Reminder: Last day for giveaways!

Contests, like all good things, must come to an end. If you'd like a chance to win Julie & Julia by Julie Powell, The Impostor's Daughter by Laurie Sandell or the set of Bobbi Brown Living Beauty and How Not To Look Old, you have until midnight EST to enter. Everyone interested in The Link by Colin Tudge has a bit of a reprieve; that giveaway will end tomorrow, September 1st at midnight EST.

Good luck to everyone who has entered, and I will announce the winners a little later this week!

It's Monday! What are you reading? (August 31, 2009)

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a weekly event hosted by J. Kaye's Book Blog; participants discuss what they read the previous week and what the plan to read in the coming week.

Last week was slow, and no excuses about that. However, the upcoming weeks are shaping up to be interesting; I have a number of review books on deck, and they all seem pretty varied in type and intended audience.

But between a dentist appointment with sedation that will conk me out for all of tomorrow, an appearance by my husband on the Today Show on Wednesday and our one-year anniversary on Sunday, I expect my amount of reading this week will match my amount of reading last week.

Last week's action:

*Nothing finished--shame on me!

Perusing now:

*Playing House by Fredrica Wagman (and the end is within spitting distance, as my grandmother would say)

Stay tuned for:

*Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti
*Everything Sucks by Hannah Friedman
*Friends Like These by Danny Wallace

Sunday Salon (August 30, 2009)

For the second week in a row, I feel obliged to make excuses for my small reading amount. I had a dental appointment on Wednesday, and because I'm a huge wimp when it comes to dentists, I requested a sedative. I still don't remember anything between 9:00AM and 6:00PM that day. Saturday was spent preparing for an interview today (yes, on a Sunday) for an editorial internship which labor laws apparently precluded me from taking. In the words of Liz Lemon: blargh.

However, the book I did find time to read--Playing House by Fredrica Wagman--is just absolutely amazing. Wagman writes in flowing yet abrupt sentences that blend into impressionistic paragraphs, and even though it's difficult to keep up with her, I am able to immerse myself in her words and let go of the front of my mind that is always wondering, "What next?"

That "What next?" is something which constantly nags me, no matter which reading direction I go. I wonder, are other people experience this? Does anyone else feel the gravitational pull that an unread book can possess even as you are enjoying the book in your hands? The power that books have is incredible: one can spur our imagination while its brother tantalizes us.

Sometimes it's nice have a lot of new review books. It helps to prevent my wandering literary eye.

Weekly Geeks (August 29, 2009)

Weekly Geeks is a weekly event that presents a theme (such as "redecorate your blog week" or "organize your challenges" week or "catch up on your reviews" week) each week. Here is this week's theme:

Last year, I saw a movie, I think it was called Definitely, Maybe, that got me to thinking. In this movie, one of the girls was on a quest to find a particular copy of Jane Eyre, I forget now the specific reason why. But in the process of her search, she ended up with this massive collection of Jane Eyre books, from all sorts of places and years and styles. She had a shelf that went all the way around her room, filled with these wonderful Jane Eyre books.

It made me wish I had a collection like hers, a collection of one particular title, in all it's various versions.

So, Weekly Geeksters, tell us, do you have a collection, (or are you starting a collection,) of one particular book title? If so, what's your story? Why that book, and how many do you have, and what editions are they? Share pictures and give us all the details.

Or perhaps you dream about starting such a collection. What title would it be and what would it take for you to get motivated to start collecting?

Or maybe it's the works of a particular author you collect (or want to collect) instead a certain book title?

Unfortunately, I'm not in a place where such a project would be at all fiscally responsible, but it is certainly something of which I dream with fondness. I would fall into the class of those wanting to collect early editions of their favorite books, regardless of author, but which in my case tend to come from a few authors. Unfortunately, these authors are ones such as Ernest Hemingway, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Milan Kundera, who are all hugely sought after for obvious reasons. In other words, I would need a rather large cash reserve to do establish my collection as I envision it.

However, thanks to some wonderfully beautiful gifts from my husband, I'm inching along the way. I have a first edition and first printing of The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, and I have a first edition and early printing of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I also snagged a first edition of Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Garcia Marquez.

But all of this doesn't touch on the books I have multiple copies of through sheer accident. Off of the top of my head, I know I have paperback and hardcover versions of Atonement by Ian McEwan, The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen and Underworld by Don DeLillo. These books aren't particularly important to me, but I get rather excited at library sales. In my defense, I would love to convert my entire book collection to hardcover editions. Still, in the process I losing sight of both my limited book budget and, even more pressing, the limited space in my Manhattan apartment. Not that the realization of any of that will cure me, of course. I'm sure others share my syndrome, right? I can't be the only inanimate object version of the crazy cat lady, right?

Book Review: The Blue Pen by Lisa Rusczyk

In The Blue Pen, Lisa Rusczyk explores an unlikely relationship with a chance beginning that ultimately leads to significant personal revelations. Parker is a star journalist, relentless in his pursuit of a story. Cleo is a middle-aged homeless women who happens to appear one morning in the backseat of Parker's car. Something Cleo says spurs Parker to find her--and her story. But Cleo's story is more unusual than Parker could have ever anticipated.

In most books that revolve around two characters locked in a head-to-head encounter, be it hostile or friendly, one character is more fleshed out and shines brighter than the other. In The Blue Pen, where Parker and Cleo make up the story's dichotomy, Cleo becomes the foreground figure as Parker provides the background necessary for the story to unfold. The reader gets glimpses into Parker's work and personal life, as well as some sense of his personal taste, but I found Parker to be the conduit for Cleo's story rather than a significant player in it.

And indeed, the heart of the story for me and what really kept me turning the pages was Cleo's story and how Rusczyk portrayed it. Cleo's ending point is clear from the first two pages--she is a homeless drunk--but as Cleo tells Parker the beginning of her story, she reveals a canyon between her ending and her beginning. From beginning to end, Cleo's life takes sharp turns, and I was always anxious to see what would be around the next corner.

I found Cleo's story and the development of her character to be where the merit and interest of The Blue Pen lie. I genuinely felt for Cleo, and more importantly, I was desperate to see where her story ended. Rusczyk is an extremely talented storyteller; she knows how to hook and pull along the reader, to give him enough of a taste so that he wants more. More authors should be this way.

However, Rusczyk's writing is not without flaws. There are places in the book where I feel the phrasing is inelegant as compared to the whole, and this occurs often enough to have become a minor distraction to me. Specifically I am referring to passages describing bodily functions or foul odors; these sections are not superfluous to the story, but I felt that the presentation caused me to feel offense toward to the wrong things. Similarly, but less bothersome, I felt Rusczyk relied on similes quite a bit, and that these similes were sometimes rather clunky. In contract, her straightforward passages conveyed the same amount of information in a more artful manner.

I certainly don't wish to overstate either of these shortcomings. Believe me, I would not have lasted ten pages if I thought Rusczyk's writing were not generally good. But every author has room for improvement, and these are areas that I hope Rusczyk will focus on; I sense that she has the writing talent to match her storytelling ability.

In short, The Blue Pen is an extremely enjoyable and well-told read, and I would particularly recommend it to those readers who enjoy suspense novels but are looking for something with a bit of a unique twist. Beyond that, anyone looking for a great gather-round-the-campfire story can definitely find it here!

Booking Through Thursday (August 27, 2009)

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly event that poses a new book-related each week. Here is this week's question:

What’s the lightest, most “fluff” kind of book you’ve read recently?

This question is really a toughie for me. I don't know if I'm just pretentious in my choice of books--which I sincerely hope is not the case!--or if it's that the only books I view as fluffy are the ones that I don't like, and since I never finish books that I'm not liking by the fiftieth page or so, there's little likelihood of finding the fluff. If forced to pick, I'd go with The Impostor's Daughter by Laurie Sandell. The book was very good, but it was extremely easy, light, fun reading, even in the places where the material became darker.

I suppose that, at the end of the day, I'm reluctant to make distinctions between light and heavy books because the words carry an inherent judgment to them. A "light" book can be meaningful and affect the reader deeply, just as a "heavy" book can simply be a wolf in sheep's clothing. (On that point, Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller comes to mind.) But maybe that's just me!

Book Review: I Used To Know That by Caroline Taggart, I Before E (Except After C) by Judy Parkinson, My Grammar and I by Caroline Taggart / J.A. Wines

For those who fondly remember their school days (as well as those who don't remember anything about them at all), Reader's Digest has produced three books with a whiff of childhood: I Used To Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School by Caroline Taggart, I Before E (Except After C): Old-School Ways To Remember Stuff by Judy Parkinson and My Grammar and I...Or Should That Be Me? by Caroline Taggart and J. A. Wines.

If, like me, you go ga-ga over anything trivia-related, I Used To Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School is a sure-fire winner. As the title suggests, the book covers basic information that we all learned in school, from the names of Greek gods to the Pythagorean theorem. Yes, the information is all readily found via a Google search, but it is the arrangement of the information and the conciseness of presentation that are at the heart of the book's usefulness.

But having said that, in the end, I Used To Know That is more about entertainment than information anyway. If you need to know who wrote Moby Dick, you probably will go to Google rather than to the chapter on literature. On the other hand, if you like seeing how much you remember from your school days (and, more likely than not, the much larger amount that you forgot!), Taggart's book fits like a glove.

Similar to I Used To Know That, I Before E (Except After C): Old-School Ways To Remember Stuff recalls information--this time in the form of memory-helping mnemonics--that you may have learned in school. The major difference, at least for me, is that this book is not a practical guide to remembering information; the acronyms, rhymes and other mnemonics given are harder to remember than the information they are supposed to recall.

However, helpful memory tips don't seem to be Parkinson's actual aim. In her foreword, she notes that she compiled a group of "quirky and amusing ways that people have devised to remember tidbits of information." Unless you are made of drastically different stuff that I am, "Sally Made Henry Eat Onions" won't ring any bells for you. (It's an mnemonic for the acronym for the five Great Lakes, incidentally.) But precisely because these mnemonics are so completely absurd--seriously, the number of letters in each word of "I sighted Thomas's rights" will help you remember the year America was founded?--I Before E (Except After C) is good geeky fun.

Now for the one slight clunker in the bunch: My Grammar and I...Or Should That Be Me? is a grammar primer and reference, much like Shrunk & White's classic The Elements of Style. Unfortunately, when your book can be compared to the paragon of English style guides, your book is also facing enormously stiff competition. Even more unfortunately, Taggart and Wines write in a very clear and economical manner; normally this would recommend the book, but in this case, it means there is little to differentiate it from The Elements of Style. To be fair, this book is a well-written grammar guide, and if you don't own anything similar, My Grammar and I...Or Should That Be Me? is a perfectly good choice. However, Taggart and Wines introduce nothing new, and there is no need to double up on books about grammar.

Last but not least, a note about the books' cover material and design: I normally don't factor the aesthetics of a book into my judgment of its quality, but these books present a special case. The subject matter is a throwback to grammar school, and so, in a brilliant move, is the books' design: the covers recall the classic composition book, and the material has that same matte gloss that laminated school library books have. These touches are like the cherry on a sundae, and the substantive material of the books is truly enhanced through them.

Teaser Tuesdays (August 25, 2009)

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

* Grab your current read

* Open to a random page

* Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

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

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

My Teaser:

The violin teacher didn't understand why I didn't hold the violin correctly anymore, why I stared at him blankly when he asked me to take the bow in hand and begin my exercises and I couldn't. That it was over and I went blank and it meant nothing to me, more than nothing, it didn't exist and I could only stare at him.

From Playing House by Fredrica Wagman, pg. 68

It's Monday! What are you reading? (August 24, 2009)

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a weekly event hosted by J. Kaye's Book Blog; participants discuss what they read the previous week and what the plan to read in the coming week.

I was a slow reader again last week; even though I finished four books, three of them were very quick reads on trivia and grammar. I also fell back into a bad habit: reading the first 50 pages or so of a book and enjoying it, but then putting it down because I get excited about a different book. I can't be the only one who does this, right?

Reviews will be up soon for all the books I completed last week!

Last week's action:

*The Blue Pen by Lisa Rusczyk
*I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School by Caroline Taggart
*I Before E (Except After C): Old-School Ways to Remember Stuff by Judy Parkinson
*My Grammar and I... Or Should That Be Me? How to Speak and Write it Right by Caroline Taggart

Perusing now:

*Playing House by Fredrica Wagman

Stay tuned for:

*Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti

Sunday Salon (August 23, 2009)

My first Sunday Salon foray and, I sadly admit, I've had very little time to read this week--or today. Heck, I can't ever post on time: it's now technically Monday! (But I decided that since it's still Sunday in California, and I'm from California, this post still counts.)

What reading I was able to do was rather exciting, though; for the first time, I am reading books I received specifically to review here. This is very silly but now I feel as though I am a completely amateur review who is now slightly less amateur. Even more absurd, I now I feel as though I'm contributing to the written world. When I review older books, even if my review is astounding (ha!), the author has received much praise or criticism long before I sat down to write. In reviewing a new book, I feel I can help to drive interest towards good books (or away from bad!), in whatever minuscule way. I know I must sound rather egotistical, so don't get me wrong: I have no illusions of being a trend shaper--just a book lover getting to read new books and share what are hopefully fresh and helpful thoughts.

But anyhow, I did actually finish four books (but three were very quick reads), and I quite enjoyed them. Nothing more on them for now, though, since I'll be posting reviews in the next couple of days.

And, incidentally, I've made a blog resolution for myself: to jot down thoughts while reading so I can write better reviews more quickly! I'll give an update on how I do next Sunday.

Happy Monday!

Weekly Geeks (August 22, 2009)

Weekly Geeks is a weekly event that presents a theme (such as "redecorate your blog week" or "organize your challenges" week or "catch up on your reviews" week) each week. Here is this week's theme:

I think just about every reader has a least one book that they've been meaning to read for awhile (months or even years) but, for one reason or another, they just haven't gotten around to it. Maybe it's a book a friend recommended last year, or a title you've flirted with in a bookstore on more than one occasion, or maybe it's a book that's sitting right there on your bookshelf, patiently waiting for you to pick it up -- but the thought is always there, in the back of your mind: Why haven't I read this yet?

This week, tell us about a book (or books) you have been meaning to read. What is it? How long have you wanted to read it? And, why haven't you read it yet?

Like many who love to read, I have literally hundreds of books sitting on my shelves that are waiting to be read. I have my reasons (or excuses) for not having read each of them; somehow, these justifications come into play whenever I "need" to buy yet another book. A particularly large percentage of these to-be-read books are what could be termed new, future classics: books that have been published in this decade, have won awards or received critical acclaim, and are often by newer authors. I keep buying them, but when I go to my bookcases to pick a new book, I almost invariably choose something a half-century old.

Three books in particular mock me every time I pass them over: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001; The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, which won the National Book Award in 2001 and was included on Time's list of the 100 best English-language novels; and Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, lauded by famous authors and important critics alike. These books are obviously worth reading, and I want to read them, so why don't I?

A large part rests with my absurd suspicion of new books, particularly ones that are widely praised. I don't have a terribly good reason for this suspicion. Yes, I have read a number of such books that I absolutely hated, but I've read an equal number that I've loved, like Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and The Road by Cormac McCarthy. (Of course, I only read those books because I'd already read and loved earlier books by Eugenides and McCarthy, but still.) If I get to the point of actually reading a new book instead of just staring at it on the shelf, I do go into it with an open mind and a fervent desire that this book will be a new favorite, which is how I always read.

I think that I need to start my own reading challenge: Books That You Want To Read, And Should Read, But Don't. No challenge book will be older than my ten-year-old niece.

Booking Through Thursday: Recent Best (August 20, 2009)

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly event that poses a new book-related each week. Here is this week's question:

What’s the best book you’ve read recently?

I am going to arbitrarily define "recently" as "since the beginning of 2009". That being the case, two books immediately come to mind; both affected me greatly, to the point that I would include them on my all-time top five list.

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates: I do love mid-century American literature, so take that as a caveat, but I think Revolutionary Road is an underrated classic. Yates explores the American Dream in a nuanced and fresh way, and Frank and Alice are two of the most beautifully flawed characters in literature. (Incidentally, the movie version makes Yates' themes completely one-dimensional, although DiCaprio and Winslett are perfect as Frank and Alice.)

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers: I admit, I judged this book by its cover--or, rather, its title--for a very long time. I think I expected a sappy, trite romance, and I was tremendously surprised to find one of the best examples of the Southern Gothic genre that I've ever come across. McCullers has an incredible talent for creating poignant yet supremely realistic characters, and I often find myself thinking about John Singer and Mick Kelly as I would real-life acquantiances.

Giveaway: The Link by Colin Tudge

I recently read and very much enjoyed The Link by Colin Tudge; you can read my review here.

Now, thanks to Anna and the good people at Hachette, I have five copies of The Link to give away to my readers.

The Rules

1. The contest will run until midnight EST on September 1st.
2. Unfortunately, this giveaway is limited to the United States and Canada only, and no P.O. Box addresses can be accepted.
3. To enter, just leave a comment with your e-mail address so that I can contact you if you win.
4. For additional entries, you can:

+1 Follow my blog
+1 Subscribe by reader
+1 Subscribe by e-mail
+1 Make a substantive comment about my review (constructive criticism is welcome, but the comment must be more than "good review")
+3 Post on your blog about this contest (either sidebar or post is
fine; include the link in your comment)
+1 Tweet about this contest (include the link in your comment)

5. Please post a separate comment for each entry.

Good luck!

Teaser Tuesdays (August 18, 2009)

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

* Grab your current read

* Open to a random page

* Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

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

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

My Teaser:

She died between Dô and him she called her child, in her big bedroom on the first floor, where during heavy frosts she used to put the sheep to sleep, five or six sheep all around her bed, for several winters, her last.

From The Lover by Marguerite Duras, pg. 30

It's Monday! What are you reading? (August 17, 2009)

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a weekly event hosted by J. Kaye's Book Blog; participants discuss what they read the previous week and what the plan to read in the coming week.

I'm very proud of myself that I'm getting back up to speed! Since I reviewed all the books I read last week, I've linked to the reviews for each.

Last week's action:

*Julie & Julia by Julie Powell
*The Impostor's Daughter by Laurie Sandell
*The Link by Colin Tudge

Perusing now:

*The Lover by Marguerite Duras
*Netherland by Joseph O'Neill: Put on hold for a few days because I needed a break from extended descriptions of cricket matches!

Stay tuned for:

*Good question; I need to stay tuned for that one, too.

Book Review: The Link by Colin Tudge

As the subtitle suggests, The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor is a discussion of a fossil, only recently brought to light, which certain scientists believe may be the "missing link". Written by Colin Tudge, a biologist and author, the book reveals details about Ida, a 47 million year old primate, that may prove to expose important and startling information on the ancestry of the human race.

Despite the fact that the book is promoted as a discussion of Ida, Tudge spends very little time discussing Ida directly; as intriguing as Ida is, there is very little paleontologists can say for certain about her, and there is only marginally more that they can speculate about. Instead, the majority of The Link is devoted to placing Ida in historic and scientific contexts by providing basic descriptions of the mechanics of evolution, the problems of identifying fossils, the defining features of a primate, what the effects of climate change have been and so on.

The reason why I would strongly recommend this book is simple: Tudge is fantastic at explaining very complex and technical subjects such that someone with no scientific background will have no problem understanding the concepts. (In other words, I was not confused!) The range of the book is also quite impressive. I felt as though I emerged with a much greater understanding of evolution (and primate evolution in particular) and all the factors that play a role in the process. If you are at all interested in the subject and, like me, have little formal education on the topic, The Link is a wonderful place to start.

Of course, all books. even great books, have their flaws. One possible criticism of the book is that quite a lot of it is spent describing various individual species, as well as families, clades and various other taxonomic distinctions. If this doesn't sound deterring, please understand that Tudge doesn't just talk about a few species and go on; he describes dozens of them, in a very rapid-fire and information-heavy manner. Now, for me, these sections were actually quite interesting, and they are important in understanding what makes Ida so special. However, I imagine that some people might not find this as interesting, so I feel duty-bound to point it out.

My larger criticism is that the book appears to have been cobbled together in a short amount of time, as though it were being rushed for publication. Tudge repeats the same information very, very often. Sometimes the repetition is necessary when a piece of information is relevant to two different subjects; however, there are at least a few places where it seems the same information in the same context is being repeated. My husband also pointed out that there are a number of examples where sentences, or blocks of sentences, are repeated verbatim, sometimes only a few pages apart. This all points to a lack of editing time. On the other hand, it is not a fatal flaw; I quickly was able to identify the sections that gave me a feeling of deja-vu and skim through them to the next new piece of information.

In short, as The Link provides and puts in context all known information about Ida, it actually becomes a very good basic primer on evolution--but do be aware of its flaws, and perhaps consider purchasing a future revised edition.

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to D.C. I go.....

I'm heading on down to D.C. to visit my in-laws, and won't be back until next Wednesday. I'll have very limited computer access, so I probably won't be able to post much--if at all--but don't worry: I'm not going to disappear again!

Giveaway & Book Review: The Impostor's Daughter by Laurie Sandell

When I first laid eyes on The Impostor's Daughter, I knew I was about to read a rather unique book: a memoir presented in graphic novel form. But once you go beyond the packaging, deep into Laurie Sandell's story, you will find that there is much more to The Impostor's Daughter than a flashy presentation. Sandell's memoir traces the path that she took to reveal the truth about her eloquent and heroic father--who may also be a liar of epic proportions--and the struggle Sandell went through to grapple with her own identity in the shadow of her father's.

Whether she got it from her father or not, Sandell has a great talent for storytelling; she knows how to draw the reader in and keep them captivated. Indeed, much of The Impostor's Daughter reads like a good suspense novel: a domineering and charismatic man is slowly revealed to be a huckster; who knows what the damage will be on those around him? Sandell seems to be aware of the element of mystery as she crafts the pacing extremely well; at any point in the story, she reveals just enough information to keep you hooked without giving away where the narrative will end up.

The book's weak point is, well, the "graphic" part of "graphic novel." Don't get me wrong, I don't have much experience with the genre, but the novels I have read--Persepolis, V for Vendetta--had significantly better artwork. Sandell includes artwork she made as a child in several frames, and the talent displayed in the rest of book barely surpasses her childhood capabilities. I wonder if she would not have been better served to hire a dedicated artist to sketch out her ideas instead.

But at the end of the day, the artwork doesn't distract from the story, which is very near flawless. My one piece of advice is this: approach this as a novel with pictures rather than a graphic novel, and you won't be disappointed.

---------------------
Now for the giveaway! Thanks to Anna and the good people at Hachette, I have five copies of The Impostor's Daughter to give away.

The Rules

1. The contest will run until midnight EST on August 31st.
2. Unfortunately, this giveaway is limited to the United States and Canada only, and no P.O. Box addresses can be accepted.
3. To enter, just leave a comment with your e-mail address so that I can contact you if you win.
4. For additional entries, you can:

+1 Follow my blog
+1 Subscribe by reader
+1 Subscribe by e-mail
+3 Post on your blog about this contest (either sidebar or post is
fine; include the link in your comment)
+1 Tweet about this contest (include the link in your comment)

5. Please post a separate comment for each entry.

Good luck!

---------------------

Giveaway & Book Review: Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

Julie & Julia is one woman's account of the year she spent cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. In the summer of 2002, Julie Powell was stuck in a job she hated, stuck in Long Island City--just stuck in general. Powell's challenge to herself, and the blog she wrote to chronicle it, is her effort to free herself.

I'll admit, it was both disconcerting and false-hope-bringing that I could draw so many similarities between Powell and myself. Twenty-something, lives in New York, has a far too patient husband and an extremely crappy secretarial job, gets too caught up in playing Civilization, has a predilection for swear words: any of these could apply to either one of us. In other words, one of the major draws of the book for me was any number of eerie correlations.

But beyond the "your life but better" vibe, what I found most intriguing and gripping about Julie & Julia was Powell's writing. Her writing style made me feel as though I was listening to a friend of mine with a knack for storytelling tell me her most gripping story yet. The events in Powell's life are not action-packed like, say, a Dan Brown novel, but her talent lies in her ability to make cooking and omelet as tense and thrilling as any car chase.

Which segues nicely into my only complaint about the book: Powell doesn't seem to trust her writing ability enough. For instance, I found it slightly jarring that the narrative was presented out of chronological order, something I find odd for a book that chronicles a time-limited project; much more distracting was Powell's predilection for jumping into scenes in the middle with little or no exposition, or jumping between two events with no clear dividing line.

All of this reads as unsteadiness, uncertainty on Powell's part that she can captivate her reader when the narrative necessarily focuses on repetition of essentially the same event; after all, challenging yourself to cook your way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking means that you will be cooking--and writing about--French food every day. This self doubt, however, is a shame. Her prose is captivating all on its own, and it is Powell's unique point of view that really drives the story.

But my grips are really minor, and I can say that I truly loved this book and didn't want to put it down. I'm very much looking forward to Powell's next book, and if it is even a tenth as good as Julie & Julia, I'll be flying through it in less time than it takes to make Pot Au Feu.

---------------------
Now for the giveaway! Thanks to Anna and the good people at Hachette, I have five copies of Julie & Julia to give away.

The Rules

1. The contest will run until midnight EST on August 31st.
2. Unfortunately, this giveaway is limited to the United States and Canada only, and no P.O. Box addresses can be accepted.
3. To enter, just leave a comment with your e-mail address so that I can contact you if you win.
4. For additional entries, you can:

+1 Follow my blog
+1 Subscribe by reader
+1 Subscribe by e-mail
+3 Post on your blog about this contest (either sidebar or post is
fine; include the link in your comment)
+1 Tweet about this contest (include the link in your comment)

5. Please post a separate comment for each entry.

Good luck!

Teaser Tuesdays (August 11, 2009)

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

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

I wasn't aware of any Chinese quarter in Brooklyn. But it existed, I discovered, in a neighborhood where you might look up and see, beyond rooftops dipped westward, the Verrazano Bridge.

From Netherland by Joseph O'Neill, pg.164

It's Monday! What are you reading? (August 10, 2009)

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a weekly event hosted by J. Kaye's Book Blog; participants discuss what they read the previous week and what the plan to read in the coming week.

Since I've been reading fairly slow lately, my lists are rather short.

Last week's action:

*The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera: As my review points out, this is one of my favorite books, and I reread it time and again. Like a cup of warm milk, it never fails to soothe me--and like a cup of coffee, it finally put me in gear to restart this blog! But, in all seriousness, I would highly recommend to anyone reading this to put The Unbearable Lightness of Being on their TBR lists.

Perusing now:

*Julie & Julia by Julie Powell: I'm coming up on the end, so expect a review soon!

Stay tuned for:

*The Imposter's Daughter by Laurie Sandell

Giveaway: Bobbi Brown Living Beauty and How Not To Look Old

I myself won these books from a blog giveaway, and the good people at Hachette sent me two copies of each book (presumably on accident!). I thought that releasing the extra books out into the wild was called for.

About Living Beauty:

Bobbi Brown began the trend toward natural-looking cosmetics with a simple philosophy: Women want to look and feel like themselves, only prettier and more confident. Today, top editors at elite fashion magazines--including In Style, Vogue, Allure, and Harpers Bazaar--revere her, and celebrities and millions of regular women throughout the world swear by her beauty advice. Now Bobbi Brown has written THE book redefining beauty for women over 40, BOBBI BROWN LIVING BEAUTY. In this refreshing look at beauty and aging, Bobbi offers specific makeup tricks for a stunning face--showing how makeup can solve most of the flaws that many women go under the knife to fix. In fact, the right makeup can create an even skin tone, lift the cheeks, plump a smile...even take years off any woman's face. The key is to use makeup to enhance each woman's best features and showcase her natural beauty. With step-by-step makeup instructions and quotes from beautiful women like Marcia Gay Harden, Vera Wang, Susan Sarandon, and Lorraine Bracco, Bobbi Browns natural, celebratory approach to aging will enlighten and inspire women everywhere.

About How Not To Look Old:

Forget getting older gracefully--This is the beauty and style bible every woman has been waiting for. How Not To Look Old is the first-ever cheat sheet of to-dos and fast fixes that pay-off big time--all from Charla and her friends, the best hair pros, makeup artists, designers, dermatologists, cosmetic dentists and personal shoppers in the biz. Packed with eye-opening details on hair color, brows, lipstick, wrinkle-erasers, jeans, shapewear, jewelry, heels, and more, the book speaks to every woman: from low maintenance types who don't want to spend a fortune or tons of time on her looks to high maintenance women who believe in looking fabulous at any price. There's also too-old vs. just-right before and after photos, celebrity examples of good and bad style, shopping lists of Charla's brilliant buys in fashion and beauty products, coveted addresses of "Where the top beauty pros go," fun sidebars--and more.

Known to national audiences from her ten years on NBC's Today show, style expert Charla Krupp dishes out her secrets in this "ultimate" to-do list for looking hip and fabulous -- no matter what your age.

Now, as you can see, this is my very first book giveaway, and I'm very excited about it; I just hope you're a tenth as excited as I am!

The Rules

1. The contest will run until midnight EST on August 31st.
2. To enter, just leave a comment with your e-mail address so that I can contact you if you win.
3. For additional entries, you can:
      +1 Follow my blog
     +1 Subscribe by reader
     +1 Subscribe by e-mail
     +3 Post on your blog about this contest (either sidebar or post is
          fine; include the link in your comment)
     +1 Tweet about this contest (include the link in your comment)
4. Please post a separate comment for each entry.

Good luck!

Book Review: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

I must say up front, so that no one can accuse me of hidden bias: The Unbearable Lightness of Being is one of my favorite books, and I have immersed myself in it half a dozen times before. That being the case, the book remains a masterpiece destined to be designated a classic.

The book follows two couples--Tomas and Tereza, Sabina and Franz--in the shadow of Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia. Tomas is a repeat philanderer; his affair with Sabina is merely one of many. Nonetheless, Tomas loves only Tereza, which offers her little comfort and does nothing to silence her constant nightmares.

The primary question that the novel explores, but does not resolve, inquires about the relative values of lightness and weight. Lightness treats life as something that happens once and never again; the chartacters of the novel who embody lightness--Tomas and Sabina--would agree with Kundera's assertion: a life lived only once, with no ability to compare one life path to another, might as well not have happened at all. On the other hand, Kundera associates weight with Nietzsche's concept of eternal return, in which life recurs infinitely (and so allows comparison). Tereza and Franz are associated with weight; both seek to attach meaning (and thus weight) to that which they value.

Certainly, Kundera presents the reader with complex issues and questions, but the novel is actually very accessible. One thing to keep in mind is that Kundera as the author makes himself known within the narrative. Not only does he (as first-person narrator) explore the themes developed in the stories of the two couples; he also makes it clear that Tomas and Tereza were born of his imagination. I do not find this bothersome--indeed, I feel it adds to story--but my husband didn't like it, and I can understand why.

In short, The Unbearable Lightness of Being explores fascinating, relevant and complex issues without sacrificing a compelling plot or interesting, well-developed characters. The novel is also generally considered a modern classic, and I think that Kundera will one day be named a Nobel Laureate. In my mind, it is a must-read if ever there was one.

Reading Challenge: 1% Well-Read

1% Well-Read Reading Challenge

This challenge involves reading titles from 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. There are three levels, but I'm planning to take on the third, which requires participants to read 13 titles from either the 2006 or 2008 edition.

The challenge runs from March 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010, but I am firmly not going to count books completed before today--otherwise I would have already completed this challenge a couple of times over (see my list for the 100+ Books challenge!).

As always, wish me luck!

1. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
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Reading Challenge: Non-Fiction Five

Non-Fiction Five Reading Challenge

Thanks to Trish at Trish's Reading Nook for hosting this challenge!

I'm joining this challenge rather late--it runs from May through September--but I think I can make it if I really push myself. I typically confine myself to fiction, even though I have a number of biographies, cultural histories and memoirs sitting on my shelves; this challenge will (hopefully) help to clear up that non-fiction TBR pile.

The challenge's only requirement (outside of the time frame) is that one of the book be a different type than the others (i.e., 4 memoirs and 1 self-help book). I plan to go farther. I'm going to try to read five different types of non-fiction books: biography, memoir, historical survey, cultural history and book of essays. I obviously reserve the right to change my mind on that!

1. Julie & Julia by Julie Powell (memoir)
2.The Impostor's Daughter by Laurie Sandell (graphic novel memoir)
3.The Link by Colin Tudge (scientific survey)
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Reading Challenge: 100+ Books in 2009

100+ Books in 2009 Reading Challenge

Thanks to J. Kaye at J. Kaye's Book Blog for hosting this challenge!

Let me say up front: joining this challenge is more aspirational than realistic. It's possible I'll start flying through books faster, but more likely than not, I won't make it--but that isn't going to stop me from trying!

The challenge is straightforward: read 100 books (or more) between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009. Wish me luck!

1. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
2. Ignorance by Milan Kundera
3. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
4. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
5. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
6. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
7. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
8. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
9. A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
10. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
11. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Marie Remarque
12. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
13. The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa
14. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
15. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
16. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Boll
17. Herzog by Saul Bellow
18. Shame by Salman Rushdie
19. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
20. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
21. If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino
22. The Music of Chance by Paul Auster
23. The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
24. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
25. The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
26. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
27. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
28. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
29. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
30. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
31. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
32. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
33. Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan
34. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
35. Passing by Nella Larsen
36. A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
37. A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
38. Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
39. Daisy Miller by Henry James
40. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
41. Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
42. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
43. Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
44. Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
45. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
46. Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello
47. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
48. Identity by Milan Kundera
49. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe
50. Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
51. Look Back In Anger by John Osborne
52. Thank You, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
53. Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
54. Atonement by Ian McEwan
55. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
56. Everyman by Philip Roth
57. Veronika Decides To Die by Paulo Coelho
58. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
59. Julie & Julia by Julie Powell
60.

...and I'm back!

Hello again, strangers! I apologize for disappearing like that--not the most "professional" move for a new blogger to make. The last couples of months have been unbelievably stressful; I've been unable to concentrate long enough to do much reading and writing, and, unfortunately, that makes updates to a blog focused on reading and writing quite difficult. Now, though the pressure has not abated, I'm ready to return to reading, writing and blogging. And so here I am!

I am making a push to spice this place up: participating in reading challenges, perhaps (hopefully!) hosting some giveaways soon. Stay tuned!