I had intended to participate more fully in this event - but September was crazy and got away from me.  If you are like me, it is still not too late to contribute. Go to Natasha’s wrap-up post and see how you can donate money to this worthy cause. I’ve decided to sponsor Natasha for BOTH number of pages read AND number of posts written for a total of $85.05. Natasha gives a list of charities which help this cause.

The Monsters of Templeton, by Lauren Goff which arrived from Pamela on behalf of Hyperion books.

Nefertiti AND The Heretic Queen, by Michelle Moran

Ms. Moran sent me her books and I was thrilled when they arrived and I found them both autographed! I will be hosting a giveaway of Moran’s work on my blog in December - so watch for details!

Did you get any books in the mail this week? Drop by The Printed Page and leave a comment on today’s Mailbox Monday post!

October 5, 2008

9:00AM

Northern California has been blasted by cold air and drenching rain the last 48 hours - and I am loving it! After a summer of triple digit temperatures and smoky skies, the arrival of rain is a huge relief. I built a fire in the woodstove last night, much to the cats’ delight, and curled up beneath a blanket to read. Looks like I am not the only one enjoying the change in seasons - Jill is happy about it too!

Yesterday I went to the Redding Library book sale and came home with the following books:

Hardcovers ($0.50 per book)

• Fortune’s Rocks, by Anita Shreve
• The Clock Winder, by Anne Tyler
• Abide By Me, by Elizabeth Strout
• The Mammoth Cheese, by Sheri Holman
• The Whole World Over, by Julia Glass
• The Most Wanted, by Jacquelyn Mitchard
• A Son of the Circus, by John Irving
• Predator, by Patricia Cornwell

Trade Paperback ($0.25 per book)

• Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger
• A Thousanad Acres, by Jane Smiley
• Snow Mountain Passage, by James D. Houston

Since last week, I’ve finished reading The Triumph of Deborah (read my review) which was a mix of romance and biblical fiction. It has gotten a lot of great reviews, but wasn’t really the type of book I normally enjoy. But, I was glad to have read it, and I did learn a lot about that time in history.

I also blew through Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name, by Vendela Vida (read my review) and loved it. It is set in the stark winter environment of Finland (Lapland) and tells the story of a young woman who is searching for her identity. Vida’s writing is wonderful and spare.

My current read is Rose Tremain’s Music and Silence for which she won the 1999 Costa Award. I cannot believe it has taken me so long to discover this amazing writer. You might remember I read The Colour in August and loved it. Music and Silence is a much different novel - set in the 1630s in Denmark and centering around King Christian IV and his spirited wife Kirsten. The novel is told from several viewpoints. Tremain’s use of language is just stunning - and I am thoroughly enjoying the book having reached approximately the half way point.

Are any of you looking forward to the announcement of the Nobel Prize for Literature? I’m curious, and today I read this interesting article about how Horace Engdahl the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy (the organization that awards the prize) feels about American writers. He made the bold statement that Europe is really the ‘center of the literary world‘ and American writers are ‘too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture‘ among other things. So what do you think? Are American writers too insular? Are European writers more in touch with the literary world? Any thoughts on who will be awarded this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature?

I’ve bought tickets and booked a hotel room for the Book Group Expo in San Jose at the end of the month. It was a bit of a splurge, but I could not resist! The list of authors is impressive and the literary salons look interesting. I’ve convinced Kip to go with me (although he may opt to go antiquing part of the time!). Have any of you gone to events like this before?

So that’s all for literary thoughts this Sunday. I hope you are curled up with a good book and enjoying the fall weather. Have a great week ahead!

October 3, 2008

Where do you find your next book? This week I found mine through my Google Reader.

After 9/11, by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon as featured on NPR’s Books We Like. Apparently Jacobson and Colon published a graphic adaptation of The 9/11 Report in 2006 to rave reviews. This book covers the period after 9/11and storyboards the ‘War on Terror from its genesis in September 2001 through August 2007, turning the words of politicians, military analysts and journalists into a dark thriller about good intentions gone disastrously astray.‘ This graphic novel is getting a lot of notice out there…I’m adding it to my wish list.

Barnacle Love, by Anthony De Sa as featured on Teddy’s blog So Many Precious Books, So Little Time and released earlier this year. The book is about a Portuguese immigrant family and Teddy writes: ‘I loved the breath taking descriptions of both Portugal and Canada. Anthony De Sa paints a beautiful, at times haunting portrait of the immigrant experience.‘ I love books about families from other countries. This one makes my wish list!

Corvus: A Life With Birds, by Esther Woolfson as featured on Gondal-Girl who writes: ‘What I have found most beautiful about her writing, is her astute and erudite observation. She really sees and reflects, in her crystal clear style, what it is she is seeing/feeling and it really makes me feel wistful as I read it, for her birds, for nature, for seeing nature in the city. Her writing breathes.‘ This is non fiction and is due for release in April 2009 through Counterpoint. I’ll be watching for it.

What made it onto your wish list this week? Visit Should Be Reading to read today’s Friday Finds and find links to other readers’ finds.

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Jill over at The Magic Lasso also tagged me this week for THE SIX WEIRD THINGS ABOUT ME meme. The rules indicate I must write 6 random things/unspectacular quirks about yourself. Okay, here goes:

1. I always match my socks to the color shirt I am wearing.
2. I gag on olives - I know this is a food most people love. I’ve tried to love them, but every time I attempt to eat one, I gag.
3. When I’m writing a story, I often have complete (out loud) conversations with the characters (do you think this makes me schizophrenic?).
4. I walk in my sleep - and talk in my sleep. Once in college I walked out the fire door (in the middle of winter) and did not wake up until I heard the fire door slam behind me. It was a little embarrassing to have to bang on the dorm door in my pajamas until someone came along and let me in.
5. I watch Judge Judy every day (and if I’m not home, I tape it on my DVR). It is a reminder that as crazy as my life can get, there are always people who are crazier.
6. My husband and I met because our dogs fell in love first.

I’m supposed to tag other bloggers for this one…but if you are reading this, consider yourself tagged!

October 18, 2008

It’s that time again…the 24 Hour Read-A-Thon hosted by Dewey is just around the corner. I won’t promise to stay up for the full 24 hours, but I intend to participate.

Beginning at Noon GMT (which converts to 5:00AM my time), the 24 Hour Read-A-Thon is a challenge includes reading, blogging, mini-challenges and prizes (check out this link for the June 2008 prize list).  Participants can choose to be Readers, Cheerleaders and Prize Donors…Dewey has definitions of each on the FAQ page for this event.

In June, some participants helped raise money for Reading Is Fundamental (RIF). This time around, Dewey is leaving it wide open if you want to raise money for ANY charity. I’ve decided to raise money for a charity near and dear to my heart: Triple Creek Ranch Inc. is a non-profit therapeutic horseback riding center for adults and children with disability. It is fueled entirely by volunteers and is a non-profit organization. I’ll be posting how you can support this wonderful program as we get closer to the Read-A-Thon. In the meantime, do check out their website.

I’ve already started gathering books to read for this amazing event. So far, this is what I’ve targeted:

• Testimony, by Anita Shreve
• Tomato Girl, by Jayne Pupek
• An Exact Replica of A Figment of My Imagination, by Elizabeth McCracken
• Say You’re One of the Them, by Uwem Akpan
• Months and Seasons: Stories, by Christopher Meeks

Will you be joining in? I hope so - it is always fun!

Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name is the story of Clarissa Iverson - a twenty-nine year old who discovers, upon her father’s death, that everything she thought was true about her family is not. The novel is narrated by Clarissa who is living with her fiance Pankaj when her father unexpectedly dies. The reader learns that Clarissa’s mother had abandoned her family, leaving her daughter stranded in a mall, 15 years earlier.

The funeral was the first day I envied my brother’s ignorance. Since birth, Jeremy has never spoken, so it was unclear whether he understood Dad had died. My family would never acknowledge that Jeremy was retarded; my mother used to say he was slow. She vanished when I was fourteen, Jeremy six. In the hollow months that followed her disappearance, I convinced myself our family was being punished for our silent shame about Jeremy. -From Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name, page 5-

Clarissa, echoing her mother’s abandonment, leaves Pankaj without telling him where she is going and flees to Lapland to locate her “real” father. Her journey introduces her to the mystical Samis, the indigenous people who inhabit the Nordic countries of Norway, Sweden, and Finland as well as the far northern parts of  Russia. As the story progresses, Clarissa begins to uncover not only her mother’s darkest secrets, but her own identity.

Vendela Vida has written a novel about betrayal, family secrets, shame and its aftermath, and the search for identity. Her prose is spare and injected with a sardonic humor which allows Vida to ironically explore the most devastating of human emotions.  The character of Clarissa is raw and honest - and despite her flaws and her final decision (which was not completely unexpected), I liked her. Clarissa’s voice is one to which anyone who has experienced loss can relate. She carries the reader through her story with an urgency that is haunting in its appeal.

Vida has created an evocative novel steeped in history and culture. She examines the tough subjects with an honesty which borders on ‘matter-of-fact’ but works for this story. There are not easy answers in this novel which would make it an excellent book to discuss with a reading group. I read Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name quickly - in the span of one day- because I simply had to know where it would take me. Clarissa is a hard character to forget…I expect I will be thinking of her for quite some time.

Highly recommended.

A Perpetual Challenge

I’m hosting this challenge - to read more about it and to sign up, click on the logo in my sidebar or go to this post.

Here are the books (so far) which I intend to read:

Winners in 2006

• O My Darling, by Amity Gaige
• The Seas, by Samantha Hunt
• Corpus Christi: Stories, by Bret Anthony Johnston
• Sightseeing,by Rattawut Lapcharoensap
• Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, by ZZ Packer

Winners in 2007

• Garner, by Kirstin Allio
• The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears, by Dinaw Mengestu
• Get Down: Stories, by Asali Solomon
• Petropolis, by Anya Ulinich
• Third Class Superhero, by Charles Yu

Winners in 2008

• The Farther Shore, by Matthew Eck
• All the Sad Young Literary Men, by Keith Gessen
• One More Year: Stories, by Sana Krasikov
• The Boat, by Nam Le
• Last Last Chance , by Fiona Maazel

The Triumph of Deborah opens with the war between the Canaanites and Israelites. Set in ancient Israel during the historical period of the Judges, the novel is a fictional re-working of the life of Deborah, a powerful prophetess and judge of Israel. According to biblical history, the war between Canaan and Israel lasted forty years. Etzioni-Halevy centers her novel towards the end of this time period.

Following the defeat of Canaan, Barak - a powerful man who leads Deborah’s army - takes as prisoner the beautiful, cold-hearted Asherah, the daughter of the Canann King Jabin. He also provides shelter for Asherah’s half sister (and King Jabin’s illegitimate daughter) Nogah who becomes a maid in Barak’s home. Barak is portrayed as a misogynistic man who seeks carnal pleasure with many women including Deborah, Asherah and Nogah. Interspersed in the romantic plot of the novel is the politics, history and culture of 11th and 12th century Israel.

Etzioni-Halevy has done her research and it shows. She aptly describes the agricultural lifestyle of the times, and introduces the prickly and complex leadership which made up the political structure of this theocracy. The battle scenes and aftermath are vivid and well-written. The central female characters demonstrate simultaneously the lack of women’s rights and the strength and power they managed to wield in a world dominated by men. Women of this time period aspired not only to leadership, but sought to find their own voice through literacy…and the novel’s most convincing moments are those which bring the women characters to life.

Etzioni-Halevy falls short, however, when she seeks to show the reader the intimate relationships between these women and Barak. At times the language feels stilted, awkward and contrived, especially during the love scenes.

Neither her mother nor her father nor Uriel had enlightened her about the pain slicing through her with the rupture of her barrier, receding as the heat unleashed itself in her, seeking an as yet unknown summit, mounting it, erupting into fire and a call of love for him, bringing forth the breaking of his own peak. -from The Triumph of Deborah, page 175-

In fairness to the author, I must admit that the historical romance genre is not one I typically read or enjoy and so when the novel veered in this direction I found it off-putting. What Etzioni-Halevy does best is to create scene and historical context for her characters. and it was this part of the book which piqued my interest.

Readers who prefer biblical fiction and historical romance will most likely enjoy this novel. I am grateful to the author for sending me a copy of her book to review.

Other bloggers who have read and reviewed this book:

Lenore at Presenting Lenore

Michele at Michele - One L

Nicole at Book Escape

Shana at Literarily

Julie at Booking Mama

Week of September 27, 2008

Dewey has challenged the Weekly Geeks to name their top picks for books published in 2008. I have read some fantastic books this year…and whittling them down to “the best” was not easy. Here are my picks so far this year (click on the titles to read my reviews):

Best Chick Lit

• Belong To Me, by Marisa de los Santos
• The Wednesday Sisters, by Meg Waite Clayton

Best Non Fiction

• The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur, by Daoud Hari

Best Literary Fiction

• Songs for the Missing, by Stewart O’Nan
• The Story of Forgetting, by Stefan Merrill Block

Best Gothic Fiction

• The Sister, by Poppy Adams
• The House at Riverton, by Kate Morton

Best Short Story Collection

• Springtime on Mars, by Susan Woodring

Best Historical Fiction

Rated 5/5:

• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
• The Cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway
• The Outlander, by Gil Adamson
• People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks
• Guernica, by Dave Boling

Rated 4.5/5:

• Resistance, by Owen Sheers
• The Heretic’s Daughter, by Kathleen Kent
• Sweetsmoke, by David Fuller