HELLO, READERS - IT’S TOUR TIME!!!

I do hope you have been keeping up with Larry’s blog tour hosted by the wonderful Lori over at The Next Best Book Blog.  Just in case you aren’t up-to-date and you are checking in for the first time here’s a preview of what you’ve missed so far (never fear, you can catch up by clicking the following links):

It all starts over at Lori’s very successful website The Next Best Book Blog.  Larry talks about ‘being indie’.  A fantastic opening if I may say so!  Click here to see where the tour started.

Next up the tour visited Emmet’s website at …I Can Stay.  Click here to read Emmet’s great review of Beatitude.

And now the tour rests here.  Please enjoy the below post by Larry Closs.

Two Roads Diverged

How the Beats did and didn’t inspire Beatitude

Larry Closs

Every aspiring writer who happens upon Jack Kerouac’s On the Road—which is nearly every aspiring writer—inevitably tries to write like Kerouac. I did, in the first half-dozen drafts of my first novel, Beatitude. For a book inspired, in part, by the Beat Generation writers, a book in which Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg actually feature, it made sense, right?

My poet friend Sparrow, who appears as a character in the book and provides a counterpoint to the protagonists’ Beat enthusiasm, read one of those early drafts and, in the margin next to a single, paragraph-long sentence, he wrote: “Too Beat!” That sentiment actually applied to the entire manuscript—too Beat, too much. I realized that no one can write like Jack Kerouac. No one.

I started over, searching for my own voice. Several versions later, I finally found it. But I kept that single too-Beat sentence in the 274-page published version of Beatitude because, in context, it works. And it serves as a reminder of my naïve effort to be Beat, a time-bending nod to who I was from who I became.

Kerouac himself attempted to emulate his own literary hero, Thomas Wolfe, in his first novel, The Town and the City, with admirable but unremarkable results. Frustrated, he struggled for years to hone his style before finally perfecting what he dubbed spontaneous prose, a comma-flaunting, syntax-taunting approach distinguished by a breathtaking amalgam of jazz rhythms, earnest spirituality, shameless romanticism and tender idealism.

Kerouac makes it seem easy but it isn’t. Joyce Johnson, whose extraordinary memoirs Minor Characters and Door Wide Open chronicle her experiences as a peripheral Beat and Kerouac’s one-time paramour, also read an early draft of Beatitude and told me that there are many writers whom “Beat principles (or, yes, propaganda) have led astray.”

The propaganda includes the story of how On the Road was written, a story that Kerouac alternately fueled and refuted. Legend holds that, in April 1951, Kerouac wrote On the Road on a portable Royal typewriter in a three-week burst of inspiration propelled by a potent blend of caffeine, nicotine and possibly Benzedrine, avoiding the pauses caused by having to change paper by taping together pieces of Teletype to create a 120-foot scroll. The scroll part is true. But Kerouac didn’t write On the Road off the top of his head. For years, he had kept notebooks about his cross-country trips with best friend Neal Cassady with the goal of writing a “road novel,” and he surrounded himself with those notebooks when he sat down to compose the first draft of what would become his spontaneous prose masterpiece.

And it was a first draft. In 2001, the iconic scroll was auctioned at Christie’s in New York and won by Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts, for a bid of $2.43 million, the highest price ever paid for a literary manuscript. As was evident while the scroll was on display prior to the auction and during a tour Irsay organized afterward, the scroll is one long single-spaced block of text. A close look, however, reveals Kerouac’s own revisions and the paragraph breaks he inserted when he immediately began retyping the manuscript in a more traditional format, an endeavor he would undertake three times. The publication of the scroll version of On the Road in 2007 finally revealed just how much editing Kerouac (and others) had done. Efforts to make the book more “literary” made it somewhat less spontaneous, though more than enough of the original survived, raw and intact, to push buttons as well as the envelope.

The legend persists because it makes a great story—better with every retelling—and because it provides evidence that it’s possible to write a polished and publishable novel in less than a month. Every writer would like to believe that. I would, because I can labor for hours to perfect the cadence of a single sentence. For those who still want to embrace “first thought, best thought,” however, despite evidence to the contrary, Kerouac provided two sets of maxims detailing the madness to his method: “Essentials of Spontaneous Prose” and “Belief and Technique for Modern Prose: List of Essentials.” Usually interpreted as how-to manuals, both lists are really more notes by Kerouac for Kerouac, descriptions of his own approach, inimitable and often impenetrable, as anyone who’s ever tried to practice them discovers.

Some are straight-forward, devoted to the mechanics of writing. Kerouac cautions against craft (“Craft is craft”), pausing “to think of proper word” and periods “separating sentence-structures already arbitrarily riddled by false colons and timid usually needless commas” (unlike that one!). But the “Essentials” that get to the essence of Kerouac’s approach are more ephemeral: “Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind,” “Blow as deep as you want to blow,” “Be in love with yr life.” One of the most popular is “You’re a Genius all the time,” which is, unfortunately, just not true. Not for Kerouac or anyone else. Most are lucky to be a genius a fraction of the time.

I’ve read and absorbed nearly all of the literary output by the holy Beat triumvirate of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, in addition to works by fellow Beats Neal Cassady, Gregory Corso, Gary Snyder, Amiri Baraka and Diane di Prima. I’ve read even more books about them. The Beats did influence me, but not in the way you might expect. Most significantly, my best friend and I bonded over the Beats, or that part in us the Beats stirred. I’ve dreamed of being an author since I was a kid, and the Beats as well as a hundred other authors inspired me—not to write like them but to write. Rather than follow Kerouac’s road, I ultimately followed my own, one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference.

Larry Closs is the author of Beatitude, a novel, and a New Yorker who often wanders far from home. Follow him on his website, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

How wonderful was that?!  Mr Closs certainly knows how to put his sentences together!  I am glad Larry followed his own road.  Life would be boring if we all went down the same road.  Also, following someone down the road can’t be fun all of the time, there will be a time when one wants to take over and be the leader of their journey.  Full kudos to Larry for sussing out the lay of Kerouac’s road, perhaps picking up a few flowers here and there, a few pavers here and there, and taking them to add to his own special road, the road with his name on it. 

Okay, too much road talk – let’s move on. 

Next stop on the tour bus, Patrick’s website, The Literate Man  Feast your eyes on an interview with Mr Larry Closs where he looks at the Beat Generation Boys Club and the sometimes obscure line between friendship and love.

Can’t wait until tomorrow to get your Larry fix – check out his website, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube links and be sure to get yourself a copy of Beatitude!!!

THE BLURB

Avin del Bors has a problem. His brother Drew has run off to fight in a war against the wolves, even though the wolves weren’t responsible for the vicious attack against the humans on the Free Plains. Avin’s companions—the warrior Ax, one-armed sorcerer Jocen, plucky owl Ulkia, drug-addled cheetah Summon the Wind and raccoon stand-up comic Onesso—all have their own reasons for accompanying him through the animal territories across the Bladebone Mountains. Their travels will take them from the highly regimented wolf cities, to the richesse and luxury of the Equine Commonwealth, all the way to the vertiginous tunnels of the serpents’ underground Net and across the waters of the Autonomous Dolphin Collective—to whatever unknown awaits them.

What neither Avin nor his companions yet understand is that the real force behind the Free Plains attack is neither canine nor feline, nor yet crocodile, insect, raptor, bear or shark. Far to the east, in the scorched wasteland known as The Barrens, lives the ragged clan that calls itself The Godless. There, Avin will confront his brother, his companions and himself, and discover two truths: one that changes everything he understands about himself, and another that threatens the balance of the entire world.

WHAT I THOUGHT

Impressive is what I thought.

Picture this – human beings have destroyed the earth, they stuffed up and put a huge dent in creation.  The gods (yes, plural, I will get to that in a minute) have decided all creatures should live separately and not seek dominance over one another, all are equal.  Separate territories are created for each set of animals and each territory comes with its own language, or way of speaking, and its own way of living.  Each territory also has its own god: there is a god of humans, a god of woodland animals, a god of swift-running predators, a god of hoofed animals, et cetera, et cetera, you get the point.  As well-intentioned as the gods are you just know this set-up sounds too good to be true, too good to last.  It seems early on that the humans are in a war against the wolves.  It seems that the plan is not going the way the gods thought it would.  It seems we have an adventure on our hands!

The beginning had me, I was in and I wanted more.  This idea of separate territories, different gods and a supposed order of the world was definitely intriguing. 

After the introduction it was time to meet the characters.  I loved how Maine did this, slowly but surely.  Rather than introduce all of the main characters in one chapter they were spread over several chapters.  I loved learning about each character’s society.  It really is like another world and Dave Maine has created this amazing world by providing the reader with all of the important details in such a way it seemed to me that every sentence was especially crafted.  In my opinion it definitely feels as though a lot of work has gone into this epic fantasy known as The Gamble of the Godless and although Maine is not usually known for fantasy work such as this, it certainly seems as though he is no stranger to the genre.  He knows what he’s doing!

The characters maketh the story!  I’m sure everyone who reads this book will have a favourite by the end of it.  I loved them all, even if they were ‘baddies’, and I loved the way they lived and how they talked, how law and order was practiced and how they viewed the world.  Whether your favourite be a human, a sorcerer, an owl, a cheetah, a raccoon, a horse, a snake or one of the other countless animals in this story there is no doubt your favourite is so because of the way Maine has managed to give him/her/it a ‘realness’ and has been able to   describe the character without the feeling of one dimensionality.  Don’t call me crazy – perhaps I shouldn’t say it, but I will – they felt like real people/animals, like they could seriously be living in the hills near my house.  Just goes to show what a way with words Mr Maine has.  Oh, and by the way, I will disclose that Ulkia the owl was my favourite – I’d love for her to land on my fence one day!

So many characters are joined together, so many happenings take place, so many reasons to keep this series going and so many reasons to read the next book!  If you haven’t read this one already you should.  Explore this fantasy world, let Maine’s writing explain to you the details and let it excite you!  Explore, explain, excite!

Many thanks to Dave Maine for providing me with a copy of The Gamble of the Godless – thanks, Dave!

Check out Dave’s author profile by clicking here

My good friend Lori over at The Next Best Book Blog is hosting a blog tour for Larry Closs, author of Beatitude.  I will be taking part in the tour so watch this space.  On Tuesday, 24 January 2012, I will post ‘Two Roads Diverged: How the Beats did and didn’t inspire Beatitude‘ by Larry Closs.

Check out the full schedule by clicking here to be taken across to Lori’s fab website:

The Next Best Book Blog!!

Thank you, Mr Postman, for making your delivery directly to me,

No need for me to go to the post office this time,

No need to restrain myself in the car from opening the package,

This time as soon as I walked through the door the package was all mine!

Thank you to Perry Martin for providing me with the newest addition to my book family – thanks, Perry!

Pretty Flamingo

You’ll be taken on an emotional journey with David Perry, the central character, as he unlocks the mystery of a part of his past he never knew existed – - – a past that’s been hidden from him for thirty-five years. As the lost memories unfold David discovers a love so powerful it transcended the purely physical; a loss so devastating that it changed his whole life. And a promise that, if he can keep it, will return to him all that he cared most about in the whole world.

THE BLURB

Hidden (Marchwood Vampire Series) is a paranormal romance that spans the centuries from modern England to 19^th century Paris and ancient Cappadocia. The novel begins in gritty urban reality, but soon descends into horror, romance and historical adventure.

Sixteen-year-old Madison Greene is in foster care until one day she inherits a fortune and a house with a cellar full of danger. Eighteen-year-old Alexandre Chevalier lives in 19th century Paris. On an archaeological expedition, he discovers a lost underground city where his life changes forever.

Their lives entwine, but someone is watching and waiting. The story ramps up to an explosive ending.

WHAT I THOUGHT

Phew, I’m glad I didn’t miss out on this one is what I thought.

I have not read many vampire books and admit they don’t hold a lot of appeal for me.  However, I am so happy I accepted to review Shalini Boland’s excellent book Hidden and am grateful for this reading experience I may not have otherwise had. 

What can I say?  It wasn’t what I expected.  I loved it.  I was completely sucked in and didn’t want to put it down.  One might say I was captivated. 

Now, I have to be careful here not to give anything away – I won’t be getting too specific.

Shalini’s writing is such that I truly felt like I knew the characters.  Wonderful writing filled the pages and really made an unreal story seem real, like it could be happening right next door and it wouldn’t surprise me at all.  It was like Madison and Alexandre were my friends and they were brought to life by the descriptions given to them and how they spoke, the language they used, which was appropriate for their lives/time.

There was a sense of adventure about this book.  I love the two different timelines and how they complement each other.  Each chapter is a switch between Madison and Alexandre and present time and past time.  At the end of each chapter something is left hanging and it made me feel quite torn.  While reading a chapter I would be thinking about the other character’s story and how I couldn’t wait to get back to it but then I was still immensely enjoying the current story as well.  Ah, what a dilemma!!  Well no, not really a dilemma because the answer is easy – keep reading as much as you can and as fast as you can so you can finish the book and find out how it all ends.

This is the first in the Marchwood series and I will definitely be keeping my eyes out for upcoming books. 

All in all, not much more to say apart from I loved it!!

Many thanks to Shalini for providing me with a copy of Hidden – thanks, Shalini!

 Check out Shalini’s author profile by clicking here

Oh the joy to receive the mail,

to find that piece of paper which indicates there is something for collection,

to drive to the post office, collect and resist opening until arriving home,

ripping open the envelope and voila, a new book to add to my collection!

Many thanks to Larry Closs for providing me with a copy of Beatitude – thanks, Larry!

Beatitude

New York City, 1995: Harry Charity is a sensitive young loner haunted by a disastrous affair when he meets Jay Bishop, an outgoing poet and former Marine. Propelled by a shared fascination with the unfettered lives of Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation, the two are irresistibly drawn together, even as Jay’s girlfriend, Zahra, senses something deeper developing.

Reveling in their discovery of the legendary scroll manuscript of Kerouac’s On the Road in the vaults of the New York Public Library, Harry and Jay embark on a nicotine-and-caffeine-fueled journey into New York’s thriving poetry scene of slams and open-mike nights.

An encounter with “Howl” poet Allen Ginsberg shatters their notions of what it means to be Beat but ultimately and unexpectedly leads them into their own hearts where they’re forced to confront the same questions that confounded their heroes: What do you do when you fall for someone who can’t fall for you? What do you do when you’re the object of affection? What must you each give up to keep the other in your life?

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho’s enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom points Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way. But what starts out as a journey to find wordly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transformation power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Huxley’s vision of the future in his astonishing 1931 novel Brave New World — a world of tomorrow in which capitalist civilization has been reconstituted through the most efficient scientific and psychological engineering, where the people are genetically designed to be passive, consistently useful to the ruling class.

Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert

At the end of her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe, a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who’d been living in Indonesia when they met.  Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married. (Both were survivors of previous bad divorces. Enough said.) But providence intervened one day in the form of the United States government, which-after unexpectedly detaining Felipe at an American border crossing-gave the couple a choice: they could either get married, or Felipe would never be allowed to enter the country again. Having been effectively sentenced to wed, Gilbert tackled her fears of marriage by delving into this topic completely, trying with all her might to discover through historical research, interviews, and much personal reflection what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is. Told with Gilbert’s trademark wit, intelligence and compassion, Committed attempts to “turn on all the lights” when it comes to matrimony, frankly examining questions of compatibility, infatuation, fidelity, family tradition, social expectations, divorce risks and humbling responsibilities. Gilbert’s memoir is ultimately a clear-eyed celebration of love with all the complexity and consequence that real love, in the real world, actually entails.

Death With Interruptions by Jose Saramago

Nobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago’s brilliant new novel poses the question — what happens when the grim reaper decides there will be no more death? On the first day of the new year, no one dies. This of course causes consternation among politicians, religious leaders, morticians, and doctors. Among the general public, on the other hand, there is initially celebration—flags are hung out on balconies, people dance in the streets. They have achieved the great goal of humanity: eternal life. Then reality hits home—families are left to care for the permanently dying, life-insurance policies become meaningless, and funeral parlors are reduced to arranging burials for pet dogs, cats, hamsters, and parrots.
Death sits in her chilly apartment, where she lives alone with scythe and filing cabinets, and contemplates her experiment: What if no one ever died again? What if she, death with a small “d” became human and were to fall in love?

Endal: How One Extraordinary Dog Brought a Family Back from the Brink by Allen & Sandra Parton

Allen Parton suffered a serious head injury while serving in the Gulf War and returned home unable to walk, talk or remember most of his life. He couldn’t even remember his wife, Sandra, and their two children. After five years of rehabilitation, he was still severely disabled.

Sandra was a nurse so thought she would be able to help her husband, but the Allen who had returned didn’t remember her, and couldn’t cope with what life had dealt him. Determined to be strong, Sandra would have to fight to keep her family together.

Endal was a Labrador puppy with problems of his own until he ‘adopted’ Allen and Sandra. He was to change their world, and give them back their family.

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

It’s the early 1980s—the country is in a deep recession, and life after college is harder than ever. In the cafés on College Hill, the wised-up kids are inhaling Derrida and listening to Talking Heads. But Madeleine Hanna, dutiful English major, is writing her senior thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot, purveyors of the marriage plot that lies at the heart of the greatest English novels.

As Madeleine tries to understand why “it became laughable to read writers like Cheever and Updike, who wrote about the suburbia Madeleine and most of her friends had grown up in, in favor of reading the Marquis de Sade, who wrote about deflowering virgins in eighteenth-century France,” real life, in the form of two very different guys, intervenes. Leonard Bankhead—charismatic loner, college Darwinist, and lost Portland boy—suddenly turns up in a semiotics seminar, and soon Madeleine finds herself in a highly charged erotic and intellectual relationship with him. At the same time, her old “friend” Mitchell Grammaticus—who’s been reading Christian mysticism and generally acting strange—resurfaces, obsessed with the idea that Madeleine is destined to be his mate.

Over the next year, as the members of the triangle in this amazing, spellbinding novel graduate from college and enter the real world, events force them to reevaluate everything they learned in school. Leonard and Madeleine move to a biology Laboratory on Cape Cod, but can’t escape the secret responsible for Leonard’s seemingly inexhaustible energy and plunging moods. And Mitchell, traveling around the world to get Madeleine out of his mind, finds himself face-to-face with ultimate questions about the meaning of life, the existence of God, and the true nature of love.

Are the great love stories of the nineteenth century dead? Or can there be a new story, written for today and alive to the realities of feminism, sexual freedom, prenups, and divorce? With devastating wit and an abiding understanding of and affection for his characters, Jeffrey Eugenides revives the motivating energies of the Novel, while creating a story so contemporary and fresh that it reads like the intimate journal of our own lives.

The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

Pat Conroy has created a huge, brash thunderstorm of a novel, stinging with honesty and resounding with drama. Spanning forty years, this is the story of turbulent Tom Wingo, his gifted and troubled twin sister Savannah, and their struggle to triumph over the dark and tragic legacy of the extraordinary family into which they were born.

Filled with the vanishing beauty of the South Carolina low country as well as the dusty glitter of New York City, The Prince of Tides is Pat Conroy at his very best.

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

Eric Sanderson wakes up in a house one day with no idea who or where he is. A note instructs him to see a Dr. Randle  immediately, who informs him that he is undergoing yet another episode of acute memory loss that is a symptom of his severe dissociative disorder. Eric’s been in Dr. Randle’s care for two years — since the tragic death of his great love, Clio, while the two vacationed in the Greek islands.

But there may be more to the story, or it may be a different story altogether. As Eric begins to examine letters and papers left in the house by “the first Eric Sanderson,” a staggeringly different explanation for what is happening to Eric emerges, and he and the reader embark on a quest to recover the truth and escape the remorseless predatory forces that threatens to devour him.

The Raw Shark Texts is a kaleidoscopic novel about the magnitude of love and the devastating effect of losing that love. It will dazzle you, it will move you, and will leave an indelible imprint like nothing you have read in a long time.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

In Bryson’s biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand — and, if possible, answer — the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own. This event has a shocking ricochet effect on a group of people, mostly friends, who are directly or indirectly influenced by the event. In this remarkable novel, Christos Tsiolkas turns his unflinching and all-seeing eye onto that which connects us all: the modern family and domestic life in the twenty-first century. The Slap is told from the points of view of eight people who were present at the barbecue. The slap and its consequences force them all to question their own families and the way they live, their expectations, beliefs and desires.

What unfolds is a powerful, haunting novel about love, sex and marriage, parenting and children, and the fury and intensity – all the passions and conflicting beliefs – that family can arouse. In its clear-eyed and forensic dissection of the ever-growing middle class and its aspirations and fears, The Slap is also a poignant, provocative novel about the nature of loyalty and happiness, compromise and truth.

I managed to fit in a bit more personal reading last year instead of just reading books for review and I have to say it did refresh me.  I love reading books for review, I find some of my favourites in amongst them and I am grateful to the authors for providing those as I may not have picked them up to begin with.  It was nice to get back to reading some of my old comfort authors though and also some new ones I had been meaning to try out for some time.  In total I read 46 books for personal reading (including the one I am currently completing) and 26 books for review. 

I have included my list below of what I read last year.  You will see I also had a 10 books I want to read list – I managed to knock those out and am quite chuffed about that.  These were books which I had been wanting to read and had been sitting on my shelf to be read but didn’t find themselves in my hands actually being read until last year.  I have made a similar list this year and will post those soon.  I find it keeps me focussed, reminds me hey, at the start of the year I said I wanted to read this – it’s on the list – I have to read it!  I work well with lists and if something is on a list I must mark it off.  Due to the success of this I didn’t hesitate in creating a list for this year.

Apart from the 10 books I want to read this year I don’t have any other goals as to how many books I want to read, specific genres I want to read, et cetera.  This year, I hope, will be similar to the last, a mix between personal reading and review reading.  Here’s to another good year of reading!!!

Books Read in 2011

1.  Worth Dying For – Lee Child (personal reading)

2.  The Distant Hours – Kate Morton (review reading)

3.  Gourmet Rhapsody – Muriel Barbery (personal reading) (10 books I want to read list)

4.  The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins (personal reading) (10 books I want to read list)

5.  War Dances – Alexie Sherman (review reading)

6.  The Richest Man in Babylon – George S. Clason (personal reading)(10 books I want to read list)

7.  Drama Queens with Love Scences – Kevin Klehr (review reading)

8.  Jumble Tales – Steve Morris (review reading)

9.  Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn (personal reading)(10 books I want to read list)

10. An Italian Affair – Laura Fraser (personal reading)(10 books I want to read list)

11. The Other End of the Leash – Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs – Patricia B. McConnell (personal reading)

12. A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali – Gil Courtemanche (personal reading)

13. Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe – Bill Bryson (personal reading)

14. The Undomestic Goddess – Sophie Kinsella (personal reading)

15. The Broken Shore – Peter Temple (personal reading)

16. Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think – Brian Wansink (personal reading)

17. Amandine – Marlena de Blasi (review reading)

18. God, Seed: Poetry & Art About the Natural World – Rebecca Foust and Lorna Stevens (review reading)

19. All That Gorgeous Pitiless Song – Rebecca Foust (review reading)

20. Dragon’s Heart – Nicki J Markus (review reading)

21. Indefensible – Pamela Callow (review reading)

22. The Enchanted April – Elizabeth Von Arnim (personal reading)

23. Searching for Grace – Carol Henderson & Heather Tovey (review reading)

24. Room – Emma Donoghue (personal reading)

25. Spoilt – Joanne Ellis (review reading)

26. Swimsuit – James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (personal reading)

27. Seaview Terrace – Kate Rigby (review reading)

28. A Century of November – W.D. Wetherell (personal reading)

29. Beatrice Munson – Lorena Bathey (review reading)

30. I Am a Cat – Volume One – Soseki Natsume (personal reading)

31. Sucka! – Kate Rigby (review reading)

32. Six Clicks Away – Bonnie Rozanski (review reading)

33. Letters to Juniper – Peggy Tibbetts (review reading)

34. Stop Looking for a Husband: Find the Love of Your Life – Marina Sbrochi (review reading)

35. Legacies – F. Paul Wilson (personal reading) (10 books I want to read list)

36. Hidden – Shalini Boland (review reading)

37. The Memory of Running – Ron McLarty (personal reading)

38. Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach (personal reading)

39. Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins (personal reading)

40. Hunting and Gathering – Anna Gavalda (personal reading) (10 books I want to read list)

41. Where’s Unimportant – Daniel Shortell (review reading)

42. One For My Baby – Tony Parsons (personal reading) (10 books I want to read list)

43. The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell (personal reading) (10 books I want to read list)

44. Voice – Joseph Garraty (review reading)

45. The Gamble of the Godless – David Maine (review reading)

46. Across Eternity – Aris Whittier (review reading)

47. The Buried Covenant – Shawn P Keenan (review reading)

48. The Chicken Thief – Fiona Leonard (review reading)

49. Clutter – Donna Butler (review reading)

50. Forever – Judy Blume (personal reading)

51. A Mighty Heart – Mariane Pearl with Sarah Crichton (personal reading) (10 books I want to read list)

52. Sworn to Silence – Linda Castillo (personal reading)

53. Can You Keep a Secret? – Sophie Kinsella (personal reading)

54. Shopaholic & Sister – Sophie Kinsella (personal reading)

55. To Love, Honour and Betray (Til Divorce Us Do Part) – Kathy Lette (personal reading)

56.  Shopaholic & Baby – Sophie Kinsella (personal reading)

57. Sammy’s Hill – Kristin Gore (personal reading)

58. Twenties Girl – Sophie Kinsella (personal reading)

59. The Candlestickmaker – Dennis McDougal (review reading)

60. The Toss of a Lemon – Padma Viswanathan (personal reading)

61. The Affair – Lee Child (personal reading)

62. A Long Way Down – Nick Hornby (personal reading)

63. Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins (personal reading)

64. Guantanamo Boy – Anna Perera (personal reading)

65. Death of an Ordinary Man – Glen Duncan (personal reading)

66. The Stupidest Angel – Christopher Moore (personal reading)

67. The Christmas Wedding – James Patterson and Richard Dilallo (personal reading)

68. Why We Read What We Read – Lisa Adams and John Heath (personal reading)

69. The Thomas Berryman Number – James Patterson (personal reading)

70. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus – L. Frank Baum (personal reading)

71. Witch Stories for Bedtime – Various (personal reading)

72. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins (personal reading) 383 pages read in 2011

A belated Happy New Year to all of my wonderful readers!!  I hope you all had a great holiday season and that you managed to fit in a bit of relaxation, and of course reading!!

I cannot believe how quickly 2011 went……it just zoomed on by!  I look at the date of my last post and realise I haven’t posted for a while.  That big old L word, Life, just got right in the way – work’s busy, home’s busy, there was a spraining of an ankle, Christmas shopping, Christmas itself, holiday season and voila – it’s now the 4th of January, just like that!!

I am happy to report that I got in a decent amount of reading last year…..I am unhappy to report that it has been a slow start to this year.  However, the year is only very young at the moment and I have no doubt it will turn around once everything  gets back to normal.

At the moment I have a handful of reviews which need to be done and thank you very much to those authors who are waiting patiently for them.  I also have a few books sitting on my shelf at home begging to be read and reviewed and so thank you to those authors who have already provided me with their work for a future review.  Now, I also have a handful of ebooks which need reading and reviewing and so this year I am thinking an ereader may be a handy investment because I do not have time to read from my computer.  To the ebook authors – thank you for accepting it may be a while before I get to your work.

This year I am going to try something a little bit different.  To begin I will get up-to-date with the reviews which need to be done and following that I will only pick up another review book when I have completed my review of the previous review book.  Rather than read and read and read I had better do my reviews first.  I think this will help me keep on top of things instead of having a handful of reviews to do at the same time. 

So that’s my plan and I’m hoping I stick with it

Best wishes for 2012!!!

THE BLURB

As miraculous as our wired world may be, everything connected to everything else eventually shows its downside. A rumor, a virus, a financial crisis – these days, they all cascade throughout the world in record time. SIX CLICKS AWAY tells the story of a single ripple through a tangled web, and how one person can affect us all.

In Bonnie Rozanski’s captivating novel, the social network becomes a stage for six indelible, interconnected characters: a lonely writer in Toronto, pining for her lost love; an unemployed engineer in Seattle who finds himself working at the Pike Place Fish Market. There is a young collections operator in Bangalore, India, who can’t stop caring about the people from whom she collects; and a seedy real estate magnate who gets his just desserts. Finally, there is a down-on-his-luck actor, an old friend of the Dalai Lama, who finds enlightenment from a most unlikely source.

A chain of falling dominoes is set in motion when Jeremy and Rachel, an unlikely duo of a geek and a Jersey girl, contact a friend on Myface.com, the largest social network on the planet. That friend contacts another, and another, each link bringing the pair one step closer to the goal of reaching the Dalai Lama, their choice of exotic target on the other side of the world. What they expect is that their simple classroom project will demonstrate “six degrees of separation,” the idea that everyone on this planet is connected in six short links to everyone else. What they get, however, is a cascade of the unexpected.

WHAT I THOUGHT

Ah, technology these days is what I thought.

I suppose this story is quite fitting for this day and age. The fact that you can connect with someone on the other side of the world almost instantly is quite amazing really. If you were to be transported back in time when the phone wasn’t even invented yet and told about today’s technology you would think the storyteller was just that, a story teller, and mad to boot.

Myface.com is used to connect people all over the world but it brings with it some negative experiences and leaves some of the characters questioning who they really are. Six Clicks Away follows a few different people from across the world through their daily lives and shows how Myface.com affects them.

For one character in particular there is a certain greediness in regard to wanting more and more friends. It’s not about friends in real life who you would catch up with, share a coffee and perhaps gossip a little. No. It’s all about that number counter getting bigger and bigger with what are essentially names of people, complete strangers, who add to the total. In the end is it really better to have quantity over quality though? I would say no.

Some characters find out things they perhaps shouldn’t or at least wouldn’t have if communication was to be face-to-face or even by telephone. Connections are made, the past shows its face and the future appears foggy. Money is a problem, success is sought out and families are tested. It is quite the group of people and quite the handful of personal situations. A slice of life one might say. How technology plays a part depends on which character you’re referring to but I can say it does play a part and it’s not all pretty.

As an aside, technology does seem to take over life sometimes and it’s important to remain grounded and in the real world. Most important, remain true to yourself. I think I could discuss today’s technology for quite some time, good points and bad points, but best get back to Bonnie Rozanski’s story.

All in all I thought it was a good read but felt the ending was a bit rushed.

Many thanks to Bonnie Rozanski for providing me with an e-copy of Six Clicks Away – thanks, Bonnie!

Another delivery by Mr Postman.  Another happy customer.  Another book finds a new home.  Many thanks to Jennie Coughlin for providing me with a copy of her short stories Thrown Out: Stories from Exeter – thanks, Jennie!

Travel to Exeter, Massachusetts, where old grudges, buried secrets and lifetime regrets haunt the residents of this small town – and sometimes trip up unwary newcomers.

In Bones of the Past, Ellie learns some old secrets lurking underneath the small town peace.

Step back 10 years in Thrown Out as Chris must decide if he’ll let old scars come between him and what he’s building with Dan.

F.X. O’Leary can see something is very wrong with his grandchildren, but he must enlist Riordan’s help for an End Run when his son Joe won’t let him help.

Finally, in the 40 years they’ve known each other, Becca and Riordan have perfected this Intricate Dance between them.

You can visit Jennie at her website by clicking here

Wealthy entrepreneur Nigel Cain has devised an efficient new way to bring the earth’s most precious resource – clean water – to the masses by transporting massive man-made icebergs from the frigid arctic and delivering them literally to the doorsteps of millions.

Gabriel Pike works in a small engineering firm that has been handed the chance of a lifetime – they have been chosen to give the final safety approval to pilot the gigantic block of ice into New York harbor.

A consummate showman, Cain has built a fabulous 5-Star hotel and casino high atop the iceberg so his celebrity guests and media elite can cover this news-breaking event from the beginning to the end. Pike is whisked away and dumped in the lap of luxury where he is expected by all too simply rubber-stamp his inspection.

A brutal winter storms ravages the iceberg and only through Pike’s quick thinking are they able to survive. But the storm reveals more than Pike’s ability to think on his feet, he makes some disturbing discoveries and has serious doubts about the safety or the real intentions of the project.

A grisly double homicide on the ice puts the inspections on the back burner and Pike’s life is suddenly spiraling out of control as he is accused of being the jealous murderer in a lover’s triangle.

But Pike soon discovers that there is far more than just his life on the line. He uncovers a conspiracy more heinous than anything he could have imagined – a plot that will level a city, change the political face of America and whose shockwaves will be felt around the world. Now, if only he can survive long enough to stop it.

You may like to visit Paul at his website by clicking here

Rub a dub dub
Three men in a tub
And who do you think they be?
The butcher, the baker
The candlestickmaker
And all of them lost at sea.

Aboard the spy ship U.S.S. Argosy in the war-tossed waters off the coast of Vietnam, three young American sailors form an unlikely bond. Each has fled an America they were raised to love but somehow no longer understand. When forced to choose whether to face combat or stay and fight the war in the streets, they sign up for a war that reflects the conflict that raged inside each of them. The one thing of which they were certain was that the only people in the world they could depend on were each other.

As their friendship deepens in the bars and brothels from Hong Kong to Subic Bay, Ernie Brigham and his companions slowly become aware of a dark secret aboard the U.S.S. Argosy. Upon their return to the America they left behind, they are changed at best, lost and damaged at worst, but ultimately sobered by a war that never should have been fought.

In the tradition of Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried”, Denis Johnson’s “Tree of Smoke”, and Philip Caputo’s “A Rumor of War”, “The Candlestickmaker” recalls a Vietnam that seared disenchantment into a post World War II generation who learned to question authority at all levels. A coming-of-age story bookended by revelations that shatter readers’ illusions about patriotism, government, and the nature of modern warfare, “The Candlestickmaker” takes readers on a voyage that will guarantee they never read the Mother Goose nursery rhyme to their children in quite the same way again.

THE BLURB

When Elise Vanderzell plummets from her bedroom balcony one gorgeous summer night, her children awaken to a nightmare.

Their mother is dead. Their father is charged with her murder.

Lawyer Kate Lange knows all about nightmares. She’s survived the darkest period of her troubled life and the wounds are still raw. Now she’s been handed a case that seems utterly unwinnable: defending her boss, high-profile lawyer Randall Barrett. A prosecutor’s dream suspect, Randall is a man who was cuckolded by his ex-wife. A man who could not control his temper. A man who had argued bitterly with the victim the previous day in full view of the children.

With limited criminal law experience, Kate finds herself enmeshed in a family fractured by doubt. Randall’s teenaged son is intent on killing him. His daughter wants only to feel safe again. And the entire legal community would like nothing better than to see Randall receive a public comeuppance. As Kate races to stay a step ahead of the prosecution, a silent predator is waiting for the perfect time to deal the final blow–and this time his victim is Randall’s own daughter.

WHAT I THOUGHT

Pamela Callow has done it again is what I thought!

I am very grateful to Callow for introducing me to one of my now favourite characters in Kate Lange. The first time we met was when I was reading Damaged and Kate is back in Indefensible.

Previously in Damaged Kate had to contend with the Body Butcher – one would have thought that was enough excitement for a lifetime. Well, Kate being Kate, she doesn’t back down from a fight and in Indefensible she is representing her boss Randall Barrett for the murder of his ex-wife. Kate is on edge – will she be pushed over this time? I say read the book and find out.

For all intents and purposes it seems like a pretty closed case, the evidence points to Randall murdering his ex-wife and Kate is left wondering if she even knows this man, which leads to her questioning her ability as a lawyer. There certainly doesn’t seem to be much support for Randall, especially from his son who wants to kill him – not exactly how you want your son feeling. Randall is not only fighting for his freedom, he is fighting for his family, for their future as a family.

And just for good measure, as if Kate doesn’t have enough on her plate, there is Ethan, her detective ex-fiancé, who would gladly put Randall away and smile while he threw away the key. Plus, other characters who add to Kate’s edginess and make for a great read.

Indefensible is as page-turning as its predecessor Damaged. There is the main story with the main players and then sub-stories with other characters, somehow all entwined and part of Kate’s story and I love this, it’s definitely enough to keep you entertained.

All in all, I feel like I am now invested in Kate having read two books where she is the main character and I will definitely keep my eyes open for the third book.

Many thanks to Pamela Callow for providing me with a copy of Indefensible – thanks, Pamela!

Don’t forget to check out Pamela’s author profile by clicking here

THE BLURB

“Letters to Juniper” is a gripping story about life inside a Separatist compound during an FBI standoff, from 12-year-old Sarah Smith’s perspective.

Sarah Smith doesn’t remember much about her early years. She knows her mother died when she was six, and her father moved her and her younger brother to Northern Idaho. Once there, her life changed drastically. The only vivid memory she has of her early childhood is time spent with her best friend Juniper Holland. In her letters to Juniper, Sarah reveals her innermost thoughts and feelings about her reclusive life with three younger brothers in under the rigid oppression of her father and stepmother, who call themselves Separatists. Their lives are turned upside down by an FBI investigation of her father’s association with members of the Aryan Nation. When he refuses to be arrested on an illegal weapons charge, a standoff occurs. As the tension and violence escalate, Sarah faces life and death decisions in order to survive.

WHAT I THOUGHT

I didn’t see that coming is what I thought!

“Letters to Juniper” is Sarah Smith’s story as told via her letters to a long ago best friend named Juniper.  Poor Sarah has to endure life as a recluse because this is what her father has decided.  I cannot imagine being away from everyone in what seems to be the middle of nowhere where your father and stepmother are the people who tell you how things are and how they are meant to be.  Sarah only knows what she sees and what she is told by those who shelter her from the big wide world.  She doesn’t know that her father and stepmother are mad and delusional, she doesn’t know the way they behave would be considered wrong and unacceptable by most people who do not live within the compound.

I really felt sorry for the children.  Not only for the immediate storyline but thinking beyond that, the repercussions this kind of seclusion can have on children.  Of course if they stay in the compound for the rest of their lives they won’t know any different but if a child were to leave the compound I can’t help thinking how he/she would find the world outside.  I imagine it would be quite daunting and he/she probably wouldn’t know how to act appropriately around people.  It’s a scary thought.

Getting back to Sarah though I felt sadness for her and her lost memories.  Sarah’s few memories of her past give her something to cling to and Juniper gives her someone she can confide in.  I imagine Sarah might feel she doesn’t have much of a voice around the household hence the decision to start writing to Juniper and free her thoughts and feelings.  Sarah doesn’t remember a lot from her past but what she does remember she holds on to – the rest of her life back then before the death of her mother and the move to the compound seems so long ago and so distant it’s hard to believe it occurred.  Life is normal as far as Sarah is concerned, although I beg to differ.  I think it’s absurd that your daughter has to be locked up in a shed and not allowed to come out while she is menstruating.  Who made up that rule?!

These emotions I felt whilst reading, and feeling now as I am typing up this review, show that Peggy Tibbetts is a good writer, one who is able to convey the emotions of a 12-year-old girl and also cause the reader to feel emotions about the deeper issues, i.e. separatism.  I believe this could be a good book to read for English in the early years of high school, perhaps even late years of primary school.  There are quite a few topics to discuss and I think the discussion would be enriched by having school-aged participants.  It would be great to hear different opinions.  As an adult I felt mad at the parents.  I wonder if children would feel the same way or if their main concern would be something else?  Interesting.

All in all, I loved the way this story was presented in the form of letters, it gave it a personal touch.  I felt like I was getting to know Sarah on a personal level, that I knew what she was thinking and how she was really feeling.  Oh, and I loved the ending!

Many thanks to Peggy Tibbetts for providing me with a copy of ‘Letters to Juniper’ – thanks, Peggy!

THE BLURB

Katrina Reece Warren, affectionately known as Kitty, had the perfect career, followed by a gorgeous wedding and a blissful honeymoon. She and Malcolm, her handsome, successful husband, have only just begun to enjoy life in their exquisite Victorian dream home when tragedy strikes. As her devastating loss causes Kitty to hoard and shut out those around her with a mountain of stuff, it falls to Misty, her bad girl cousin, to keep Kitty from losing everything. But their relationship is so strained by the hoarding, and Kitty’s sanity is so fragile, it may be impossible for Misty to save her without getting herself killed in the process.

WHAT I THOUGHT

I wish there had been more character development is what I thought.

Clutter is under 50 pages, easily read on your lunch break, perhaps two if they’re short breaks.  I like shorter stories but I felt like this one was a little too short for the story being told.  Some bad things happen to the characters but I can’t say I felt terribly bad for them.  I felt bad about what happened but I wasn’t really invested in the characters.  Perhaps some deeper character development may have changed that – I don’t know.

All in all I liked the premise for the story and no doubt some of the things described would most definitely be occurring right now in real life.  I couldn’t even imagine how I would react if I had been in the same shoes.  I can’t go into much more detail than what I have already because it will give away crucial clues.  It was an okay read but I think it could have been better had certain aspects been expanded. 

Thank you to Donna Butler for providing me with a copy of Clutter – thanks, Donna!

THE BLURB

Stop Looking for a Husband: Find the Love of Your Life bucks the notion that a woman needs a husband to be happy. Ever think the reason the divorce rate is so high is because women have been, taught that life isn’t complete without a husband? We rush into marriage only to discover that it was never meant to be. Quick, find that man before you reach a certain age, and seal the deal. Make him commit or else! The truth is, a marriage will never work when its foundation is set on shaky ground.

Author Marina Sbrochi tells the modern, intelligent woman that she will only find real love when she gets the objective for marriage out of her head-a fundamental mind shift. Change your goal from finding a husband to finding the love of your life, and you’ll find happiness.

Women have been conditioned to search for the perfect man who will fulfill the dream of a white dress, a diamond, 2.5 kids, and a house in the ‘burbs. Nowhere in this fairy tale is there anything about falling in love with the one you can’t live without-and having fun doing it!

The honest, straightforward advice-and the often hilarious accounts-speak to anyone who has read all the “rules” and tricks, yet can’t seem to get off the starting line.

Stop Looking for a Husband will not only give the intelligent woman ideas for a new and enhanced approach to finding love but will also keep her in stitches with sage advice and true tales that can only happen in real life.

WHAT I THOUGHT

Thank goodness I am not out there looking for a husband is what I thought!

Looking specifically for a husband sounds like disappointment could become your new best friend. Marina Sbrochi’s book is about dropping that H word, not focussing on going out there to find yourself a husband but instead go out there to find someone you love and will love for life.

I think some women place too much emphasis on having a husband and the perfect marriage and they get lost along the way. If you go out to find yourself a husband I wonder what the chances of you still being together in 10 years are? It seems women have different checklists, if you like, with regard to husbands. Checklists might include good finance, good job, stability, good lineage and other things. Wrong reasons in my book to get involved with someone. If you do not have love, friendship and trust then it doesn’t matter how much money he has or makes, I’m guessing the marriage won’t last.

Another thing, some women seem to think without a husband they are not living their little girl dream, the one where the perfect family also exists. My advice, ladies, let go of this dream when you’re looking for a partner, don’t go out looking for that perfect husband, go out looking for someone who will be the love of your life – the husband thing will follow if it’s meant to be. In other words, don’t put the cart before the horse. Don’t settle with someone you think is good husband material, get married and then try and have a good relationship which includes love, friendship and trust. Find someone you like, someone you can see yourself growing to love, someone you will have fun with and who knows, he may turn out to be even better than what you dreamed of as a little girl.

If you are one of those women who is looking to be wed more than looking for that perfect fit then perhaps you should read Stop Looking for a Husband: Find the Love of Your Life, it may open your eyes a little and help you see perspective, you may also pick up some handy hints to help find the love of your life who may one day become your husband. I think if you switch the focus from having to find a husband to enjoying your life and being content within yourself you may be surprised by what kind of a man that will attract and who knows, it could be the one.

Stop Looking for a Husband: Find the Love of Your Life is a quick read, it’s laugh out loud funny in parts and offers some practical advice which I imagine would be useful, such as, be aware of how you present yourself, don’t give off vibes that you’re unapproachable, give off vibes that you are happy within yourself. I like that throughout the book there are case studies of real people and how they handled certain situations, they help keep the book real and also offer some laughs.

All in all, I’m lucky, I don’t need to worry about finding the love of my life, I was blessed to have found that man some time ago. I wasn’t looking for a husband, I wasn’t even looking – but that’s how things happen, love found me. Sometimes when you least expect it or when you are not trying too hard for something good things happen, the right things happen, destiny happens. Life is short, be with the one you love not the one you think you might be able to love.

Many thanks to Marina for providing me with a copy of her book – thanks, Marina!

Katrina Reece Warren, affectionately known as Kitty, had the perfect career, followed by a gorgeous wedding and a blissful honeymoon. She and Malcolm, her handsome, successful husband, have only just begun to enjoy life in their exquisite Victorian dream home when tragedy strikes. As her devastating loss causes Kitty to hoard and shut out those around her with a mountain of stuff, it falls to Misty, her bad girl cousin, to keep Kitty from losing everything. But their relationship is so strained by the hoarding, and Kitty’s sanity is so fragile, it may be impossible for Misty to save her without getting herself killed in the process.

Described as a cross between Dan Brown and Alexander McCall Smith, The Chicken Thief reads at a cracking pace, is dramatic and colourful, and will appeal to lovers of quality fiction. In essence a political thriller, it is particularly topical and poignant in relation to recent events in North Africa and the Middle East. Australian author, Fiona Leonard, has travelled a fascinating road across four continents to arrive in her current home in West Africa. Her life experience, including years spent living in southern Africa, has contributed to the creation of this deeply evocative novel, the rich construction of its realistic characters, and detailed, depiction of both the political and physical landscape.