well.

Before I had these revelations, I felt a lot of pressure to post everyday and to be interesting and to drive up the traffic on my blog. Having a popular blog can definitely have its downside.  I have become a fan of CJANE over the last year.  I find her thoughts on motherhood to be funny and honest.  She always makes me laugh.  I was surprised to hear that she often gets really nasty comments and hate mail.  Her sister, Stephanie, does as well.  What did these women do to deserve that? Well, I guess they are just honest about themselves and their lives and that can rub some people the wrong way. It takes guts to put yourself out there.  We may not always agree with the things that people say.   I don't always agree with things that my favorite bloggers write.  But my philosophy is "take what you need and give what you can."  If you don't like a blog, don't read it.  If you take issues with certain aspects of a blog, then skip over that part and just take what you need.  Most of all, be supportive of people who are taking a chance by sharing their lives with you. Give what you can.  The downside of blogging is that people feel free to say nasty things with impunity that they probably never would in person. I don't want to be a part of that. Let's just support one another! Life can be hard enough without having to fight virtual battles as well as the day-to-day ones.

I have been so lucky to meet amazing people through blogging. You can find many of them in the sidebars of my various blogs. I have been inspired to read books I never would have otherwise and try to new craft projects. I have been encouraged and supported by complete strangers when suffering from post-partum depression and dealing with my reluctant working-motherhood. I have won contests and participated in swaps. I have learned about new products and fashion tips.  I am inspired every single day by the blogging world as it makes our big wonderful world a little bit smaller by connecting us with each other.

Blogging---Take what you need. Give what you can.

Notes in the Margin

Hello Bookish Friends!

I've been a bit under the weather but things are looking up.  I finished two books but I won't be posting review about them. The first was WATER FOR ELEPHANTS which I read for book club.  I have been saving this book for awhile and I was convinced I would love it. I really didn't like it.  That was so surprising.  I felt the main characters had been stolen from SOPHIE'S CHOICE and this bothered me so much that I couldn't get past it.  The other book read was Sarah Addison Allen's GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON which was a very sweet, quick, cozy read.

I am currently working on MATTERHORN by Karl Marlantes and THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS by Paolo Giordano.

Other than a few Young Adult titles, nothing new has landed in my mailbox. This will give me some time to catch up on my current pile of ARCs.

I find myself really longing for warmer and DRIER weather. I'm ready to spend some time outdoors with Noodlebug.  I hope you are getting some sunshine wherever you are.

The Value of a Cozy Book

I love contemporary literature.  I have also been known to read the occasional mystery/suspense story or non-fiction title.  But my favorite is always the well-written chunkster. I love a well-crafted sentence and an author that has a vocabulary that gets me running to the dictionary. I have recently realized, however, that sometimes I like books not because they are literary marvels but because of the way they make me feel. Most of my "must-read" authors fall into this category:

I love Fannie Flagg because her stories connect me to my childhood home in the South and focus on the value of human relationships.

I love Lilian Jackson Braun not as a mystery writer but because I love the town that she has created and the life that her character, Jim Qwilleran, gets to live.

I love MC Beaton's Agatha Raisin series because Agatha makes me laugh in all of her middle-aged glory.

I love Sarah Addison Allen because she seems to have found the perfect blend of charming small-town story and magical realism.

These writers are unlikely to earn any lofty prizes in literature anytime soon but I dearly love these books. They provide the perfect cozy escape for me. Sometimes, that is all you need in a book.

What are your favorite cozy reads or authors?

PARROT AND OLIVIER IN AMERICA by Peter Carey

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.

PARROT AND OLIVIER IN AMERICA is a fictionalized account of Alexis de Tocqueville's experiences in America. Carey imagines Tocqueville as a spoiled self-centered French aristocrat named Olivier de Garmont.  Olivier is sent to America by his parents in order to protect him from the civil unrest going on in France.  They send along John "Parrot" Larrit to babysit and spy on Olivier. While Olivier has lived a life of privilege and ease, Parrot comes from a background of extreme hardship. The two detest one another immediately but are both affected in profound ways by their experiences in the young country of America. These experiences help them to forge an unlikely friendship.

Carey is a very gifted writer.  Parrot and Olivier offer the reader a look into the American experiment in its infancy by revealing the effects this country has on two very different people.  Olivier struggles to make sense of this country without an aristocracy and his growing affection for it. Parrot sees America as a chance to reinvent himself and finally move on from his past.  Their adventures are often humorous as they attempt to negotiate this strange new world.

While I enjoyed PARROT AND OLIVIER IN AMERICA, I found it difficult to read. The story bounces back and forth between Parrot and Olivier and backwards and forwards through time as well. It was often confusing to figure out who was narrating each section. In many scenes, I could not make heads or tails out of what was going on. This made an otherwise enjoyable read a bit of a burden to tackle.  I did appreciate the fact that the reader is able to catch a glimpse of early America from two very different viewpoints.

BOTTOM LINE: Recommended. However, this is not an easy read. It can be difficult to follow the storyline at times.  It often felt as if Carey was getting bogged down by his literary devices. It's a clever book overall, though.

THE SWIMMING POOL by Holly LeCraw

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.

There have been many many books over the years that deal with the subject of adultery and one could say that there isn't much left to tell on the subject.  With THE SWIMMING POOL, I was pleasantly surprised to find that indeed there IS more to say.  Seven years before, Marcella Atkinson had an affair with Cecil McClatchey, a fellow vacationer at the group of summer homes on the Cape.  On the night that their affair ended, Cecil's wife is murdered and Cecil dies a scant year later.  Fast forward to the present day.  Old feelings are dredged up when Marchella's teenaged daughter Toni begins working as a nanny for Cecil's grown daughter Callie.  Callie is in the throws of Perinatal Mood Disorder (formerly known as Post-partum Depression) and has escaped to the Cape in a bid for recovery.  Callie's brother Jed is staying with her and finds an old swimsuit belonging to Marcella in their house.  He investigates why the swimsuit is there and becomes involved in an affair with Marcella. 

This book is complex and interesting with unexpected twists and turns. It reveals how affairs can have wide-ranging effects on the people involved.  The characters are well-drawn and the story pulls you in.  The reader is caught up not only in the affair between Marcella and her former lover's son but also the mystery surrounding Betsy McClatchey's death and how no one has really been able to move forward since that fateful night. I was also moved by the excellent portrayal of Perinatal Mood Disorder. Having suffered from this disorder myself, I thought LeCraw offered up a very accurate and moving example of this problem in Callie.  That may have been my favorite storyline within the book.

BOTTOM LINE: Highly recommended. A wonderful story of the long-ranging effects of betrayal and family secrets.  Very compelling and hard to put down.

ANGELOLOGY by Danielle Trussoni

I have to admit that I am sucker for a good religious-themed suspense novel. Or movie for that matter.  I find the subject matter infinitely interesting.  This tendency is what drew me to Danielle Trussoni's ANGELOLOGY which has been touted as the next DA VINCI CODE. Since I did not care for the DA VINCI CODE, I should have known that this may not be my kind of book. I read it anyway.

Sister Evangeline has lived in the St. Rose Convent of the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration since she was 12 years old.  During her duties in the convent library and archives, Evangeline receives a strange research request from a man named Verlaine wishing to know of any existing correspondance between a former prioress and Abigail Rockefeller during the mid-1940's.  Evangeline's research of the request leads her to discover a connection between the convent and a group of scholars known as angelologists who believe that angels live among us and have been detrimental to humankind.  The search for a lost artifact that may tip the balance in the battle between humans and angels begins while Evangeline learns secrets about her own past and that of her family.

This book was so disappointing. I thought the book would build up to the introduction of the angels but they are introduced right off the bat and they couldn't be more boring or uninteresting. They sound like a bunch of petulant self-absorbed children with wings. Evangeline is by far the best and most interesting character.  However, her ultimate destiny in the story becomes so obvious by the halfway point of the book that there is no real surprise. The best part of the book by far was the story of the expedition in the 1940's to recover the special artifact. After that, everything feels sort of anti-climactic. 

Regular readers of my blog know that I do not like it when authors throw in unnecessary plot devices. Especially romances.  Trussoni seems to be trying to develop every plot device in a novelist's arsenal in order to keep our interest.  The presence of the researcher Veraline seems pretty pointless except as a possible love interest.  The book has enough going out without adding this angle.  It is distracting and adds nothing to the story. Trussoni ends the book on a semi-cliffhanger leaving open the possibility for a sequel but it feels heavy-handed and annoying. If you are going to do that, why not just call this novel "Book One of the Angelology trilogy."

BOTTOM LINE: Not recommended.  The subject matter was so interesting and the story of a race against time to find an artifact that could save humankind should have been much more exciting than it was. The book had too much going on and the "bad guys" were too cliched.  This one was a real disappointment.

HERESY by S.J. Parris

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.

HERESY follows the adventures of real-life renegade monk Giordano Bruno during his journeys in England during the 1580s.  Bruno flees Italy to avoid persecution by the Inquisition for reading forbidden books. He gives up his life as a monk in order to pursue his scholarly ambitions of proving to the world that not only does the Earth revolve around the sun but also that there are many of these star systems beyond our own. These heretical ideas bring him to England as a traveling scholar where Bruno will debate Copernican theory with a fellow at Oxford.  While there, a series of murders takes place that seem to model several famous martyrdoms.  Bruno is enlisted to help solve these crimes while he secretly looks for a banned book that may change the world.

I love good historical fiction and the subject matter of this particular book drew me in immediately.  The mystery surrounding the quest for a lost "heretical" book sounded exciting. However, this storyline ended up being sidelined in favor for the murders of the Oxford fellows.  The subject matter is exciting and interesting.  Bruno, however, doesn't offer much in the way of a main character. He is a bit lackluster and uninteresting compared to everything going on around him. His most interesting moments occur prior to his trip to England.  I liked the fact that Parris based the book on a real person but then he isn't allowed much personality to carry him through the story. 

While the book is marketed as a murder mystery/thriller, I think this is the least interesting part of the book.  The murders themselves take a backseat to the intrigue surrounding the conflict between Catholics and Protestants at this time.  Everyone is forced to take sides and must often inform on their friends in order to save themselves.  Even Bruno isn't exempt from this conflict.  He is coerced into becoming an informant which seems simple enough until he gets to know these individuals personally and becomes more emotionally invested in their lives.  What once seemed black and white becomes much more complex after this happens.  I think this is where the true story lies.  The murders are not nearly as interesting as the issues surrounding politics and religion.

As a murder mystery, HERESY fell flat for me.  As a story of the lengths individuals would go to in order to practice and protect their faith and beliefs and the conflict that this led to, I think the book works very well.  I found myself thinking about what I would do in that particular situation and whether I would be able to trust anyone. 

BOTTOM LINE: Recommended as historical fiction. I think fans of historical fiction will find much to like here.  It was a very entertaining read. Mystery/thriller fans may be a bit disappointed.  Overall, it is a nice piece of historical fiction.

Back from Spring Break

Hello fellow bibliophiles!

I was off last week for Spring Break but I hope you enjoyed the children's book reviews that I posted. My EASTER BABIES review disappeared so I will get that one back up soon.  I had a lovely time with my family.  We traveled three hours so that my little one could see snow for the first time.  A friend generously allowed us to stay in her family's vacation home and it was a wonderful trip.  I met this friend through my blogs and it just goes to show you how blogging can connect us with really great people. 

I finished up two books and will post the review soon:
HERESY by SJ Parris and
ANGELOLOGY  by Danielle Trussoni

I also received a few books in the mail:

THE SWIMMING POOL by Holly LeCraw
THE TRANSFORMATION OF BARTHOLOMEW FORTUNO by Ellen Bryson
A SOFT PLACE TO LAND by Susan Rebecca White

It was so wonderful to have time to just play with my child, read and work on some unfinished projects. But it is never ENOUGH time!  Still lots to do.  I'll take what I can get, though. Hope you all have a great week this week!!!