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Monday, 30 December 2013

Audio CDs I'm Listening To This January 2014

Posted on 13:10 by batista
I've had some surgery this fall that's made it difficult for me to keep up with all the books I wanted to catch up with from 2013, so I've decided to "read" a few of them via audio book.  Here are some of the ones I've chosen to start the year out.  I hope you'll like them when review time comes up, and that you may decide to listen along with me!

OVERVIEW of "Light in the Ruins":

From Barnes & Noble
While World War II raged all around them, the Rosatis lived quietly in the pastoral tranquility of their ancient villa in Tuscany. Then their solitude was broken, first by a simple request by two Axis soldiers to visit their Etruscan burial site; then by a virtual invasion of uniformed Nazis who turn their sanctuary into a prison. Ten years later, the events of those days reverberate when the surviving members of the family are a targeted by a relentless serial killer. Another arresting novel by the author of The Sandcastle Girls.

Produced by Random House Audio

 

Overview

A New York Times Notable Book • A Time Top Fiction Book • An NPR "Great Read" • A Chicago Tribune Best Book • A USA Today Best Book • A People magazine Top 10 Book • A Barnes and Noble Best New Book • A Good Reads Best Book • A Kirkus Best Fiction Book • A Slate Favorite Book
National Book Award Finalist and shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling author of The Namesake comes an extraordinary new novel, set in both India and America, that expands the scope and range of one of our most dazzling storytellers: a tale of two brothers bound by tragedy, a fiercely brilliant woman haunted by her past, a country torn by revolution, and a love that lasts long past death.

Born just fifteen months apart, Subhash and Udayan Mitra are inseparable brothers, one often mistaken for the other in the Calcutta neighborhood where they grow up.  But they are also opposites, with gravely different futures ahead. It is the 1960s, and Udayan—charismatic and impulsive—finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty; he will give everything, risk all, for what he believes. Subhash, the dutiful son, does not share his brother’s political passion; he leaves home to pursue a life of scientific research in a quiet, coastal corner of America.
But when Subhash learns what happened to his brother in the lowland outside their family’s home, he goes back to India, hoping to pick up the pieces of a shattered family, and to heal the wounds Udayan left behind—including those seared in the heart of his brother’s wife.
Masterly suspenseful, sweeping, piercingly intimate, The Lowland is a work of great beauty and complex emotion; an engrossing family saga and a story steeped in history that spans generations and geographies with seamless authenticity. It is Jhumpa Lahiri at the height of her considerable powers.

Published by Random House



 
Publishers Weekly
After 13 years as a memoirist, Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) has returned to fiction, and clearly she’s reveling in all its pleasures and possibilities. The Signature of All Things is a big, old-fashioned story that spans continents and a century. It has an omniscient narrator who can deploy (never heavy-handedly) a significant amount of research into the interconnected fields of late 18th- and early 19th-century botany, botanical drawing, spiritual inquiry, exploration, and, eventually, the development of the theory of evolution. The story begins with Henry Whittaker, at first poor on the fringes of England’s Kew Gardens, but in the end the richest man in Philadelphia. In more detail, the story follows Henry’s daughter, Alma. Born in 1800, Alma learns Latin and Greek, understands the natural world, and reads everything in sight. Despite her wealth and education, Alma is a woman, and a plain one at that, two facts that circumscribe her opportunities. Resigned to spinsterhood, ashamed and tormented by her erotic desires, Alma finds a late-in-life soul mate in Ambrose Pike, a talented botanical illustrator and spiritualist. Characters crisscross the world to make money, to learn, and, in Alma’s case, to understand not just science but herself and her complicated relationship with Ambrose. Eventually Alma, who studies moss, enters into the most important scientific discussions of the time. Alma is a prodigy, but Gilbert doesn’t cheat: her life is unlikely but not impossible, and for readers traveling with Henry from England to the Andes to Philadelphia, and then with Alma from Philadelphia to Tahiti to Holland, there is much pleasure in this unhurried, sympathetic, intelligent novel by an author confident in her material and her form. Agent: Sarah Chalfant, the Wylie Agency. (Oct. 1)

Produced by Penguin Group

 


SUMMARY:

Ken Follett’s Fall of Giants, the first novel in the extraordinary historical epic Century Trilogy, was an international sensation, acclaimed as “sweeping and fascinating, a book that will consume you for days or weeks” (USA Today). Now Winter of the World picks up right where the first book left off, as its five interrelated families—American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh—enter a time of enormous social, political, and economic turmoil beginning with the rise of the Third Reich, through the Spanish Civil War and the great dramas of World War II, to the explosions of the American and Soviet atomic bombs and the beginning of the long Cold War.

Carla von Ulrich, born of German and English parents, finds her life engulfed by the Nazi tide, until daring to commit a deed of great courage and heartbreak....American brothers Woody and Chuck Dewar, each with a secret, take separate paths to momentous events, one in Washington, the other in the bloody jungles of the Pacific....English student Lloyd Williams discovers in the crucible of the Spanish Civil War that he must fight Communism just as hard as Fascism....Daisy Peshkov, a driven social climber, cares only for popularity and the fast set, until war transforms her life, while her cousin Volodya carves out a position in Soviet intelligence that will affect not only this war but also the war to come.

Produced by Penguin Group



I've currently started "The Lowland" which I also started in hard copy last month.  It's clearly a wonderful story, but I need some "rest" time and I know I'll continue to enjoy it though someone else is reading it to me!!  The narrator is excellent....

So, I encourage you to listen to an audio book yourself as this season's business draws to a close and the new year whips up quickly with its own business.  I love to stitch and knit quietly while I listen to my "stories."  What do you do?

Sending hugs to everyone this end of the holidays!!

Deborah
 

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Posted in Audio CDs | No comments

Friday, 27 December 2013

Favorite Books of the Year 2013

Posted on 11:13 by batista
Rounding out the year, I took a leading from one of my favorite bloggers, Kathy of Bermudaonion , and thought I would let you know what my favorite books in several categories were.  I'm just going to give a quick list with a couple of pictures to jog your memories.  You can search for the full reviews if you take a notion, by checking out the "search" tool to the left of the page.  :]

MOST UNUSUAL
The Returned by Jason Mott
The Sleeping Dictionary by Sujata Massey
The Offering by Angela Hunt


FAVORITES IN FICTION
Cartwheel by Jennifer du Bois
Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Guests on Earth by Lee Smith
The Passage by Justin Cronin
Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck
The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates
Funeral Dress by Susan Gregg


HISTORICAL FICTION
The Orphanmaster by Jean Zimmerman
Cascade by Maryanne O'Hara
Blood Between Queens by Barbara Kyle
Roses Have Thorns by Sandra Byrd

THRILLER/SUSPENSE
Close My Eyes by Sophie McKenzie
Jeffrey Deaver's new story collection!



YA FICTION
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Beta by Rachel Cohn

NON-FICTION
Survival Lessons by Alice Hoffman !!!
Saturday Night Widows by Becky Aikman
Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage...The Titanic's First Class Passengers...by Hugh Brewster



AUDIOBOOKS
Dream When You're Feeling Blue by Elizabeth Berg
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
The Good House by Ann Leary
The Mothers by Jennifer Gilmore



WEIRD, WISE AND RECOMMENDED, TOO
The Uninvited by Liz Jensen
Tampa by Alissa Nutting


Hope you find some good ones here!  It was a great year for books, and obviously I couldn't name all the ones I loved reading.  Let me know if there are any  you particularly thought were great this year or that I left out...     Deborah



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Posted in audio book, Favorite Books of 2013, historical fiction, Non-fiction, Suspense Thriller, YA fiction | No comments

Thursday, 26 December 2013

Book Haul~End of December 2013

Posted on 11:47 by batista
Oh, dear....end of December Book Haul.  I've named it.  Everything looks so white...  It was a slow couple of weeks, so I'm guessing the publishers were taking some time out for the holiday season, rightly so.  I was.  This year I gave gift certificates to several of my children and grands for books and sent a bunch of books, too.  But didn't buy any for myself.  Instead I boxed up a HUGE number of books I have held in stacks waiting to read and now expect to fight through some of them while I read the new in-crop of 2014s.

Here are the last of the "news" from my doorstep!!


This one sounds like a great mystery/thriller that takes place in Tibet.  Not a familiar location for me.  Thanks to St. Martins/Minotaur:



SUMMARY:

In Mandarin Gate, Edgar Award winner Eliot Pattison brings Shan back in a thriller that navigates the explosive political and religious landscape of Tibet.

In an earlier time, Shan Tao Yun was an Inspector stationed in Beijing. But he lost his position, his family and his freedom when he ran afoul of a powerful figure high in the Chinese government. Released unofficially from the work camp to which he'd been sentenced, Shan has been living in remote mountains of Tibet with a group of outlawed Buddhist monks. Without status, official identity, or the freedom to return to his former home in Beijing, Shan has just begun to settle into his menial job as an inspector of irrigation and sewer ditches in a remote Tibetan township when he encounters a wrenching crime scene. Strewn across the grounds of an old Buddhist temple undergoing restoration are the bodies of two unidentified men and a Tibetan nun. Shan quickly realizes that the murders pose a riddle the Chinese police might in fact be trying to cover up. When he discovers that a nearby village has been converted into a new internment camp for Tibetan dissidents arrested in Beijing’s latest pacification campaign, Shan recognizes the dangerous landscape he has entered. To find justice for the victims and to protect an American woman who witnessed the murders, Shan must navigate through the treacherous worlds of the internment camp, the local criminal gang, and the government’s rabid pacification teams, while coping with his growing doubts about his own identity and role in Tibet.


A friend gave me a copy of this next book which I've been reading as daily snippets of encouragement.  I like the brief little words and thoughts...   Thanks, Char!!

OVERVIEW:

Each day offers encouragement and hope from a Savior who is closer than you can imagine and who will never leave you.
Grow in a deep personal faith while reading a message that everyone needs to hear and embrace deep within the soul. Jesus Calling®is a devotional that is read daily by more than six million people. This version includes the beloved original content, but with a modern cover that will appeal to a younger audience.
After many years of writing in her prayer journal, missionary Sarah Young decided to listen to God with pen in hand, writing down whatever she believed He was saying to her. It was awkward at first, but gradually her journaling changed from monologue to dialogue. She knew her writings were not inspired as Scripture is, but journaling helped her grow closer to God, and from that experience Jesus Calling® came to be.
It is Sarah’s fervent prayer that our Savior may bless every reader with His presence and His peace in ever deeper measure.


I am dying to read this next book!!  Written by Tiffany Baker who wrote "The Gilly Salt Sisters" that I absolutely loved, and "The Little Giant of Aberdeen County," this has got to be an awesome book!!
With many thanks to Grand Central/Hachette Publishing for this one!



SUMMARY:

In the tiny town of Titan Falls, New Hampshire, the paper mill dictates a quiet, steady rhythm of life. But one day a tragic bus accident sets two families on a course toward destruction, irrevocably altering the lives of everyone in their wake.
June McAllister is the wife of the local mill owner and undisputed first lady in town. But the Snow family, a group of itinerant ne'er-do-wells who live on a decrepit and cursed property, have brought her--and the town--nothing but grief.
June will do anything to cover up a dark secret she discovers after the crash, one that threatens to upend her picture-perfect life, even if it means driving the Snow family out of town. But she has never gone up against a force as fierce as the young Mercy Snow. Mercy is determined to protect her rebellious brother, whom the town blames for the accident, despite his innocence. And she has a secret of her own. When an old skeleton is discovered not far from the crash, it beckons Mercy to solve a mystery buried deep within the town's past.


Another one I can't wait to read!!!  You should see this gorgeous cover up close and personal.  It's parchment with gold leaf leaves....Oh, my, so beautiful.  The picture of the shaker woman is barely seen behind the cover.  Fabulous inner summary.  So grateful to Little, Brown for my copy.

Overview

An enthralling debut novel about a teenage girl who finds refuge--but perhaps not--in an 1840s Shaker community.
In this exquisite, transporting debut, 15-year-old Polly Kimball sets fire to the family farm, killing her abusive father. She and her young brother find shelter in a Massachusetts Shaker community called The City of Hope. It is the Era of Manifestations, when young girls in Shaker enclaves all across the Northeast are experiencing extraordinary mystical visions, earning them the honorific of "Visionist" and bringing renown to their settlements.
The City of Hope has not yet been blessed with a Visionist, but that changes when Polly arrives and is unexpectedly exalted. As she struggles to keep her dark secrets concealed in the face of increasing scrutiny, Polly finds herself in a life-changing friendship with a young Shaker sister named Charity, a girl who will stake everything--including her faith--on Polly's honesty and purity.


What's winter without a witchy tale to keep us warm?  Here's one very graciously sent to me by Thomas Dunne Books.  I'm delighted!!  Beautiful cover, too.


 

 
New York Times bestselling author Paula Brackston transports readers to the windswept mountains of Wales in The Winter Witch—a spellbinding tale of love and magic.

“There’s a whiff of Harry Potter in the witchy conflict…. Love of landscape and lyrical writing lend charm, but it’s Brackston’s full-blooded storytelling that will hook the reader.” —Kirkus

“Brackston's imaginative story is fascinating, polished and intriguing.”


SEXY little number from the darling Brittany Geragotelis!!  I'll be doing a showcase of this one in the next couple of weeks.  Thanks for the copy, Brittany...

 
 
 
NOTE:   "Arielle Sawyer is freaking out because she's the last in her class to be kissed. Frustrated and wanting to get it over with, she and her friends decide to sell her first kiss on eBay! Suddenly, this former wallflower finds herself the focus of everyone's attention. But as her popularity grows and her friendships start to weaken, Arielle finds herself wondering why she put the post up in the first place."
 
 
AND finally, one of my very favorite thriller/suspense authors complies a collection of his stories for us.  I'm giving a huge wavy of thanks to Grand Central for this one!  I love Jeffery Deaver and any of you would too if you haven't already discovered his amazing books....
 
Overview:
 
Fiendish suspense. Shocking twists.
Twelve diabolical tales.
 
New York Times bestselling author and highly acclaimed storyteller Jeffery Deaver-the undisputed "grand master of the plot twist" (Booklist)-returns with a dazzling new collection of short stories. In these twelve electrifying tales (including six written just for this anthology) Deaver proves once again his genius for the unexpected-in his world, appearances are always deceiving.
A devoted housekeeper embarks on a quest to find the truth behind her employer's murder. A washed-up Hollywood actor gets one last, high-stakes chance to revive his career. A man makes an impulsive visit to his hometown, and learns more about his past than he bargained for. Two Olympic track hopefuls receive terrorist threats. And Deaver's beloved series characters Lincoln Rhyme, Kathryn Dance, and John Pellam return in stories now in print for the first time.



These are my last batch so far for December...let me know what you'd like me to read first.  :]       


Happy New Year, Everyone.  And, thank you for following my blog this year.  It may not be perfect, but it keeps me going...

Deborah/TheBookishDame
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Posted in Book Haul December End, Jeffery Deaver, Little Brown and Co. | No comments

Tuesday, 24 December 2013

"The Luminaries" by Eleanor Catton~Man Booker Prize Winner

Posted on 08:24 by batista



SUMMARY :

Winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize and Canada's Governor General's Literary Award, a breathtaking feat of storytelling where everything is connected, but nothing is as it seems....It is 1866, and young Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On the stormy night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men who have men in secret to discuss a series of unexplained events: A wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely ornate as the night sky.

Richly evoking a mid-nineteenth-century world of shipping, banking, and gold rush boom and bus, The Luminaries is a brilliantly constructed, fiendishly clever ghost story and a gripping page-turner. It is a thrilling achievement for someone still in her midtwenties, and will confirm for critics and readers that Eleanor Catton is one of the brightest stars in the international writing firmament.



PARTICULARS OF THIS BOOK :

Published by Little, Brown and Co.
Pages:  848
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Author:  Eleanor Catton



ABOUT THE AUTHOR :



Eleanor Catton was awarded the 2013 Man Booker Prize for The Luminaries. Her first novel, The Rehearsal, won the 2009 Betty Trask Award and the Adam Prize in Creative Writing, and was long-listed for the Orange Prize and short-listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and an MA in fiction writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters. Born in Canada, Catton was raised in New Zealand, where she now lives.


VIDEO OF MS CATTON DISCUSSING HER BOOK:



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

What would a 28 year old "child" have to say that would cause her to win the Man Booker Prize we might ask.  I certainly did when I picked up "The Luminaries" to decipher the mystery.  This is a hefty book of over 800 pages...is it just the sheer volume of words and the juggling of them that makes them worthy?  I was interested in the pre-press I'd received giving Ms Catton such accolades as that she was a writer in the vein of Charles Dickens (hence the volume of letters/words), with touches of other famous Victorian authors and famous writers of note.  I don't care for it when new authors are compared to the classics...somehow it sets them up not to be given credit for themselves.  In this case, Eleanor Catton earns every single laud she gets.

While her novel is a load to carry or sit with to devour, it is pure and strong, and her words have a clear ring of truth.  Her writing style is crystalline.  Not at all heavy and burdened by the verbose as some classic authors can be...  Catton is readable.

Not to put too fine a point on the summary of this novel, I think the immediate setting of a barroom at night with a group of otherwise, seemingly unrelated men is a perfect one.  Our poor protagonist, Walter Moody, steps into a secret meeting unbeknownst to him, and becomes a divining tool of sorts for the problem/mystery they are struggling with.

I love the complication of manners and the assortment of characters we're introduced to in this novel.  Diggers and diviners, dolls and dandies, devilish and divine they are all particularly interesting....gold mad and money hunting...running against a Zodiac circle of time. 

Initially, a thread of the story is introduced which concerns a prostitute, a murdered man and a towns people, but I was not dragged into the heart of the book deeply enough, quickly enough, sorry to say.  It may have been the season with all the holiday rush and expended energies.  This is a book I simply couldn't get entrenched in more than mid-way.  However, I wanted to give a quick summary for the moment because I do intend to come back to it to finish it.

I think this is a rare novel.  It's beautifully written.  Catton has a mesmerizing voice and a story to tell.  I liked her attaching the metaphysical to the whole, as well.

While I didn't have time to finish the book this time through, I will be finishing it in the new year.
And, so far, I give the book a 4.5 stars.

I hope you'll take up the challenge and put this one on your Christmas list.  There is no doubt about Catton's writing style and gorgeous use of words.

Deborah/TheBookishDame

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Posted in Author Eleanor Catton, gold hunting, murder, prostitute, The Luminaries | No comments

Thursday, 19 December 2013

"Woman of Ill Fame" by Erika Mailman~Gold Rush Romp!

Posted on 07:13 by batista
SUMMARY :

Looking for a better life, Nora Simms sails from the East Coast to gold rush San Francisco with a plan for success: to strike it rich by trading on her good looks. But when a string of murders claims several of her fellow “women of ill fame,” Nora grows uneasy with how closely linked all of the victims are to her. Even her rise to the top of her profession and a move to the fashionable part of town don’t shelter her from the danger, and she must distinguish friend from foe in a race to discover the identity of the killer.


PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :
This is an ebook
Found:  Amazon
Pages:  257
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Website:  http://www.erikamailman.com

*Isn't this cover awesome!?

Praise for Woman of Ill Fame

“I LOVED Woman of Ill Fame! Nora Simms is hilarious, heartbreaking, tough, perceptive…and one of the most engaging characters I’ve ever met between the pages of a book. Wonderful story, great setting and really good writing made this one of the best books I’ve read in a long time!” -Diana Gabaldon, internationally-bestselling author of the Outlander series
“The whodunit aspect makes Woman of Ill Fame a page-turner, and Mailman manages to keep the reader guessing. Yet it’s the depiction of early San Francisco that propels this thriller above its genre, in the manner of historical fiction such as Caleb Carr’s The Alienist.” -Kemble Scott, San Francisco Bay Guardian
“Mailman serves up vivid description, sparkling prose and a Gold Rush prostitute as scrappy as Scarlett O’Hara.” -Kathleen Grant Gelb, Oakland Tribune


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:



I'm a historical fiction writer who is absolutely obsessed with the past. Many time periods draw me in: I'm most compelled by the 1800s in America, but also love medieval Europe, ancient Egypt, Revolution-era France...on and on.

I wanted to be an author since I was in fourth grade, and was thrilled to see it come to fruition when I was still cognizant enough to enjoy it. ;)

As of this writing, I have two novels out. The Witch's Trinity is about a medieval German woman accused of witchcraft by her own daughter-in-law, and was published by Crown/Random House in 2007. Woman of Ill Fame is about a Gold Rush prostitute who solves murders, published by Heyday Books in 2007.

I live in the gold country area of Northern California and enjoy the historic sites around me whenever I get a chance. http://www.erikamailman.com



THE BOOKISH DAME'S REVIEW :

Absolutely wild romp with this one!  There's magic and mystery, a feisty little prostitute who doesn't mind getting her hands AND feet dirty in her line of business, and a wild ride in the wild west, as well.  The book starts out a little bawdy for me, but then once I stayed with it for a couple of chapters, I could see the value in the story.  What a crazy whirlwind of a story Erika Mailman tells with hardly a breath to take in between!  I appreciated the scenes of early gold rush times in San Francisco very much.

Her minx of a character,  Nora, soon grabs your heart as she steps over corps and cons to find her way in the rough and tumble world of hard-necks and gold rush aficionados.  Nora is no wilting lily.  She's a fighter who knows how to get ahead in her business, although she employs some scathing ways that made me blush many a time.  Whores can be very resourceful and tough..like Nora!

The murder mystery here is strong and compelling as the basically good-hearted Nora works to stop a creep from destroying other "working girls."  You'll love her ingenious ways.

I don't know if I'd have picked this book up for a general read if I hadn't been recommended it by my favorite tour company, but I will tell you that it was a happy change from the ordinary!  It's a very quick read and one that kept me laughing and blushing at the risqué parts.

 A fun read and departure from the every day....3 stars.

Deborah/TheBookishDame


*This review was brought to you in cooperation with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours...

Please find more reviews, interviews and guest posts here:  http://www.hfvirtualbooktours.com
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Posted in Author Erika Mailman, gold rush, murder mystery, prostitution, Woman of Ill Fame | No comments

Monday, 16 December 2013

"The Gravity of Birds" by Tracy Guzeman-Lost Love and Art World

Posted on 08:17 by batista
SUMMARY :

A debut novel already destined to be a book club favorite. “With its deft interweaving of psychological complexity and riveting narrative momentum, with its gorgeous prose and poetic justice, The Gravity of Birds is about sibling rivalry, tragedies, and resurrections. And it’s irresistibly exquisite” (San Francisco Chronicle).

Forty-four years after the brilliant young painter, Thomas Bayber, first meets Alice and Natalie Kessler, Bayber unveils a never-before-seen work, Kessler Sisters—a provocative painting depicting the young Thomas, Alice, and Natalie. Bayber asks Dennis Finch, an art history professor, and Stephen Jameson, an eccentric young art authenticator, to sell the painting. But their task becomes more complicated when the artist requires that they first locate Alice and Natalie, who seem to have disappeared.

Told in alternating chapters that weave revelations about the sisters’ past with clues Finch and Jameson discover in the present, this story sets three characters on a collision course with their histories, showing how families tear themselves apart and then try to bind themselves together again, not always creating the same fabric. The Gravity of Birds “combines the drama of warring sisters, the mystery of a missing painting, and the sorrow of lost love into a haunting elegy that will…leave you breathless” (Tiffany Baker, author of The Little Giant of Aberdeen County).


PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :

Published by:  Simon & Schuster
Pages:  294
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Author:  Tracy Guzeman
Website:  http://www.tracyguzeman.com
Meet the author, watch videos and more:  http://simonandschuster.com


ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

Tracy Guzeman lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work has appeared in Gulf Coast, Vestal Review, and Glimmer Train Stories. The Gravity of Birds is her first novel.

Find out more about her on her website:  http://www.tracyguzeman.com


Video from Ms Guzeman on her book:





THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

I'm sorry it took me such a long time to get to this book.  What a gentle and fulfilling read it was.  I was moved by the prose and the storyline all together.  Ms. Guzeman has a way with words that gets to the heart of her characters.  This is a novel that will live in my mind for months, I'm sure, after I've left the pages.

I was completely taken up by the gentle way we are brought into the very shaky relationships in the novel, as none of them seem to be steeped in longevity or planted in deep soil upon first observance.  The girls, Alice and Natalie, whom we meet as sisters almost immediately are soft rivals...Alice the "do right" girl, and Natalie the hard-shelled one.  And, poor Stephen, the young art authenticator is nearly rootless and blind to the hard facts of an art world with little room for human error.  Then, we meet the artist at the center of the novel, Thomas Bayber, who is a picture of many facets of humanity...seemingly self-absorbed.

The storyline is a simple one in finding the girls whose picture Bayer painted on a long ago summer time along a coastal area, but the underlying story is one of self-discovery on all their counts.  A psychological study of the individuals...a finding of not only the painting(s), but of the metal that holds each person to each other and together themselves.

This is a beautifully wrought novel.  Full of gorgeous word pictures and deeply held sayings.  It's a book to read and reread.  One I'll keep for a long time.  It's the story of healing of the mind, body and soul which we all can take a note from.  I simply loved the book.

Highly recommended.

5 stars                         Deborah/TheBookishDame
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Posted in art world, Author Tracy Guzeman, The Gravity of Birds | No comments

Friday, 13 December 2013

December TBR Pile & Father Christmas Update

Posted on 10:07 by batista
 
 
 
 
It's already halfway through the month of December and I have had so many hopes for reading this month!  It looks like I'm only going to be able to get through a small list of books on my To Be Read list, however, due to the usual parties and other plans having to do with my health issues and doctors' appointments.

Here's my list of books I'm hoping to get read this month regardless of the above!


1)   The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

2)  The Gravity of Birds by Tracy Guzman

3)  The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

4)  Night Film by Marisha Pessl

5)  Uglies  by Scott Westerfeld



Only 5 books, but a couple of them are hardy volumes of many pages.  "The Luminaries" is 830 pages, folks!!!

We aren't having our children visit, nor are we going Christmas family  hopping this year, so I should have extra time to read, but my heart may not be in it as I'll miss them so much.

I'm still stitching madly on my ornaments.  Here's an update:

 
 
 





Are you reading and stitching?  Or are you just getting Christmas cards chosen and addressed and presents bought and wrapped, as I'm doing, as well.  It's a fun season filled with good things to keep us busy...

Write and let me know what you're up to and what you're reading..

Deb
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Posted in Christmas 2013, December TBR, Father Christmas update | No comments

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

Audiobooks~December 2013

Posted on 15:48 by batista
SUMMARY :

Poignant, raw, and insightful, Jennifer Gilmore's third novel is an unforgettable story of love, family, and motherhood. With a "voice [that is] at turns wise and barbed with sharp humor" (Vanity Fair), Gilmore lays bare the story of one couple's ardent desire for a child and their emotional journey through adoption.

Jesse and Ramon are a loving couple, but after years spent unsuccessfully trying to get pregnant, they turn to adoption, relieved to think that once they navigate the bureaucratic path to parenthood they will have a happy ending. But nothing has prepared them for the labyrinthine process - for the many training sessions and approvals; for the constant advice from friends, strangers, and "experts;" for the birthmothers who contact them but don't ultimately choose them; or even, most shockingly, for the women who call claiming they've chosen Jesse and Ramon but who turn out never to have been pregnant in the first place.

Jennifer Gilmore's eloquence about the human heart - its frailties and complexities - and her razor-sharp observations about race, class, culture, and changing family dynamics are spectacularly combined in this powerful novel. Suffused with passion and fury, The Mothers is a taut, gripping, and satisfying book that will stay with readers long after they turn the last page.


*I'm just finishing this fabulous Audiobook and highly recommend it.  The narrator is just awesome...very relatable and speaks like I would think Jesse does.  I love the story!  Jennifer Gilmore is a little known author who really deserves more recognition.  She's a wonderful author.

I borrowed this Audiobook from my local library through the Overdrive sharing method.




SUMMARY :

The bestselling author of The Madonnas of Leningrad returns with a breathtaking novel of love, madness, and devotion set against the extravagant royal court of eighteenth-century St. Petersburg.
Born to a Russian family of lower nobility, Xenia, an eccentric dreamer who cares little for social conventions, falls in love with Andrei, a charismatic soldier and singer in the Empress's Imperial choir. Though husband and wife adore each other, their happiness is overshadowed by the absurd demands of life at the royal court and by Xenia's growing obsession with having a child—a desperate need that is at last fulfilled with the birth of her daughter. But then a tragic vision comes true, and a shattered Xenia descends into grief, undergoing a profound transformation that alters the course of her life. Turning away from family and friends, she begins giving all her money and possessions to the poor. Then, one day, she mysteriously vanishes.

Years later, dressed in the tatters of her husband's military uniform and answering only to his name, Xenia is discovered tending the paupers of St. Petersburg's slums. Revered as a soothsayer and a blessed healer to the downtrodden, she is feared by the royal court and its new Empress, Catherine, who perceives her deeds as a rebuke to their lavish excesses. In this evocative and elegantly written tale, Dean reimagines the intriguing life of Xenia of St. Petersburg, a patron saint of her city and one of Russia's most mysterious and beloved holy figures. This is an exploration of the blessings of loyal friendship, the limits of reason, and the true costs of loving deeply.



*Just starting this one tomorrow!!  Love anything having to do with Russia...love story...tragedy.. 





OVERVIEW :

National Book Award Finalist
Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling author of The Namesake comes an extraordinary new novel, set in both India and America, that expands the scope and range of one of our most dazzling storytellers: a tale of two brothers bound by tragedy, a fiercely brilliant woman haunted by her past, a country torn by revolution, and a love that lasts long past death.

Born just fifteen months apart, Subhash and Udayan Mitra are inseparable brothers, one often mistaken for the other in the Calcutta neighborhood where they grow up.  But they are also opposites, with gravely different futures ahead. It is the 1960s, and Udayan—charismatic and impulsive—finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty; he will give everything, risk all, for what he believes. Subhash, the dutiful son, does not share his brother’s political passion; he leaves home to pursue a life of scientific research in a quiet, coastal corner of America.

But when Subhash learns what happened to his brother in the lowland outside their family’s home, he goes back to India, hoping to pick up the pieces of a shattered family, and to heal the wounds Udayan left behind—including those seared in the heart of his brother’s wife.

Masterly suspenseful, sweeping, piercingly intimate, The Lowland is a work of great beauty and complex emotion; an engrossing family saga and a story steeped in history that spans generations and geographies with seamless authenticity. It is Jhumpa Lahiri at the height of her considerable powers.


*Note:   This is the next Audiobook I'll be starting hopefully at the end of December...I'm now on the waiting list for it at my library.  It's supposed to be fabulous, but I don't have time to read it otherwise, so I'm choosing this method.  Once I start it, I'll report back.  I may end up buying the hard copy if I get into it!  I didn't read "The Namesake" but I know this author is well-loved and her books are awarded, obviously.


 

Are you listening to any books over the holidays?  Please let me know if you've heard these, above.

Deb

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Posted in adoption, Audio CDs, India, Jennifer Gilmore, Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowlands, The Mothers | No comments

"Castles, Customs, and Kings..." ~ Historical Fiction True Tales

Posted on 09:29 by batista
SUMMARY :


A compilation of essays/"True Tales by the English Historical Fiction Authors" blog, this book provides a wealth of historical information from Roman Britain to early twentieth century England. Over fifty different authors share hundreds of real life stories and tantalizing tidbits discovered while doing research for their own historical novels.


From Queen Boadicea's revolt to Tudor ladies-in-waiting, from Regency dining and dress to Victorian crime and technology, immerse yourself in the lore of Great Britain. Read the history behind the fiction and discover the true tales surrounding England's castles, customs, and kings.


PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :

Published by:  Madison Street Publishing
Pages:  514
Genre:  Non-Fiction/ Historical England
Authors:  Historical Fiction Authors
Blog may be found here:  http://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com
Purchase the book:  Barnes & Noble  or Amazon    5 star rating


BOOK SPOTLIGHT and About Author Barbara Kyle:

Barbara Kyle is one of the contributing authors of "Castles, Customs, and Kings..."  Here's a bit more about her and her latest book.




 
THE QUEEN'S EXILES

by Barbara Kyle

Publication Date: 27 May 2014
 

Synopsis 

1572. Europe is in turmoil. A vengeful faction of exiled English Catholics is plotting to overthrow Queen Elizabeth and install her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots on the throne. And in the Netherlands the streets are red with the blood of those who dare to oppose the brutal Spanish occupation. But amid the unrest, one resourceful young woman has made a lucrative enterprise. Scottish-born Fenella Doorn salvages crippled vessels. It is on one of these ships that she meets wealthy Baron Adam Thornleigh. Secretly drawn to him, Fenella can’t refuse when Adam enlists her to join him in war-torn Brussels to help find his traitorous wife, Frances—and the children she’s taken from him. But Adam and Fenella will put their lives in peril as they attempt to rescue his young ones, defend the Crown, and restore a peace that few can remember.  

With eloquent and enthralling finesse, Barbara Kyle illuminates one of history's grimmest chapters. The Queen's Exiles breathes new life into an extraordinary age when love and freedom could only be won with unmitigated courage.
 

Advance Praise for The Queen's Exiles
 

"This moving adventure pulses with Shakespearean passions: love and heartbreak, risk and valour, and loyalties challenged in a savage time. Fenella Doorn, savvy and brave, is an unforgettable heroine." - Antoni Cimolino, Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival




  

About the Author
 

Barbara Kyle is the author of the acclaimed, internationally-published Thornleigh Saga novels which follow a middle-class English family's rise through three tumultuous Tudor reigns:

 

The Queen's Exiles

Blood Between Queens

The Queen’s Gamble

The Queen’s Captive

The King’s Daughter

The Queen’s Lady

 

Barbara was a speaker in 2013 at the world-renowned Stratford Festival with her talk Elizabeth and Mary, Rival Queens and is known for her dynamic workshops for many writers'organizations and conferences. Before becoming an author Barbara enjoyed a twenty-year acting career in television, film, and stage productions in Canada and the U.S. Visit www.barbarakyle.com.

 

 

Praise for Barbara Kyle

“Real-life events merging with fiction vibrantly bring history to life in an exciting, accessible way. Kyle knows what historical fiction readers crave.” RT Book Reviews on Blood Between Queens

“An intimate look into the minds and hearts of the royal and great of Elizabeth’s England. A beautifully written and compelling novel. Again, Barbara Kyle reigns!” New York Times bestselling author Karen Harper on Blood Between Queens

“Gaspworthy treachery and the poignant sweetness of steadfast love make this a book of quickly and eagerly turned pages.” Best-selling author Sandra Byrd on Blood Between Queens

“An all-action thriller, bringing to life the passion and perils of the Tudor period.” Lancashire Evening Post on The King’s Daughter

“Riveting…adventurous…superb!” The Historical Novels Review on The Queen’s Gamble

“A complex and fast-paced plot mixing history with vibrant characters” Publishers Weekly on The King’s Daughter

“An exciting tale of the intrigue and political manoeuvring in the Tudor court.” Booklist on The Queen’s Captive

“Boldly strides into Philippa Gregory territory…sweeping, gritty and realistic.” The Historical Novels Review on The Queen’s Lady


INTERVIEW W/ MS. KYLE:

Happily Barbara has consented to an interview!!  Here it is:




1)      Tell us something about yourself, please.  How do most people describe you?


My readers would describe me as the author of five historical novels set in Tudor England. But my family might describe me as the lady who spends her days behind a closed door communing with imaginary people.

2)      Briefly, from where did the idea for your novel germinate?

The Queen's Exiles sprang from a character I'd previously created, Scottish-born Fenella Doorn. In The Queen's Gamble she played a small but crucial role as the young mistress of a garrison commander. I always liked Fenella, and it's been a pleasure making her the "star" of The Queen's Exiles. It takes place eleven years later and Fenella has become an entrepreneur who salvages crippled vessels. It's on one of these ships that she meets wealthy Baron Adam Thornleigh. Drawn to him, Fenella can’t refuse when Adam enlists her to join him in war-torn Brussels to help find his traitorous wife, Frances—and the children she’s taken from him.

3)      Who first told you you could write well, and how did it affect you?

I began as most writers do: with short stories. My first efforts were awful, full of high-flown language and no drama. But I learn fast, and I eventually wrote a story that won a contest. It was nothing grand, just a competition held by my county's library association, but winning it meant everything to me. Bless all libraries and librarians!

4)      Which contemporary authors do you most admire?

Fiction: Ian McEwan, Kate Atkinson, William Boyd, Robin Maxwell, Herman Wouk, James Clavell, Robert Harris. Non-fiction: Adam Hochschild, Charles Nicholl, Stephen Greenblatt, Caroline Alexander, Dava Sobel.

5)      Who are your favorite classical authors?

E.M. Forster. Dickens. Austen. Fielding. Shakespeare (on the stage; can't say I sit and read him).

6)      What was your first book as a child?  What’s your all time favorite book?

The first book I remember reading as a child was an Enid Blyton story, though I can't recall the title. It was one of her marvelous Adventure series and I went on to read them all. My all-time favorite novel is James Clavell's Shogun. (Proves my love of adventure tales, then and now.)

7)      Read any good books in the past 6 months?

I was knocked out by Jim Crace's superb Harvest, a hypnotically poetic tale. And I've just finished Robert Harris's brilliant An Officer And A Spy, which was so nail-bitingly exciting I could hardly put it down. Seriously, I would rush through making dinner just so I could dash back to the couch and read it.

8)      What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?

A terribly boring play I did back in the 1980s. Before writing full-time I made my living as an actor on TV and on stage, and this particular play (it was about four women whining about their lives) was so tedious that many nights after the show my husband would have a martini ready to revive me!  

9)      What’s your earliest memory?

Tracing numbers with crayon in kindergarten. I can still see those vivid-colored crayons. And sunshine streaming through the window onto my big red-yellow-blue 8.

10)   What’s your most treasured possession?

A scarab necklace, the first gift my husband ever gave me, back when we were paupers. I wear it often. I also cherish a small pine cone that a reader sent me from the grounds of Hever Castle, the home of Anne Boleyn. The pine cone has pride of place on my desk.

11)   Are you working on a new novel?

Yes, I have a deadline to deliver the new manuscript to my publisher in a few months. It's an Elizabethan spy thriller. The heroine, code-breaker Kate Lyon, represents the third generation of the Thornleigh family in my Thornleigh Saga. And she's doing a fine job!



GUEST POST WITH AUTHOR ROSEANNE LORTZ:


We are so happy to have you visit us today with a guest post, Ms Lortz.  I've been wondering what specifically draws certain authors to write historical fiction.  I think you've given us a good grasp of what you and your fellow authors love about it.  Thank you for writing for A Bookish Libraria today!


By Rosanne Lortz:


"Most historical novelists are drawn to their craft not only from a love of history but also from a burning desire to share that love of history with others. There are stories that speak to us from the pages of creased letters, old chronicles, and dusty research books—we want to bring those stories before other readers in a new and more accessible way, to give the breath of life to things long dead so that they can speak once more and be heard.

We read and research and reconcile sources, creating a skeleton from the bones of the past on which to hang the flesh of fiction. That skeleton, if we do our job well, remains hidden beneath the story that animates it. But sometimes, we want to show everyone how the humerus connects to the ulna, and what exactly it is that makes the spine stand so straight. Sometimes, the bones are so lovely we want to let them show through.

The English Historical Fiction Authors blog, started by Debbie Brown in 2011, is the perfect venue for authors of British-related historical fiction to share interesting tidbits and little known facts gleaned from the research they have done for their novels. It is the perfect place to highlight the lovely bones that form the framework of our fiction. Every day one of our fifty-or-so member authors posts an essay on some piece of British history, ranging anywhere from Roman Britain and Boadicea’s revolt to the twentieth century and the history behind Downton Abbey.

My own period of interest is medieval. I love being able to share history that has formed the background for, but not been front and center in, my own historical novels—the power struggle between the popes and the kings of England, the role that dead saints like Thomas Becket played in medieval culture, and the possible Anglo-Saxon subtext stitched into the borders of the Bayeux Tapestry. I even get to delve into fun trivia like how the system of “B.C.” and “A.D.” dating started.

One of my greatest delights is reconciling conflicting primary sources, and in several pieces like my “Alternate Histories of the Norman Conquest,” I get to talk about what the different chroniclers say happened. This is the sort of thing that gets hidden behind the story of a novel. We novelists do our research, determine which account of things seems most plausible (or best suits the story!), and then present one viewpoint. We don’t clutter up the story with unnecessary exposition simply because it is interesting. But on the English Historical Fiction Authors blog, we get to let the research—the lovely bones—show through.


After a year of daily postings, one of the member authors suggested that perhaps these essays deserved to be not just background for novels, but a book in their own right. And so the idea was conceived for Castles, Customs, and Kings: True Tales by English Historical Fiction Authors. A selection of the best essays from the first year of the blog, it is a fascinating compendium of all aspects of British history. Elizabeth Chadwick, one of the most respected historical novelists in the field, describes it as “thoroughly enjoyable and diverse…leisure reading for any history fan.”

Coming in at over five hundred pages, this hefty tome is a little longer than your average novel. But just like with historical novels, the goal of the book is the same—a passion for the past that is meant to be shared—history brought to life by the people who love it."

 

Rosanne E. Lortzis a historical novelist, a copy editor, a former high school teacher, a mom to four boys, and a native of Portland, Oregon. She has two published novels, I Serve: A Novel of the Black Princeand Road from the West: Book I of the Chronicles of Tancred, and loves working with young authors to help develop their writing skills. You can find out more about her at her Author Website where she blogs about writing, mothering, and things historical.
http://rosannelortz.blogspot.com






*Note:  Both Barbara Kyle and Rosanne Lortz's novels are as follows:

By Ms. Kyle:

TUDOR PERIOD (1485-1603)

"The Queen's Lady"
"The King's Daughter"
"The Queen's Captive"
"The Queen's Gamble"
"Blood Between Queens"


By Ms. Lortz:

LATE MEDIEVAL PERIOD (1001-1485)

"I Serve: A Novel of the Black Prince"
"Road from the West: Book I of the Chronicles of Tancred"



THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS "CASTLES, CUSTOMS, AND KINGS:  TRUE TALES BY ENGLISH HISTORICAL FICTION AUTHORS:

When I very happily received this beautifully bound book in the mail, I was first completely boggled by the size of it and the gorgeous cover.  This is a weighty one and quite worthy of keeping on your bookshelf for reference and rereading over the years.  I read it through on a Sunday afternoon.  Actually, was mesmerized by it and took it in because it's written in small vignettes.  My husband couldn't believe I'd read the whole thing in one afternoon!  We were sitting at one of his real estate Open Houses.  It made the time fly by. 

I found the tales of queens and kings from the historical fiction I've loved and learned to treasure just absorbing in the small bites these authors provide.  I read about: Boadicea, the Warrior Queen of early Medieval times who led the Britons to war against the Romans; the strong and brilliant Eleanor of Aquitaine who nearly toppled kingdoms for her own ambitions; the beginnings of the Knights Templar; the Plague that really isn't an example of our "Ring Around the Rosies!"   I read about prophets, pirates, superstitions, medieval bathtubs/hotubs, the selling of orphans, Halloween in Tudor England, washing clothing in ancient times, mirrors, cross-dressing women, The Blue-Stocking Circle we've read about before, metrosexuals in Georgian England, interesting Regency Era Classified Ads, ladies' slippers and half-boots, Mr. Darcy stripping off his clothing!  I read about the joys of flirting with fans, and what The Rebecca Riots were all about...

This is a book just full of information on English history, and it's all wonderfully compiled and edited.  There's not one single dull entry!  I loved reading about all the above...  The historical chapters are 2 and 3 pages long; just snippets, just long enough to give you the information in short-hand but enough to inform in the most enjoyable way. They are light-hearted while the information is serious.

I highly recommend this book to all fans of historical fiction.  I've left out the obvious entries of queens and kings you know well...the Henry's, the Williams and the Tudor queens of old.  You'll find true stories about them and their times galore.  You need to buy your copy as a companion with your historical fiction asap!

5 stars                    Deborah/TheBookishDame
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      • Audio CDs I'm Listening To This January 2014
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