For a while there I was trying to stick with one book at a time. But, that just doesn’t work for me. Unless I’m totally engrossed in one book, I like to dabble. My husband came in while I was reading the other day and just laughed at me, because I was reading one book, but I had two others on the bed along with my MP3 player with an audiobook on it. What can I say? I like to sample a little of this and that and see where it takes me.

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

The Assassin’s Quest the third book in Robin Hobb’s Farseer triology is  my main book right now. The covers on these are too much. They probably would have scared me away from reading them if I didn’t have to for work. So many good books with bad covers.

 

Teaser:

“And I found you, and I knew you, though you did not know yourself. I watched the ponderous turning of events and marked how each time you were the pebble that shifted that great wheel from its ancient path.” (354)

When the Whistle Blows ~ Fran Cannon Slayton

This is the perfect book to read now that Halloween is fast approaching. Trains are an integral part of this book which is another plus for me, because I come from a train family, too. My grandfather was a brakeman and a conductor and his brother’s were all crossing tenders and brakemen. My father has always been into trains and has fond memories of riding the trains. I’ve always liked trains myself. There is something about riding a train that settles me. Unless it’s a commuter train the week of school vacation when the circus has just let out. I always find that the rhythm of the rails puts me at ease and if I were to ever write the Great American Novel, it would be on a train crossing from when end of the country to another. But, I digress. When the Whistle Blows is a fantastic book and there are many glowing reviews out there, so I thought I’d try something a little different.

10 Reasons to Read When the Whistle Blows

1. Each chapter takes place on Halloween from the time the protagonist, Jimmy Cannon is a boy until he becomes a young man. How cool is that? 10 points just for coming up with the idea. It’s also his father’s birthday. Something is bound to happen on a day like that, and it always does. But the events often get more serious as Jimmy gets older.

2. It’s a great excuse to say words like “durn,” “daggone” and “dagburn” (a new one on me) without feeling self-conscious. As in “Mary Etta, can’t you keep this dagburn cat away from me?”

3. Rotten cabbages on Halloween. Need I say more?

4. There is a whole paragraph on snorting as a means of communication or lack thereof.

5. Slayton paints a picture of the folks in Rowlesburg through little details here and there. Almost like a story within the story. It’s realistic, never preachy and all the more meaningful because of the way it’s portrayed.

6. There is a cat names Amos (see #2)

7. Even upstanding citizens can be mischievous.

8. Jimmy’s Dad belongs to a secret society. Who doesn’t love secret societies? And, it wasn’t at all what I thought it was going to be.

9. The relationship between Jimmy and his father builds in it’s intensity with each story. Mr. Cannon is one of those strong, silent types. The depth of his love for Jimmy would take me by surprise every now and then, but it also felt very familiar.

10. The trains of course! It’s amazing how trains can be so integral to the town. Here’s some fun info on trains from the author’s website.

Wrap-up: Slayton is a great storyteller. Jimmy has a wonderful voice. It’s the kind of book that makes you laugh one minute and cry the next. Seems like a good summer reading title, too.

 

Where did I get this book?

Fran Cannon Slayton sent me a copy of this book to review. Many thanks for the opportunity!

Teaser Tuesdays

Where have I been? A little sick, one  family crisis, battling with the husband for laptop time and reading all the books I need to work as fast as I possibly can, which is not fast enough! I’ve even resorted to books on tape, which I’m absolutely no good at. Excuses aside. I’ve read a lot and some great things too. So, I’m hoping to get some reviews up soon. I just finished Demon Forged by Meljean Brook and a ridiculous fangirl post is way past due on that series.

I just found Teaser Tuesdays on Celestina Carmen’s blog. Love it. And well, it’s Tuesday so here goes.

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

Teaser: “Arrogant bunch of stargazers, that’s what I say,” Artis fumed as he served beer from his window perch. “Think they’re closer to Aura than the rest of us.” (page 229 Traitor’s Moon by Lynn Flewelling)

This is a fun series recommended to me by Chelle. Ms. Persephone has sent my TBR pile toppling over!  Start with Luck in the Shadows. I know the cover art on this one leaves a lot to be desired, but look at the cover for the next book in the series. I’m in love with this one and it’s just how I pictured Seregil.

BBAW: You and Your Reading Habits

Thought I would give this a go for BBAW. I think I missed the “in as few words as possible”  instruction, please forgive me.

Do you snack while you read?

I can’t really eat and read at the same time. Sometimes I try to read during my lunch break, but I usually end up waiting until I’m finished. I don’t like to wear my glasses while eating hot foods. No particular reason. It just doesn’t feel right.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of
writing in books horrify you?

Talking with Chelle about this earlier. Pretty much horrified about writing in books. Although lots of writers used to do that and I’d loved to read so and so’s copy of such and such book and see what they thought about it. I’m a lazy reader really. Sometimes, I’ll put a post-it note on a page, but the problem is, I stick the post-it in the book and then go back later and I can’t remember why I stuck it there in the first place.

Text books are totally different. Of course, I always used a pencil, you know, because it still felt kind of weird.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears?

Dog-ears? Are you kidding me? Who does that? Bookmarks. Usually nothing fancy – the date due card, an old to-do list, magazine subscription cards. I love book promo bookmarks, but I tend to set those aside to try to keep them nice. My husband always puts his bookmark further along in the book when he reads. I think it’s annoying, because he falls asleep while reading and the book closes so the bookmark is no longer a bookmark. I hate myself for doing it, but I’ve taken up this bad habit. I, of course, put the bookmark back where it belongs!

Laying the book flat open?

Mostly not a problem, unless it’s someone else’s book or a really nice book.

Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?

Both.

Hard copy or audiobooks?

Hard copy. My mind wanders when I listen to audiobooks.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?

I love to finish a chapter, but if it’s a long one, I just try to find a break. I’m a total fan of short chapters. Just one more chapter…

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?

I used to keep a list of words to look up. But I never looked them up, so I stopped. If my husband’s around I’ll ask him. He’s verbose! Mostly I just plow through and figure things out from context.

What are you currently reading?

Royal Assassin – Robin Hobb
Invisible Mountain – Carolina De Robertis
Sea Glass – Maria Snyder
When the Whistle Blows – Fran Slayton
Demon Night – Meljean Brook

What is the last book you bought?

Demon Angel, Demon Moon and Demon Night – Meljean Brook.

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can
you read more than one at a time?

See above. I usually have one main book, but I read a little of this and that at the same time.

Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?

Anytime is good, but usually before bed is when I’m free. I almost always read in bed. Sometimes on the couch.

Do you prefer series books or stand alone books?

Either. But over the past couple of years, I’ve gotten into the series books more and more and they start to eclipse the stand alones.

Is there a specific book or author that you find yourself recommending over and over?

At work, I like to try and get people to read Maria Snyder (Study Series) and Deanna Raybourn. Personally, I try to get my friends and relatives to read more YA. The Book Thief, The Good Thief and The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-time Indian are a few that I like to try to get folks to read. Oh and Graceling, too.

How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)

Roughly by genre (fiction, poetry, non-fiction) and then alphabetically. The non-fiction I break down into loose categories. Since my son came around, it’s more like random piles all over the place.

This Just In

Here are a couple of new books that just came in for me:

Invisible Mountain ~ Carolina de Robertis
From the verdant hills of Rio de Janeiro to Evita Perón’s glittering Buenos Aires, from the haven of a corner butcher shop to the halls of the United States Embassy in Montevideo, this gripping novel—at once expansive and lush with detail—examines the intertwined fates of a continent and a family in upheaval. The Invisible Mountain is a deeply intimate exploration of the search for love and authenticity in the lives of three women, and a penetrating portrait of the small, tenacious nation of Uruguay, shaken by the gales of the twentieth century. This looks great. I started reading it and it has an Isabel Allende feel too it. Wish it wasn’t due back in 7 days!

When The Whistle Blows – Fran Slayton

Jimmy lives in Rowlesburg, West Virginia, during the 1940s. He does all the things boys do in the small mountain town: plays a mean game of football, pulls the unforgettable Halloween prank with his friends in “the Platoon,” and promises to head off into the woods on the first day of hunting season— no matter what. He also knows his father belongs to a secret society, and is determined to uncover the mysteries behind it! But it is a midnight encounter with a train that shows Jimmy the man his father really is. Fran Slayton graciously sent me a copy of this and I am so pleased. Each chapter takes place on Halloween over a period of six years. How cool is that? It will get me in proper spirit for when Halloween starts to take over my little city next month.

I was so pleased that Chelle over at Tempting Persephone was so kind as to share The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan and The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork with me. I couldn’t even find covers for them, but I’m looking forward to them both. I was taken by the illustrations by Peter Sis in The Dreamer but it wasn’t until I got the book home that I realized it was a children’s book about Pablo Neruda. Yes, he is one of my favorite poets. Stork’s Marcelo in the Real World is high on my TBR list, so I can’t wait to read this next one. It has a similarly cool nighttime cover.

Sacred Hearts ~ Sarah Dunant

Sarah Dunant is one of my go to historical fiction authors just like Tracy Chevalier. It’s a genre that I enjoy, but haven’t spent much time exploring. I admit that I was skeptical about reading a book that takes place in a convent and it’s true that this book isn’t as lush as The Birth of Venus or In the Company of the Courtesan. No matter. Dunant’s main character, Suora Zuana is the dispensary sister and that choice in itself gives her so much to work with. Early medicine is always fascinating and Zuana’s apothecary is a hidden gem in the cloister. I love it when she’s working on one of her remedies or tending her herb garden. Several times I wondered if I could use some of the remedies myself.* If I was forced to be a nun, I think I would want to be the dispensary sister. Suora Zuana is a wonderful character. She’s level-headed and though she is a friend of the Abbess, she tries to be neutral when it comes to convent politics. Who knew there was so much of it? Zuana has a great deal of freedom – time alone and time to study and record her medical successes and failures. She also has more freedom to move around the convent at odd hours tending her charges.

But, her peaceful life is turned upside-down when a young novice, Serafina enters the convent against her will. Zuana is charged with watching over this young, rebellious nun who has been accepted into the convent for her singing voice, but whose heart belongs to a young man not Jesus Christ. Zuana was not a willing entrant herself, but the death of her father gave her no other option. She uses those memories along with work in her dispensary to help temper Serafina’s spirit. Serafina is stronger than Zuana realizes and her internal turmoil mirrors that of the convent itself.

Great characters, intrigue, history, rich details all made this book a real treat. Plus, it moved me to tears. See this post.

*Maybe because I saw this post and was thinking about making lozenges. Zuana makes lozenges in the book. I think I’m going to order this book. It seems like it would be a lot of fun.

Life According to Literature

I saw this on Danielle’s blog and thought it was too good to pass up. Some categories were definitely easier to answer than others!

Using only books you have read this year (2009), answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title. It’s a lot harder than you think!

Describe yourself: Daughter of the Forest (Juliet Marillier)

How do you feel: Silent on the Moor (Deanna Raybourn)

Describe where you currently live: The Moor (Laurie R. King)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Cairo (G. Willow Wilson)

Your favorite form of transportation: His Majesty’s Dragon (Naomi Novik)

Your best friend is: Eve (Elissa Elliott)

You and your friends are: Wicked Lovely (Melissa Marr)

What’s the weather like: Storm Glass (Maria V. Snyder)

You fear: Demon Night (Meljean Brook)

What is the best advice you have to give: Manual of Detection (Jedediah Berry)

Thought for the day: The Art of Racing in the Rain (Garth Stein)

How I would like to die: A Mercy (Toni Morrison)

My soul’s present condition: Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)

Serendipity ~ Library Edition

Weeding again. I guess people don’t read anthologies as much as they used to. Maybe they didn’t ever read them much. We have a lot of them in the library that are sitting on the shelves collecting dust. Good ones, too. Some very odd ones. Like fiction about farm communities in the Mid-West. We are not in the Mid-West. Needless to say, there wasn’t much interest in that one. One that I found that looks pretty neat is called Reading Rooms: America’s Foremost Writers Celebrate Our Public Libraries with Stories, Essays, Poems and Memoirs. There are sections in it on Small Town Libraries and City Libraries and Laughter in the Library. I’m a little afraid to read the section on Librarians. It seems like everyone has had a bad experience with a librarian and those impressions must be memorable. Ah well. I haven’t read much in the book yet. It’s the kind of book that I can’t read methodically, rather I need to taste bits of it here and there and dip into it at random. E.B White’s poem reminds me of the times I used to go to the Boston Public Library reading room while I was in graduate school. I loved the hush. Everyone was working or reading. There was coughing, paper’s shuffling and chair’s scraping, but it was still so quiet. One of my all time favorite places.

Hogwash ~ Arthur Geisert

When picking out books for children, you never know when they are going to really love a book. You may have a hunch as I did with Hogwash. My son loves machines and tools. He got an old home improvement book for his birthday and he loves to just sit and look at the schematics for the chainsaw. So, when I saw the drawings in this book, I thought it would be a good fit. Well, it was a huge hit! We “read” or looked at this wordless book what felt like 50 times. It was at least 25. There is so much going on, you see something new each time.

So what’s it about? A group of young pigs head out to the water hole, fill it with water and “wallow” in the mud. Then they “wallow” in paint. Sounds like a little kid’s dream come true! When the mother pigs find them, they march the piglets over to a crazy Rube Goldberg washing machine and when they’ve finished washing them, they hang them out to dry. My son thought it was hilarious! The illustrations are so great. I was hoping to find a website with Geisert’s artwork, but I couldn’t find one. Here’s an interesting bio. Apparently he has a bunch of other great books, which we are going to check out. I’m also looking forward to watching these two videos about Mr. Geisert at work.

Epiphany

I had a little bit of an embarrassing moment on the bus today. See, I have a little problem with music. Sometimes it makes me cry, okay it often makes me cry. Not just because the song is sad. If the singing is beautiful it often moves me to tears no matter what the mood. Case in point – when I went to see Les Miserables, I cried for a solid two hours. I often cry during The Star Spangled Banner, even though I prefer America the Beautiful as a song. I cried when I first heard Rabbit Songs by Hem and it took several times through the album to get to the point where I could listen and not cry. So, I have this problem. Little did I know it applied to singing in books. Until today. While I was on the bus and I found myself dabbing at the corners of my eyes. I usually don’t cry as much in books as in movies etc, because I feel like I have a little more control. Not in this case.

*Spoiler alert for Sarah Dunant’s Sacred Hearts*

In the above mentioned, there is novice, Serefina, who was sent to the convent against her will, because she fell in love with the wrong person. The convent was please to accept Serefina because she has a magnificent singing voice. Serefina rages when she enters the convent and refuses to sing. While she is assigned to Sister Zuana, the resident healer, Serefina witnesses an older nun while she is in a state of “ecstasy.” When the nun comes back around, she clings to Serefina and passes on a message to her. It is the same day as the Feast of St. Agnes, which is the day when Serefina was supposed to make her singing debut. (Churchgoers can hear but not see the nuns when they sing). At the service, even though she has not practiced her part, she sings with the most beautiful voice that the audience is completely transfixed after she stops. They do not want the experience to end. Serefina fought being in the convent so much, that it is hard to believe that she would have done such a thing and in such dramatic a fashion. Was it the spiritual experience beforehand? It felt that way when I was reading it. I felt as caught up in the singing as everyone else in the book. Kudos to Dunant for pulling that off. It was a big risk. It would have been cliche if she had done it any other way. And yet, there is a twist. But, back to the crying and the music. I knew is going to cry even before Serefina started singing and yet I couldn’t stop myself. I even stopped reading, wiped my eyes hoping my mascara wasn’t going to run before I got to work and tried again. No luck. I would have had to stop altogether and I couldn’t. There was no way. I had that buoyant feeling of being carried along by a book, so I cried the rest of the way to my stop – little kids getting off at the mall and all.