I'm the featured blogger on Book Bloggers International today, check it out!BBI was created by Tif from Tif Talks Books, Tasha from Truth Beauty Freedom and Books, and Becca from Lost in Books. This site is a great way to find new bloggers to love and follow, as well as pick up helpful blogging tips.
This Bout of Books 8.0 challenge looked like a lot of fun. I loved Mad Libs as a kid, especially on long road trips.Bookish Mad Libs Challengehosted by The Space BetweenMy Book List:A. Place: Ice Haven by Daniel ClowesB. Villain: Weston from Perelandra (Space Trilogy #2) by C. S. LewisC. Adjective: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom RiggsD. Number: Three Lives of Tomomi Ishikawa by Benjamin ConstableE. Noun: The Tenor Wore Tapshoes by Mark SchweizerF. Hero: Allan Karlsson from The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas JonassonG. Dessert: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee BenderMy Story:Help! I'm being held captive in Ice Haven by Weston!It is very peculiar here!He is demanding three tapshoes to…
"The only option for a creative person was constant motion - a lifetime of busy whirligigging in a generally forward direction, until you couldn’t do it any longer." The end of any major, shared experience, especially one which coincides with the end of adolescence, is bound to induce some degree of ennui. In The Interestings, Meg Wolitzer has shown how this impacts the lives of six friends. Time and time again, the author shows how well she understands the creative personality type, especially as these characters grapple with the varying levels (and definitions) of success among them. I took to Wolitzer's writing immediately, her intuitive and compelling perceptions of her characters' unfolding lives. Her storytelling is delivered in a way I found…
Title: Fakebook: A True Story. Based on Actual LiesAuthor: Dave CicirelliPublisher: SourcebooksExpected Release: September 3, 2013Source: publisher (NetGalley)Amazon | Barnes & Noble | GoodreadsSynopsis (from Goodreads):On October 5th, 2009, Dave posted a note on Facebook announcing that he was quitting his job, dropping everything, and walking west. But what no one knew (save a few collaborators) was that Dave was lying and that his westward travels were all an elaborate hoax. And so Dave's existence split in two--earning his followers' trust with postings about everyday activities before escalating the story with tales of teepeeing an Amish horse and buggy and thus being forced to work off his debt on the farm. Meanwhile, the real Dave went into hiding, sequestering himself…
Title: I Await the Devil's ComingAuthor: Mary MacLanePublisher: Melville HouseReleased: March 19, 2013Source: publisher (Edelweiss)Amazon | Barnes & Noble | GoodreadsSynopsis (from publisher):Mary MacLane’s I Await the Devil’s Coming is a shocking, brave and intellectually challenging diary of a 19-year-old girl living in Butte, Montana in 1902. Written in potent, raw prose that propelled the author to celebrity upon publication, the book has become almost completely forgotten. In the early 20th century, MacLane’s name was synonymous with sexuality; she is widely hailed as being one of the earliest American feminist authors, and critics at the time praised her work for its daringly open and confessional style. In its first month of publication, the book sold 100,000 copies — a remarkable…
Title: Bacon and Egg ManAuthor: Ken WheatonPublisher: Premier Digital PublishingReleased: February 19, 2013Source: publisher (NetGalley)Amazon | Barnes & Noble | GoodreadsSynopsis (from Goodreads):In the halls of Congress, on the streets, in the media, the war on fast food is on. Tofu may be topical, but bacon is eternal. Bacon and Egg Man, Ken Wheaton's second novel, is a sly send of up of a politically correct food establishment, where the Northeast has split off from the rest of the United States. The new Federation is ruled by the electoral descendants of King Mike, a man who made it his mission to form a country based on good, clean living. But you can’t keep good food down. And Wes Montgomery, a…
My goals for the Estella Society's Dog Days of Summer Readathon were:Finish reading The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer. It's a chunkster, and I had a lot left when the readathon started.Read A Dash of Magic (The Bliss Bakery #2) by Kathryn Littlewood.I'm happy to say, I completed both goals. I had fun following the #ddsummer hashtag and seeing what everyone else was reading. There were a number of throwbacks to my childhood, especially with the books Brooke at The Blog of Litwits chose to read.And now that I'm all warmed up, it's on to the Bout of Books 8.0 readathon!
Title: I Came From the WaterAuthor: Vanita OelschlagerIllustrator: Mike BlancPublisher: Vanita BooksReleased: September 2012Source: publisher (Edelweiss)Amazon | Barnes & Noble | GoodreadsSynopsis (from Goodreads):The story is based on the actual experiences of Moses, an eight year-old boy and resident of St. Helene’s orphanage outside Port-au-Prince. As an infant, he was literally plucked from the waters of a nearby river, having been placed in a basket by whom we believe was his grandmother. The rest of his family perished in floods that wiped out their upland village in 2004. He was given his name by the nuns at St. Helene’s. The title is Moses’ reply to the author when she asked where he is from.After the earthquake of 2010 destroyed Port-au-Prince…
Title: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the PieAuthor: Alan BradleyPublisher: Delacorte PressReleased: April 2009Source: my personal libraryAmazon | Barnes & Noble | GoodreadsSynopsis (from Goodreads):Flavia de Luce, 11, is an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. In the summer of 1950, a series of inexplicable events strikes her home, Buckshaw, a decaying English mansion. A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. To Flavia the investigation is the stuff of science: full of possibilities, contradictions,…
After the Korean War, North Korean refugee Yohan emigrates to Brazil for a fresh start. All that Yohan has left behind and how it was lost is revealed in brief moments throughout the story, woven between his new experiences in Brazil, where he reacclimates to life outside the POW camp. This is a quiet book. New relationships develop gradually; kindness is offered gently. Even moments when Yohan remembers the atrocities of war have an eerily hushed tone, and that creates a powerful impact. Snow Hunters is short, but there is a lot within its 208 pages. In the most subtle manner, author Paul Yoon manages to stir up feelings of horror, fear, relief, gratitude, love, and compassion in his…