Fiction / reviews

The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler

Title: The BookstoreAuthor: Deborah MeylerPublisher: Gallery BooksExpected Release: August 20, 2013Source: publisher (Edelweiss)Amazon | Barnes & Noble | GoodreadsSynopsis:Impressionable and idealistic, Esme Garland is a young British woman who finds herself studying art history in New York. She loves her apartment and is passionate about the city and her boyfriend; her future couldn’t look brighter. Until she finds out that she’s pregnant. Esme’s boyfriend, Mitchell van Leuven, is old-money rich, handsome, successful, and irretrievably damaged. When he dumps Esme—just before she tries to tell him about the baby—she resolves to manage alone.The Owl is a shabby, second-hand bookstore on the Upper West Side, an all-day, all-night haven for a colorful crew of characters: handsome and taciturn guitar player Luke; Chester,…

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July 31, 2013
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Top Ten Tuesday: Beginnings & Endings

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.Since I read a lot of non-fiction as well as fiction, I chose from both genres. I started to comment on my choices, but any thoughts I tried to add only seemed to detract. So here are my top ten first and last lines, on their own.Beginnings1. Haruki Murakami - 1Q84"The taxi's radio was tuned to a classical FM broadcast. Janáček's Sinfonietta - probably not the ideal music to hear in a taxi caught in traffic."2. Alexa Stevenson - Half Baked"When you give birth to a baby who weights less than two pounds, no one knows what kind of flowers to send."3. Wil Wheaton - "Houses in Motion"…

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July 30, 2013
reviews

Mini Readathon Today!

I'm joining Reading the Bricks for my first readathon! The readathon starts now, which is 11:00 am my time (Central time). So, at this moment I have just begun playing for the second service at my church job... but that's okay. I tend to get a lot of reading done since I'm the pianist and sit through the service more than once. ;) Here are the mini-reads I have on tap today: 128 pages 88 pages My spouse is still reading Ice Haven, but she reads slowly; I'm going to hijack it for the day. If I finish both of these, I'll see what I'm in the mood for... We'll be using the hashtag #minithon if you want to join in…

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July 28, 2013
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Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Avoid

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.Top Ten Words/Topics That Will Make Me NOT Pick Up a BookVampires/WerewolvesZombies/AliensRomance/EroticaParanormalHobbits/Trolls/Elves (sorry LOTR fans)SportsPregnancy/Birth/Nursing (within non-fiction)EconomicsEspionageFan FictionSome of these are okay if they appear naturally as part of the story, but if the word is part of the book's description, I tend to think it's going to be too major a theme.Note on #2 - Unless the alien is more of the Matt Haig type. :)Note on #7 - I had a scary, abnormal pregnancy/birth experience with C and nursing ended up being not an option. (Though I was able to provide some good stuff via her feeding tube for a few weeks!) A lot of these…

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July 23, 2013
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Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge: Accessing Your Domain Name Admin Console (Blogger)

This Bloggiesta mini-challenge is geared specifically for Blogger users.If you purchased your blog's domain name through Blogger, you may have discovered the complete nightmare of trying to access its admin control panel. I don't understand why Google makes this so hard!Here's what you have to do to access the control panel for your blog's domain. Thankfully you only have to go through this far-too-complicated process one time. (I recommend watching this video full-screen).After completing these steps, future visits to admin.google.com will consist of a simple log in using bloggeradmin@yourdomain.com as your email address (obviously replacing "your domain" with your actual domain).You should be able to access your domain's admin control panel in case you need it or want to use the extra services (like…

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July 18, 2013
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Book Trailer Tuesday: Pastrix by Nadia Bolz-Weber

I won't be reviewing Pastrix until closer to its release date (September 10, 2013), but I wanted to share this video Jericho Books posted on YouTube. It's not exactly a book trailer in the traditional sense, but let's be honest, nothing about Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber screams traditional. :) Here she explains the intended audience of her new memoir.There is a bit of language in the video; just a heads up if you're at work, around your kids, etc. If you're intrigued and don't want to wait until September to experience the wonderfully sarcastic humor which delivers Bolz-Weber's theological insights, I highly recommend her previous book, Salvation on the Small Screen? 24 Hours of Christian Television (Seabury Books, 2008).

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July 16, 2013
Fiction / reviews / Short Stories

The Color Master by Aimee Bender

Title: The Color MasterAuthor: Aimee BenderPublisher: DoubledayExpected Release: August 13, 2013Source: publisher (NetGalley)Amazon | Barnes & Noble | GoodreadsSynopsis (from Goodreads):In this collection, Bender’s unique talents sparkle brilliantly in stories about people searching for connection through love, sex, and family—while navigating the often painful realities of their lives. A traumatic event unfolds when a girl with flowing hair of golden wheat appears in an apple orchard, where a group of people await her. A woman plays out a prostitution fantasy with her husband and finds she cannot go back to her old sex life. An ugly woman marries an ogre and struggles to decide if she should stay with him after he mistakenly eats their children. Two sisters travel deep…

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July 14, 2013
Fiction / reviews / Short Stories

Audiobook Review: The World of Saki by H.H. Munro (Saki)

Title: The World of SakiAuthor/Narrator: H.H. Munro (Saki)/Alexander SpencerPublisher: Recorded BooksReleased: 1983Source: borrowed from local libraryAmazon | GoodreadsSynopsis (from Amazon):This volume collects 16 stories from the master of wit and wisdom, Saki, who displayed an incomparable agility with delicate, humorous, stylistic prose. Included here are: "Esmé," about a hyena that adopts 2 British women, "Tobermory," featuring a talking cat, and "Sredni Vashtar," concerning demon worship, as well as "The Easter Egg," "Mrs. Packeltide's Tiger," "The Byzantine Omelette," and many more.The World of Saki is a collection of short stories by British writer H. H. Munro, who wrote under the pen name Saki.The stories are fanciful, amusing, and deliciously snarky (but always polite!). They are basically a satire of Edwardian society…

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July 11, 2013
Fiction / reviews

Review: Lotería by Mario Alberto Zambrano

I'm excited to be a part of the blog tour for Mario Alberto Zambrano's Lotería. Thanks to TLC Book Tours for supplying me with a review copy. This tour began July 2 and finishes up August 7; be sure to check out the complete tour schedule and read the reviews posted on other stops!Title: LoteríaAuthor: Mario Alberto ZambranoPublisher: HarperReleased: July 2, 2013Source: publisher (TLC Book Tours)Amazon | Barnes & Noble | GoodreadsSynopsis (from Goodreads):With her older sister Estrella in the ICU and her father in jail, eleven-year-old Luz Castillo has been taken into the custody of the state. Alone in her room, the young girl retreats behind a wall of silence, writing in her journal and shuffling through a deck of Lotería…

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July 10, 2013
Fiction / reviews

Release Day Review: Love All by Callie Wright

Title: Love AllAuthor: Callie WrightPublisher: Henry Holt and Co.Released: July 9, 2013Source: publisher (NetGalley)Amazon | Barnes & Noble | GoodreadsSynopsis (from Goodreads):It’s the spring of 1994 in Cooperstown, New York, and Joanie Cole, the beloved matriarch of the Obermeyer family, has unexpectedly died in her sleep. Now, for the first time, three generations are living together under one roof and are quickly encroaching on one another’s fragile orbits. Eighty-six-year-old Bob Cole is adrift in his daughter’s house without his wife. Anne Obermeyer is increasingly suspicious of her husband, Hugh’s, late nights and missed dinners, and Hugh, principal of the town’s preschool, is terrified that a scandal at school will erupt and devastate his life. Fifteen-year-old tennis-team hopeful Julia is caught…

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July 8, 2013

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