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Feature & Follow (5)

07 Sep

Q: What book(s) are you reading right now? What do you think of it?

I’m one of those people who always has multiple books going at once…mostly because I have a really short attention span – so I only read between 10-15% each night (either on my kindle, or doing math in my head to figure out the nearest chapter). Of those multiple books, I normally have a variety of genres, including at least one non-fiction.

Right now, I am reading the following:

So breaking it down…

Everything I Needed to Know about Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume – this is a series of essays written by current YA authors about how reading Judy Blume affecting them growing up. For me, and I’ve only read 3 of the essay’s so far, it was like a trip down memory lane – I loved JB’s books growing up and for the heck of it, did a re-read of a couple last year and while a bit dated, they still held some of the magic of before.

Weeding the Flowerbeds – Sarah Mkhonza – after I get done with this book and write my review of it, I’ll only be the second person on Goodreads to have done so – which shows you how unknown this one is. I picked it up for my Around the World challenge because it is set in Swaziland (Africa) and sounded interesting. I’m only about half-way through it, and its ok, but the writing is really dense and it needs a good editor – but for the experience within (a female at a boarding school) it is an interesting read.

The Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates That Define and Inspire Our Country with the election in T-61 days (I think – although I’m desperately wishing for a time machine to jump me ahead until after it is all said and done)…this book highlights many of the common arguments that show up in politics. I’ve only read 2 chapters so far, and its a little bit dated (Obama was just a new senator) but it is still interesting and fairly well written…I can’t say that it is the most enthralling read – but I’m curious as to where the author is going to go with the arguments.

Every Day, Every Hour – Natasa Dragnic – this is another book that I picked up for my Around the World challenge – set in both Croatia and France (I’m counting it for Croatia). It is a non-traditional romance with soul mates…I’m enjoying the way that the writing flows and it has sucked me in…I actually had to stop myself from reading the other night, or I would have been up all night and that would have been bad juju for work the next day…

Kindred Hearts – Rowan Speedwell – I’m really liking this m/m romance with a historical perspective, and if it hadn’t show up in a category for our weekly bingo challenge I might never have read it…I love the writing style and pretty sure it may end up a tear-jerker by the end (her other books have had me crying previously…)

Burning Alive – Sharon K. Butcher – I’d been hearing about this series for a while so I figured I would finally pick it up. I like the writing style, but (and I did check this out) – it feels like I’m missing a prequel or something…not much of the world has been developed and I’m a bit confused…I hope it all starts to clear up soon (since I only have about 30% to go).

So that’s it…what i’m currently reading and my thoughts…what about everyone else?

 
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Posted by on September 7, 2012 in Blog Hop, Feature & Follow

 

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Review – Scored – Lily Harlem

06 Sep

Scored
Author: Lily Harlem

Book Description:
Okay, so I eat, sleep and breathe football and reporting the beautiful game is my dream career. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have time for a major crush on the England captain, Lewis Tate. The bloke is sex on legs, hot with a capital H. Add in his awe-inspiring talent, his brooding good looks and what’s not to lust after?

So my excitement is sky-high as I set off with the official press team to cover England’s battle for the European Cup. But when a series of unfortunate, or as it turns out fortunate events, attracts Tate’s attention my way, who am I to say no?

Add in a misogynistic manager, an over-zealous colleague, two blue silk ties and some incredible ball-handling skills and it becomes clear the road to victory, for me, will be an intensely erotic journey. Determined to savor every moment, I hang onto my sanity as best I can while living the fantasy and wondering if it can ever become reality. Because once Lewis Tate has taken me to heaven and back, its clear no one else will ever compare.

Review:
This is the first time that I’ve read anything by Lily Harlem, but not the first time I’ve heard of her. One of my good virtual friends on goodreads, loves her stuff and so her name has come up in recommendations several times. So when I was looking for a book featuring soccer and her book showed up on the Amazon listopia, I figured it was time to give her a try.

I almost immediately fell in love with Nicky – she reminded me a lot of myself when it came to sports, because there were some that I used to follow passionately. Although, I can’t say that I do so much anymore…unfortunately. She also works in pretty much a male dominated career field, not so much the journalism, but the sports writing, the same as me (mine being the military) and she managed to get herself into insane scrapes…yea, well, we won’t go there for me…lol! I loved the passion that Ms Harlem was able to put into her writing and you could also tell that she had done her research into various soccer tournaments because there was an air of knowledge portrayed that seemed genuine.

And Lewis…oh Lewis…ummm, yeah, I love a man who can handle balls…(snerk!). Not going to say much more on that topic, otherwise we might hit an x-rating (well, not quite, but the possibility exists). Either way, I can’t wait to read more by this author in the future and hope others check her out. 4 stars.

Unfortunately, for you non-kindle readers, it is only available electronically right now – but hopefully will be in print in the future
Scored (Kindle)

 
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Posted by on September 6, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs – Molly Harper

06 Sep

Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs
Author: Molly Harper
Series: #1 in the Jane Jameson series

Narrator: Amanda Ronconi
Run Time: 9 hours and 24 minutes.

Book Description:
Maybe it was the Shenanigans gift certificate that put her over the edge. When children’s librarian and self-professed nice girl Jane Jameson is fired by her beastly boss and handed twenty-five dollars in potato skins instead of a severance check, she goes on a bender that’s sure to become Half Moon Hollow legend. On her way home, she’s mistaken for a deer, shot, and left for dead. And thanks to the mysterious stranger she met while chugging neon-colored cocktails, she wakes up with a decidedly unladylike thirst for blood.

Jane is now the latest recipient of a gift basket from the Newly Undead Welcoming Committee, and her life-after-lifestyle is taking some getting used to. Her recently deceased favorite aunt is now her ghostly roommate. She has to fake breathing and endure daytime hours to avoid coming out of the coffin to her family. She’s forced to forgo her favorite down-home Southern cooking for bags of O negative. Her relationship with her sexy, mercurial vampire sire keeps running hot and cold. And if all that wasn’t enough, it looks like someone in Half Moon Hollow is trying to frame her for a series of vampire murders. What’s a nice undead girl to do?

Review
I’m going to preface this review by saying I came to Molly Harper’s writing later than many other people who have read her stuff. And, I read/listened to her Naked Werewolf series prior to listening to Jane Jamison which were her earlier works. So I think I went into Nice Girls with higher expectations because I had previous enjoyed her works. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it, I just didn’t love it like I was expecting to.

From the get-go you could tell that this was one of her earlier works and if you read later books, you can see how her writing style has improved (it is still the same quirky that I enjoy, but the Naked Werewolf books were a bit tighter writing, which made them flow better). However, I did enjoy Jane’s antics (because there really is no other way to describe them). Although, I did solve the mystery element fairly early on (or rather, I had a pretty solid idea of who is was, so the reveal didn’t add that much to the story for me). But I will be looking forward to checking in on Jane again in the future (and luckily for me, I have 5 other books in the series to read!)

Amanda Ronconi, the narrator, is probably one of my top 5 that I have discovered in the last year, along with Xe Sands. I know immediately picking up anything narrated by her, that she is going to hit on the quirky/humorous nature of the writing without too much difficulty. While her male voices, are occasionally, only so-so (but they grow on you), I love her female ones and feel that she had a good range to work with. I’ll be watching for more stuff narrated by her in the future.

Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs (Paperback)
Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs (Kindle)

 
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Posted by on September 6, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – A Gift For My Sister – Ann Pearlman

04 Sep

A Gift for My Sister
Author: Ann Pearlman

Book Description:
Tara and Sky share a mother, but aside from that they seem to differ in almost every way. When a series of tragedies strikes, they must somehow come together in the face of heartbreak, dashed hopes, and demons of the past. The journey they embark on forces each woman to take a walk in the other’s shoes and examine what sisterhood really means to them. It’s a long road to understanding, and everyone who knows them hopes these two sisters can find a way back to each other.

Review:
The first thing that drew me to this book was the cover, there was just something whimsical about it, but then reading the cover copy, I knew going in that it was likely going to be a gut-wrencher and was it in a way. Not a complete blubbering mess like some books i have read recently (Yes, Kristin Hannah, I’m looking at you..) but still an emotional read. I loved how the author not only choose to use an alternating view point between Sky and Tara, but that the each chapter was titled the same as it alternated, so you saw each scenario through both of their eyes. The use of the two different font styles in the books, further emphasized the different POV’s.

That being said, Sky bugged the ever living shit out of me…I know that everyone grieves differently, but damn, she was just a bitch. Although, I also don’t think Tara was completely innocent in the whole scenario either. It was nice seeing their relationship start to mend over the course of the book – while I realize that it won’t ever be tied up in a pretty bow, you could see the inroads that were made. Bonus in the book, there were recipes at the end! I photo-copied a couple of them and can’t wait to try them out! Overall, I’d give it 3.75/5 and might possible seek more out by the author in the future.

A Gift for My Sister (Hardcover)
A Gift for My Sister (Kindle)

 
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Posted by on September 4, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Review – Pearl Harbor: FDR Leads the Nation Into War – Steven M. Gillon

03 Sep

Pearl Harbor: FDR Leads the Nation Into War
Author: Steven M. Gillon

Narrator: John Pruden
Run Time: 6 hours and 40 minutes

Book Description:
Franklin D. Roosevelt famously called December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy.” History would prove him correct; the events of that day—when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor—ended the Great Depression, changed the course of FDR’s presidency, and swept America into World War II. In Pearl Harbor, acclaimed historian Steven M. Gillon provides a vivid, minute-by-minute account of Roosevelt’s skillful leadership in the wake of the most devastating military assault in American history. FDR proved both decisive and deceptive, inspiring the nation while keeping the real facts of the attack a secret from congressional leaders and the public. Pearl Harbor explores the anxious and emotional events surrounding the attack on Pearl Harbor, showing how the president and the American public responded in the pivotal twenty-four hours that followed, a period in which America burst from precarious peace into total war.

Review:
I don’t typically listen to non-fiction audiobooks, but I was looking for something different and this one caught my eye. Having studied history in college, I found that WW2 was definitely a period that interested me – although the European theater was more to my liking than the Pacific theater or the homefront. But any historian knows FDR’s famous words just a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor – so seeing the lead up to how that speech came to be in the hours following the attack was intriguing.

I found Pruden’s narration to be spot on for the topic and the genre. There was really no need for multiple voices in a non-fiction book, although I would be curious to hear him narrator a fiction book to see his range…I know that I will be on the look-out for more books narrated by him in the future. I’ll also be seeking out more books written by Gillon, as he had a way of bringing a well known time period in history to life, with the minor details that likely are never studied by historians. It is those time periods that bring history to life.

 
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Posted by on September 3, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Deja Vu Review (2)

02 Sep

The Deja Vu Review is a weekly meme hosted by Brittany at The Book Addicts Guide. Its an opportunity to revisit old books you might have read before you launched your blog, but that you think should maybe still be highlighted.

A book you found by chance/by accident

When I was working the night shift a few years ago, one of the ways that I killed time was looking for book lots on ebay and sometimes buying them. Its amazing how buy clicky your finger gets at 3am when there isn’t much going on and you are struggling to stay away. One of the best deals I found online was buy 10lbs of randomly selected books (you could pick the genres) for $15. And if you bought 30lbs, you got an extra 10lbs for free (yeah, I totally got suckers into buying the 30). I ended up selected romance – and a mix of contemporary, historical, pnr and other stuff for the box.

When the box showed up wow, it was like a treasure trove and I immediately dug in. There was at least one awesome find in the box – Stormfire, written by Christine Monson. This book has been talked about on romance message boards for years – it was released in the height of the bodice ripper genre and is definitely either a love it or hate it book. What’s more, if you try to buy the book nowadays, you normally can’t find it cheaper than about $60, because only a limited print run was done, and it has not been re-released since and likely won’t. So the fact that I got it in a box that I probably only paid on average about $2 per book was pretty awesome. Oh yeah, and I feel in the love it category. But it wasn’t an easy read – it was violent, it was disturbing and by all rights, I should have hated it, but the writing was extremely compelling and sucked me in.

 
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Posted by on September 2, 2012 in Blog Hop, Deja Vu Review

 

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Review – The Keepsake – Tess Gerritsen

01 Sep

The Keepsake
Author: Tess Gerritsen
Series: #7 in the Rizzoli and Isles series

Narrator: Diedre Lovejoy
Run Time: 10 hrs and 51 minutes

Book Description:
For untold years, the perfectly preserved mummy had lain forgotten in the dusty basement of Boston’s Crispin Museum. Now its sudden rediscovery by museum staff is both a major coup and an attention-grabbing mystery. Dubbed “Madam X,” the mummy–to all appearances, an ancient Egyptian artifact– seems a ghoulish godsend for the financially struggling institution. But medical examiner Maura Isles soon discovers a macabre message hidden within the corpse–horrifying proof that this “centuries-old” relic is instead a modern-day murder victim.

To Maura and Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli, the forensic evidence is unmistakable, its implications terrifying. And when the grisly remains of yet another woman are found in the hidden recesses of the museum, it becomes chillingly clear that a maniac is at large–and is now taunting them.
Archaeologist Josephine Pulcillo’s blood runs cold when the killer’s cryptic missives are discovered, and her darkest dread becomes real when the carefully preserved corpse of yet a third victim is left in her car like a gruesome offering–or perhaps a ghastly promise of what’s to come.

Review:
Of all the books in the Rizzoli and Isles series that I have listened to this year, The Keepsake is one of my favorites. I loved how a museum, a place where many people wouldn’t necessarily choose to visit (unless you are a history dork like me!) as an option when visiting a new city. And yet, Ms Gerritsen wrote this book in a way that I hope will cause more people to choose to visit them. And added to that, there was the egyptology twist with mummies and artifacts. The various dead methods that the author choose to incorporate into the plot with the Archeology killer were particularly gruesome and unique from all the other books in the series. After finishing this book, I wanted to pick up a book about egyptian burial methods to read up on my history. To me, that is a sign of a good book, when I want to find a non-fiction book about something that was featured in a fiction book.

After listening to most of the books in the series so far, and playing the musical narrators for most of the books (I think Deidre Lovejoy is the 5th different one maybe), I have come to appreciate the different narration skills out there. For me, this was a solid performance. I can’t say that it completely blew me away, but I rather enjoyed it and it made my commute go a lot quicker for the 4 and a half days that it took me to complete it. I downloaded this from my library via the overdrive app, so I have no complaints about the production of it and didn’t notice any issues with the recording.

The Keepsake: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel (Rizzoli & Isles Novels) (Paperback)
The Keepsake: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel (Jane Rizzoli & Maura Isles) (Kindle)

 
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Posted by on September 1, 2012 in Book Review

 

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Feature & Follow (4)

31 Aug

So this week, it looks like Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, the hosts of this great meme have 2 different questions – so i’m going to answer them both 😉

Q: Best Cover? What is the best cover of a book that you’ve read and didn’t like?

This question came from Parajunkee and made me think. So often I am drawn in by a cover and then the book is only so-so…so I went to dig through my goodreads records of books that I have read this year and since I am sitting at 250+ books it took a few minutes. But I finally found one. I think I might be one of the few people in the world who read, but didn’t really enjoy Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally. It wasn’t so much the romance aspect of the book that I had issues with (although there were some that I had, mostly focused on a TSTL high school female…and yes, I remember being like that once), but rather the perpetuating of the dumb jock stereotype (taking shop class as a senior in high school, while trying to get into the University of Alabama), or the fact that the author used a real NFL team in the book but made up her own players (I would have preferred that she make up a team – would have made it more believable). But I did like the cover – very simple, whimsical and you can obviously tell that it is going to be a YA romance off the bat.

Q: Best cover? What is the best cover of a book that you’ve read and loved?
Alison Can Read’s question was much easier to answer and I knew what book I was going to use as soon as I read it. The cover of Daughter of Smoke and Bone immediately drew me to it and I was soon sucked into the audiobook. The narrator was awesome and only served to enhance the plot. This book had a great mix of contemporary and fantasy elements and made me want to visit Prague. I loved the mysterious nature of the cover, the person with the mask trying to hide their identity, but at the same time, the blue of the mask marking them more of as an individual. This book got my first 5 star read of the one, and one of only 5 that I have given out so far. However, I am now stuck waiting (albeit rather impatiently for the next book to come out, and the cover for it, seems to be equally as great and mysterious).

 
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Posted by on August 31, 2012 in Blog Hop, Feature & Follow

 

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Review – Code Name Verity – Elizabeth Wein

31 Aug

Code Name Verity
Author: Elizabeth Wein

Book Description:
I have two weeks. You’ll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.

That’s what you do to enemy agents. It’s what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine — and I will do anything, anything, to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.

He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I’m going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France — an Allied Invasion of Two.

We are a sensational team.

Review:
I should have enjoyed the book more than I did. Its set during WW2 which is a time period of interest to me; it featured 2 teenage girls in interesting/difficult situations and in general, the description just sucked me in. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work. I can’t describe what it was or why I struggled with it – I just know that once I put it down, I wasn’t all that motivated to pick it up and while I did finish reading it, it wasn’t a completely enjoyable read, but it wasn’t completely horrendous either (I don’t even know if that makes sense)…

Maybe others will enjoy it more than I did, but the highest I can give it is 2 stars – meaning that it was ok but not enough for me to want to recommend it. However, if you are interested in reading it, the following are the links for purchasing it on Amazon:

Code Name Verity (Hardcover)
Code Name Verity (Kindle)

 
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Posted by on August 31, 2012 in Book Review

 

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