FROM THE SET OF "THE 19TH WIFE"!

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to pop in to say hello and that I miss you all!   I also wanted to post this......

This is David Ebershoff the author of "The 19th Wife".  He was on set for 3 days watching his words unfold onscreen.  This particular day he was all duded up for being an extra.  How cool would that be?  Standing there on set to be on camera for the film that was adapted from your novel?  Awesomeness. 

And speaking of awesomeness...

David and I chatted for about 45 minutes about this book, his past books and just his writing life in general.  The 19th Wife is not the only novel of his being made into a film.  The other is called "The Danish Girl" and was published in 2000.   This book has been selected to be made into a feature and produced by Nicole Kidman, who will play the leading role.  It is not in production yet, so we will see if it ever does make it to the big screen.  But for an author, having 2 out of 3 made into films is pretty damn impressive.  He also was very excited that I had a book blog and said, "I LOVE book blogs!" and has agreed to do a signed giveaway!  WOOT!    Once this movie is done shooting (next week) I will finish up the book and will be launching the giveaway, author interview, and review (plus insights into the shooting and adaptation) in September when the movie is sceduled to be aired on Lifetime. 

But until then, I am still working too long of hours to get any major reading done, but a gal at work did lend me a hilarious book called "F U Penguin" based on the blog of the same name, and it is a very light, potty-mouthed book which I can pick up and read without too much brain power.  If you don't mind the prevalence of the "f" bomb an various other colorful words you will LOVE it. 

ANYwho, have a great week and a bit and I'll see you early in July!

NOT READING UNTIL MID-JULY

 Hi everyone!

I have just popped on here real quick to get a general note out there that I am not accepting any review copies until at least mid July.  Eventhough I am not blogging, I am also not able to read either.  (Booo!)  My hours average 15 to 16 hours per day PLUS at LEAST an hours drive to and from work, and then sleeping for only about 4 to 5 hours per night.

Oh the glamour!

I have received several requests for ARC's etc assuming that I am still reading, but I wanted to just get the message out that unfortunately I am not.

Have a wonderful June!

Lisa

SEE YOU IN A MONTH!

I am now officially working until July 8th and will be unable to blog until after that.

Have an AWESOME month, and I look forward to blogging and reading up on all of your happenings when I get back!

Lisa

REVIEW: PICTURE THE DEAD BY ADEL GRIFFIN and a CHANCE TO WIN!

Picture The Dead by Adele Griffin
Illustrations by Lisa Brown

Reading level: Young Adult

Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire (May 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 140223712X

First I'd like to send a HUGE THANK YOU to Paul over at Source Books for sending this little gem my way! 

Here's the blurb from Source Books:

A ghost will find his way home.



Jennie Lovell’s life is the very picture of love and loss. First she is orphaned and forced to live at the mercy of her stingy, indifferent relatives. Then her fiancé falls on the battlefield, leaving her heartbroken and alone. Jennie struggles to pick up the pieces of her shattered life, but is haunted by a mysterious figure that refuses to let her bury the past.

When Jennie forms an unlikely alliance with a spirit photographer, she begins to uncover secrets about the man she thought she loved. With her sanity on edge and her life in the balance, can Jennie expose the chilling truth before someone—or something—stops her?


Against the brutal, vivid backdrop of the American Civil War, Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown have created a spellbinding mystery where the living cannot always be trusted and death is not always the end.

This is one of those rare books that right from the first page you can tell that the writing is something outstanding.  First of all I am a sucker for anything set in this time period... SWOON!  And even though this is technically a YA novel, I am telling you anyone can read and enjoy it.  It is very cleverly written with a ton of mysterious undertones going on.  Adele Griffin successfully captures what life was like for a young lady in the 1800's, whose life has been tragically altered by the death of her fiance while at war.  The struggle to understand the mysterious photographer and his eerie pictures, and not to mention the things that may or may not go bump in the night.  I personally do believe in ghosts and ghostly encounters, having experienced something myself in an old haunted theatre while shooting Jesse James 5 years ago, but even before then I was always very open to the possibility.  The whole subject matter had me turning pages frantically as did the mystery to "What is Will trying to tell her?"  and "What's the deal with Will's brother?"

The thing I like best about it was that it really kept you guessing right until the very end.  It was more of a ghost/mystery story, really, with a bit of a love triangle of sorts thrown in for good measure.  FANTASTIC!

Like I said, the writing was fantastic and kudos to Lisa Brown for her extremely cool illustrations, which were actually composed using actual photographs from this time period. 

The only slightly negative thing that I will note was that the illustrations at the beginning of most chapters were actually a clue to the what immediately followed, and therefore often times gave away the piece of the puzzle that was to be solved in that chapter.  I looked carefully at each illustration, knowing that it was a clue, and then read the chapter only to find that I had already figured it out and therefore there was a bit of a let down.  I want to figure out the mystery WITH the character, not before they do, you follow?

ANYway, all in all a delightful read that you could easily finish in a couple of days. 

RATING: 4/5

NOW on to your chance to WIN!!!!!!    Source books is offering up 25 copies of this book will be given to lucky readers who comment on the Teen Fire website!  So click here to read up on how you can get yourself a copy of this awesome read!

TEASER TUESDAY and award for my 10 yr old daughters new blog!

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading and anyone can play! 

• Grab your current read
• flip to a random page
• select two teaser sentences
• try not to include ANY SPOILERS!
• don't forget to include the name of the book and author so we can all add it to our morbidly obese TBR piles!

I am still reading The 19th Wife, it is a fantastic read and I am finding the parts that flash back to 19th centure Mormonism with the storylines involving the wives and even several wives of Brigham Young himself FASCINATING! 

Here it is: (there was a theatre in the great Mormon city founded by Birgham young, this teaser is taken within a discussion of the types of plays that were put on there)

There was also, for at ime, a prohibition against sentimental romances that glorified monogamous love.  I remember one evening when a Saint of about seventy stood up in his seat and hollered, "I ain't sitting through no play where a man makes such a cussed fuss over ONE woman."

For more Teaser Tuesdays click here.

In celebration of my beautiful girl starting her very own book blog, I am giving her the HAPPY 101 award--- CONGRATULATIONS ELLIE and WELCOME TO THE BOOK BLOG WORLD! 

The winner of this award must list 10 things that make them the most happy in the world!  Then you must pass it along to at least one other person.  :0)