A BETTER-LATE-THAN-NEVER REVIEW: CLOCKWORK PRINCE BY CASSANDRA CLARE

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
ARC

This book was sent to me an embarrassingly long time ago by Michelle over at Simon and Schuster Canada, and I first wanted to shriek THANK YOU!  To her and them, as they have been very good to me despite my lollygagging.

Clockwork Prince is the much awaited sequel to Clockwork Angel and, although extremely excited that this book was coming out, I have to admit to being a wee bit nervous that it was not going to live up to book one.  Which makes me want to poke sticks in my eyes when that happens.

But, alas, it did not happen this time!  Clockwork Prince picks up where we left off in the story and is just as delightfully written as the first one.

We are taken back to the underworld of Victorian London Steampunk style, where Tessa Gray is still living safely among the Shadowhunters.  But not for long as it is soon discovered that the Magistrate will stop at nothing to obtain Tessa and her powers to use for his own evil purposes.  With the help of the dark and handsomely disturbed Will, and silvery glittery Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magistrates war on the Shadowhunters is a deeply personal one that is fueled by revenge.

The beauty of this story is two-fold.  One, it is set in the enticing Victorian era with a twist.  There are mechanical machines that are used as the Magistrates minions, and Clare's use of them is terrifying and reads like a movie script.  There is magic and demons, and Clare has an extremely imaginative mind that creates the creepiest of visions in your head.  Like the Warlock that comes to dinner with the 4th knuckle on each of his 6 fingers.  Ick.   Or the striking "woman" in the red dress with a long slit up the back to reveal her snake-like tail underneath.  There are so any more visuals like that but done in such a believable way that it only adds to the setting and the story in general.

The second, and possible the best part, is the ongoing love triangle between Tessa, hot hot HOT Will, and sweet and nice Jem.  Will is tortured, to be sure, and he vacillates between being a total dick to clutching her to him in a mad fever.  Huh?  No wonder she is so confused!   And Jem is the quintessential "nice" guy who is always loyally by her side, and Will's and well pretty much the loyal guy that everyone can count on.  Plus he has the hots for Tessa, and he's dying, so this all makes him pretty interesting.

The thing that I love about Cassandra Clare's writing, with this series anyway as I have not read the other one, is that the reason for Will's behaviour is a completely plausible one and an actually very satisfying one within the realm of the world that she created.  You know how when you read a book, and often times a YA one, that the author seems to pull a completely obscure and ridiculous answer to a mystery or reason for a person's behaviour out of their ass and you are yanked out of the story and so utterly pissed off that you feel like heaving the book into the nearest fire pit?

Okay, maybe that's just me.

ANYway, I loved it.  And since it was left as a relatively nice cliff hanger I can't WAIT for the next one to come out!  The next book will be called Clockwork Princess and it will be released March 19, 2013!!

Thank you Cassandra Clare for creating this amazing world and the creatures in it!

For more on The Infernal Devices series you can click here.

And for information on her other series, The Mortal Instruments you can click here. 

RATING:  4.5 STARS

TEASER TUESDAY! CLOCKWORK PRINCE...

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Should Be Reading, and anyone can play along!  I haven't done a TT in months and months, so here goes!

• Grab your current read
• Flip to a random page and select two teaser sentences from anywhere on that page. 
• Try not to include any SPOILERS!
• Make sure you let us know the name of the book and author so we can add it to our growing TBR pile!

My TT is from Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Prince which I got as an ARC back in November.  THANK YOU MICHELLE FROM SIMON AND SCHUSTER CANADA!  I am, obviously, waaaay behind on my ARC reading, but now that I have been spending more time with this one I am LOVING IT as much as the first one, which I LOVED.

Here is today's teaser:


"Starkweather's eyes swept over Tessa again, one last time, before he turned and stalked out of the room, his cloak flapping behind him.  Tessa couldn't get the image of a great black bird of prey - a vulture, perhaps - out of her mind."

For more teasers click here. 

FIFTY SHADES OF CRAP... MY THOUGHTS

Here's the thing, people, I realize that I will probably get hung up from the rafters by a large member of the +35 female Christian Grey club, but I just have to comment on the inexplicable phenom that is this book.  I will say that this is not a review as I could not finish this book, I got around 1/3 in and just couldn't do it.  But before I go any further I do want to say...

YAY FOR THE AUTHOR!  Even though I personally think her book is a step below most erotica you can find in the used book store shelves, I think it is stupendous that she has become a total runaway success!  Here she is a mom of two, and she decides to write some fan fiction, and literally within weeks she is a wealthy famous author.  KUDOS TO HER!  I love it.

Now, on to the negatives.  This book is just not written well... AT ALL.  And I know most people who are obsessed with it will argue that "It's escape reading!  Just have fun with it!" Well, good for you if you can, but it is no only dreadful to read, it is chock full of complete an utter mistakes in story that pull you out of the story.

Example:  Early on in the story Anastasia (barf, nice name) is waking up from being hungover in Christian Grey's (double barf on the name) apartment.  He exits the shower in nothing but a towel, where she remarks in her head that he's got nothing on David the statue, meaning, NICE NAKED CHEST.  Then skip ahead after their first virginal romp, because before he takes her down the road of dominance and S & M he, being such a GOOD GUY, decides he has to "take care of" her virginity first, like its a surf board he has to wax down before he takes it in the big waves.  This part made me want to hurl, personally.  ANYway, after their romp she finds Mr. Billionaire playing at the piano in nothing but a pair of flannel pants and she thinks, "Gee, I have never even seen his naked chest before!"  HELLO, YES YOU DID, IT WAS ONLY ABOUT 20 PAGES AGO, MORON!

This kind of thing.

There is actually so much more I could say about how this book is thoroughly annoying and difficult to read, but I am not going to waste any more time on it.  You can visit amazon.com and read almost 1600 1 star reviews that will echo pretty much exactly my sentiments on the subject.

What I am trying to figure out is what makes THIS BOOK so popular compared to say... any other  erotic harlequin type of book?  I mean, she is selling  one every THIRTY SECONDS! And like I said, good for her, and this is not really a comment on her, she just wrote it, it's the folks that are buying it by the millions that I am directing this question to.

As I was racking my brain to try to figure it out, I thought, well, lots of people are probably buying it to satisfy their curiosity, like I did.  And some are getting sucked in and some, like me,  are not.  The hype is totally out of control which is creating a kind of reading frenzy.  As I was reading it I realized what it was that was irritating me about the writing.  It is clearly written in a YOUNG ADULT style, and BADLY, and not edited well.  It is basically a poorly written YA novel with graphic sex.  Which makes sense since a large portion of the YA market is actually women between the ages of 35 and 45.  There are hundreds of fan fic stories with more raunchy sex with Edward and Bella, or Harry and Hermoine, for example.

When I searched the interwebs for other reviews, I was kind of relieved to see other scathing reviews of 50.  

Here's my final word on the subject:  The argument that this book is escape reading and that you just have to let go of shitty writing is flimsy.  The reason is because there is PLENTY of fabulously written escape fiction out there that you don't have to use too many brain cells to enjoy.  Case in point:  The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.  And when I have to use TOO MANY brain cells TO READ a book because the writing is not good or the plot is full of mistakes and holes and inconsistencies then it is no longer feels like escape... it's TOO MUCH WORK.

And here's where I hoist a glass to my favourite escape reading heroes Jamie and Claire, where there is enough brilliance and heat to keep you satisfied for years!

For more reviews of this book you can visit Amazon.com 

REVIEW: FAREWELL TITANIC BY CHARLES PELLEGRINO

Farewell Titanic: Her Final Legacy by Charles Pellegrino
Hard cover
352 pages
Published March 6, 2012

Can anyone say obsessed?  I mean me -- although Mr. Pellegrino probably admittedly qualifies as well!

This book was fascinating.  Charles Pellegrino has been studying the Titanic wreck for years, and is on the team of advisors for James Cameron's movie as well as his expedition dives -- all 13 of them!

Pellegrino also was friends with Walter Lord, who wrote the 1955 classic "A Night To Remember" based on all eye witness accounts of the sinking.  This I now have downloaded on my Kindle and plan on reading it soon.  Many of the accounts in Farewell are gleaned from over two thousand pages of interviews and correspondence between the two men, so these were my favourite parts of this book.

Although I also thoroughly enjoyed the science-ey parts of it, I got a bit tired of the whole "rusticle" thing.  But that's just ME.  Oh, and the 9/11 stuff, although extremely significant to the author and the expedition team on the day of the attacks (they were at sea at the wreck at the time), it did go on a bit too long in that vein.

I had just watched Ghosts of the Abyss the documentary that James Cameron did of his 2001 dive to the wreck, (which you can watch in its entirety on youtube) and this book was centered around this particular dive, so that made it probably more interesting than if I had NOT just seen the film.

All in all a good solid read, but not in my top recommendations for Titanic reads.  What I really wanted was more of the accounts, which I had really not known, and Walter Lord's book will deliver them.

What was neat was the reference to some of the accounts and then directly referencing them with the 1997 film.  Other than the personal accounts, that was the most enjoyable for me.

RATING:  3/5

REVIEW: SOLD BY PATRICIA MCCORMICK

SOLD by Patricia McCormick
Young Adult

I read this book in three hours.  This is not to say that I am some super human speed reader, it's to say that the book is that good and a fast read due to the almost poem-like format that the author uses.

In a giving circle I attend, our very first meeting we donated our dining out dollars to a charity called Nepal Youth Foundation.  Here we learned about how NYF has rescued over 4000 girls, thus far, from indentured servitude.  In other words, these girls, some as young as 6 years old, were sold by their poverty stricken parents, to what they thought were rich people who they then would work for as maids.  In some cases, this was partially true, in that the girls worked as maid slaves working in horrible conditions, with very little, if any, money going back to their families.  Some were sold to brothels.

And this is the story of Lakshmi.  She is a thirteen year old Nepali girl who loves her family, but maybe not her gambling stepfather.  She enjoys the simple pleasures of rural life in Nepal; taking care of her pet goat, talking with her loving mother, and eyeing the boy with the slanted eyes that she has been betrothed to.  Her future looks bright ahead, full of love and babies and family.  She even is allowed to go to school.

Suddenly the monsoon season comes and devastates their rice paddy, and her stepfather announces that she must go to the city to get a job.

What happens next is not hard to guess, but the way that Patricia McCormick has written this story is powerful and heart wrenching in its innocence.

The opening pages plainly spell out what I believe so passionately.  It is not just the burdens of women in the developing world, but the power you give to women, their families, and the community when you empower women in the world.

"Let me go to the city,"  I say.  "I can work for a rich family like Gita does, and send my wages home to you."

Ama strokes my cheek, the skin of her work worn hand as rough as the tongue of a newborn goat.  "Lakshmi, my child," she says.  "You must stay in school, no matter what your stepfather says."

Lately, I want to tell her, my stepfather looks at me the same way he looks at the cucumbers I'm growing in front of our hut.  He flicks the ash from his cigarette and squints.  "You better get a good price for them."  He says.

When he looks, he sees cigarettes and rice beer, a new vest for himself.

I see a tin roof.  

RATING:  5/5

For more information about the rescuing of girls in Nepal, you can visit Maiti Nepal (where the author did many interviews for research for this book) the winner of last year's CNN Hero Award, and Nepal youth Foundation.

What I'm reading now...

Hey there everyone!

Sorry there have been lack of posts, but it has been very busy around here for various reasons.  ANYway, I thought I would just pop in and chat about what I'm reading now and giving some thoughts thus far.

The most riveting thing I am reading at the moment (although I can't read it at night because it gives me literal nightmares) is an extremely powerful book called Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof.  This book is UNREAL.  I have looked at it for the last year or so, and lately with being involved with BeadforLife fundraising efforts, I have discovered my true passion... for REAL.  Advocating and being involved with organizations that empower women and girls in developing nations and right here at home.  So, I decided to finally pick up the book and my God, what a devastating, painful, and inspiring piece of work it is.  I am half way through and already have so many answers to questions, and many many many more stories that fill my head and MOVE ME TO ACT.  I highly recommend this book to EVERYONE.  Because of reading this book, and working with BeadforLife, I stumbled across this amazing website for this great organization called Dining for Women.  It is an international giving circle where women gather worldwide each month for a potluck dinner (or lunch, or breakfast!) and then pool the money they would have spent dining out and make a collective donation to a carefully selected charity or non-profit featured that month.  When I wanted to join a chapter in my area, I discovered that there was none, so I decided to start my own and registered as a Chapter Leader.  We will be having our first meeting in January and I am super excited about it!  I fell in love with BeadforLife and after selling out of beads in October, I quickly registered for another bead party as I was still finding people were asking me if they could buy more.  Once I sell out of the beads again (I HOPE!), I felt I still wanted to be involved somehow and make a difference, and Dining for Women is the answer.  Check them out!  :0)

The other book I am reading is an ARC for Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare, whom I LOVE.  I loved the Clockwork Angel, you can read my review here, and am really enjoying this one as well.  And btw... TEAM WILL, ALL THE WAY!  (Although I liked the other cover Will better than this one.)



Have an awesome day!

THURSDAY WICKED-ASS SURPRISE!

Hey all, I'm back!  The shoot was awesome, so fun, great cast, great weather, and all around one of the least stressful shows of my career.  Good times were had by all...

But back to bookish things:  I got home to a pile of mail and on the pile was a familiar style package from Simon and Schuster Canada (whom I LOVE).  I opened it and there was a stunning ARC of Clockwork Prince inside!!  I cannot express how much I wanted the ARC of this one.... I completely and utterly L-O-V-E-D the first one (to read all of my rantings and ravings click here), and am sending out a HUGE THANK YOU to Michelle over at S and S Canada for sending it to me.

If you have never read Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel, I suggest you download or buy as soon as you are done reading this sentence.... I'll wait.


Clare's work is YA, but if YA is not your preferred genre don't let that stop you.  I don't generally read YA but love anything steampunkish, and this series does not disappoint.  Not to mention the incredibly-hot-but-polar-opposite shadow hunters.. Will and Jem.

Release date:  DECEMBER 6, 2011

REVIEW: HARRY A HISTORY BY MELISSA ANELLI

Harry a History:  The True Story of a Boy Wizard, his Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon

Kindle Edition

Alright, so....I was super excited when I started this book. It started out awesomely, and I have been reading it pretty much none-stop since I downloaded it a few days ago.  So, over all it was okay.   The good parts were all of the stuff that I didn't know, like the back ground story of how the books became published in the first place, how it was really a grass roots effort at the very beginning, and how Jo Rowling herself would admit that timing was everything, and there are so many instances in the phenom where everything just fell into place at the exact right time.

One of my favourite themes through-out the book is that pretty much everyone involved with the publication of Philosophers Stone had a dream of a "child loving a book to pieces" which is, really, in essence what happened.  Say what you will about the books, the films, or the "franchise" in general; the bottom line is children, and in fact people of all ages, LOVE the books.

One of my other favourite parts was reading about how the midnight launchings got started, and how brilliant it was, and it brought back the excitement I felt around the pub date of the next Harry Potter book.  My 11 year old daughter, who was 5 (I think) at the time, attended one of the launches at our local bookstore.  It was so exciting!  We went around 6 o'clock, and she was in her little Gryffindor cloak and her hair crimped like Hermoine, and other kids were dressed up.  They had wizard crafts, and in the middle of the store a big screen TV playing the latest DVD of Harry with kids piled up on pillows in front, it was the most exciting literary event I had ever been to.  We didn't stay until midnight, but what we took away from it was memories that to this day we talk about.  Nothing will ever match the hoopla that was the Harry Potter phenom.  And now that the last movie is out, we have a similar feeling.

There was an entire section in the book about Wizard Rock a  supposed entire genre of music of Harry Potter themed bands.  I was very "meh" about the whole thing, and to be honest, this was one of the many times in the book that it was more about Melissa and her involvement in the phenom, and kind of like a bit of a creepy, "Ooooohhh, look at me, I KNOW these people."  This happened a lot, and it was extremely annoying.  I am quite sure she didn't intend the book to come across that way, but it totally did, for me anyway.

Even her interview at the end of the book with J.K. Rowling herself, which she repeatedly had to mention that personal things said were stricken from the record, and any personal conversation was stricken, and anything Jo said to me that was PERSONAL I struck.  WE GET IT, YOU KNOW HER PERSONALLY.  Gawd.  And even comments from her during the interview, "Oh, we'll know each other for YEARS."  May that be true or not, it just comes across obnoxiously.

Now, in fairness, Melissa DID get awesome opportunities to meet everyone, studio execs, the stars, Jo herself, pub execs, etc., and I know from personal experience that it is almost impossible to talk about these experiences WITHOUT sounding like your are bragging.  I am telling you, it IS IMPOSSIBLE.  So I feel her pain.  And it is pretty cool how she went from a unemployed graduate to a sought after web mistress of one of the most popular fan sites, and she takes her job very seriously.  Kudos to her for that.

That being said, and maybe this is what sticks in my craw somewhat.  This book should really be called, "Melissa A Memoir" because that is really what it is.  It is essentially about Melissa Anelli and her rise through the ranks from room in her parents house to a 2 day interview in J.K. Rowlings house in Scotland, from a budding journalist to a person invited to insider Harry events worldwide.  And if it was marketed for what it really was, well then, I would not be annoyed at all because I would be getting exactly what I was expecting.  I am not the only reader that feels this way,  just click here to the Good Reads page to read more people with almost exactly the same thought. 

All in all I take away the parts of the phenom that I found fascinating, and to be honest, most of the stuff about Melissa and her buddies in the "biz" I have already forgotten, even though I literally finished the book about an hour ago.

I think a biography of J.K. Rowling would be what I should have picked up instead.

RATING:  2/5

MAILBOX MONDAY - AUGUST 22

Mailbox Monday is a weekly bookish meme created by Marcia over at The Printed Page, each month it is hosted by a different fabulous book blogger, and this month it is the fabulous: Life in the Thumb.

As it happens I actually DID recieve not one but two sets of the same identical books from the amazing Simon and Schuster Canada, sooooooo... me thinks I will be having a YA GIVEAWAY!!!  I also have a few YA ARCs I'm going to throw in as well, so all in all it will probably be around 6 books?  I'll let you know in a couple of days!

But ANYway, the ones I got today are pretty cool, one in particular I am pretty darn excited about as I LOVED the first two books in the trilogy.  Okay, well, the first one Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld I L-O-V-E-D, like crazy love.  You can read all of my raving here.  The second one Behemoth I liked, but was not ga-ga over.  So, I am hoping that with the 3rd in the offing we will have come full circle.  This beauty is called GOLIATH:

 And I did not get one but TWO of them!  So that will go in the giveaway.  It comes out September 20, 2011.

The cover is awesome, and actually I just love the depiction of Deryn and Alek.  Oh how I love these two!  And my heart is all a flutter if they will finally, you know, get together.  Leviathan was the very first Steampunk book I had ever read and I immediately fell in total love and utter lust with the genre.  LOVE IT.  It is like Victorian age meets a future robot world... sort of.  You can read more about Goliath on Scott Westerfeld's blog here. 

The second book (and yes I did get ANOTHER COPY of this one as well which I am going to add to the giveaway) I have actually never heard of before.  It is the 3rd in the MONSTRUMOLOGIST series, so I am not too sure if I can read it as a stand-alone or not.  BUT, it does sound pretty cool.  I mean, seriously, who doesn't like a totally made-up cool word like MONSTRUMOLOGIST??!! 

It is released on September 13, 2011.

Here is the blurb from Amazon:

When Dr. Warthrop goes hunting the "Holy Grail of Monstrumology" with his eager new assistant, Arkwright, he leaves Will Henry in New York. Finally, Will can enjoy something that always seemed out of reach: a normal life with a real family. But part of Will can't let go of Dr. Warthrop, and when Arkwright returns claiming that the doctor is dead, Will is devastated--and not convinced.



Determined to discover the truth, Will travels to London, knowing that if he succeeds, he will be plunging into depths of horror worse than anything he has experienced so far. His journey will take him to Socotra, the Isle of Blood, where human beings are used to make nests and blood rains from the sky--and will put Will Henry's loyalty to the ultimate test.

Now, on my own purchasey front, I have down loaded the kindle sample for this one, which so far I am LOVING beyond words:

Harry a History by Melissa Anelli

Now, I actually heard about this book from Twitter, of all places.  Being an avid Facebook user I have been "on Twitter" for a couple of years but only in the last few days seem to be getting the hang of it.  And lately I have been finding little gems like this!  Now, the author is none other than the web mistress for The Leaky Cauldren, which just happens to be one of the largest Harry Potter fan sites out there, the other one being Mugglenet... both totally awesome.  And this book, so far, is just EXACTLY what someone LIKE ME who is in total mourning and feel completely lost after the last movie released, and similarily a few years back when the last book came out.  I'm telling you... LOST PEOPLE!!!  It is jam packed with the insider scoop on the phenomenon, and just the kind of thing a geek like me would love, but here's the only weird thing about it.... the Kindle version (which usually for new releases are about HALF the price of the hard cover book) is actually six dollars MORE than the physical book.

W...T.....F????!!!! 

But, being the geek that I am, and since my 11 year old daughter is equally if not more of an HP geek than I am (but I'm a close second, and I'm OLD and have like, you know, responsibilities and can't spend all of my entire day and night everything Potter... although I try.) I may just buy the Kindle AND the hard copy. 

But don't tell my husband.

Have an awesome-sauce day. 

For more Mailboxes you can click here if you completely wanna.

REVIEW: UNBROKEN BY LAURA HILLENBRAND AND WHY I MISS OPRAH...

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

The day I finished this book I felt a deep sense of sadness that Oprah was no longer on the air.  This was the kind of book she would do a show about, and have the people on to tell their story.  She just knows how to take a subject and go deeper, and enlighten and further inspire people.  In fact, it's because of her that I even read this book at all.  She sends these emails to people who sign up and was raving about it, so I googled it and snooped around and found that EVERYBODY was raving about it!  So I ordered it and read it in about 4 days.

Unbroken is a WWII memoir, but it's so much more than that!  It tells the story of Louis Zamperini, who was an olympic athlete who joins the fight via the airforce and is shot down over the pacific and is captured by the dreaded Japanese.  What follows is his unbelievable story of survival, and redemption.  And when I say unbelievable I mean HOLY-CRAP-ARE-YOU-EVEN-KIDDING-ME????!!  Kind of unbelievable.  This book is so masterfully crafted and written as a novel that it is impossible to put down.  IMPOSSIBLE.  I hands-down loved ever second of it.

If you enjoy reading stories about WWII this book is definitely for you.  If you enjoy reading stories about the human spirit.. this book is for you.  If you like to read books that have you on the edge of your seat this book is for you.  I think it is an extremely important story that everybody needs to read.  I am not the type of blogger that writes a detailed synopsis of books, just because I usually skim over any synopsis of books on blogs or reviews because I want to go in fresh, but there are plenty of them out there that do!  Click here to read more of a summary of the book.

5/5  HUGE ASS STARS.

Here's the trailer for it as well:

Peculiar....

I know it's Tuesday and normally I do Teaser Tuesday, but I haven't been reading much this week so I'm not overly inspired...BUT, I stumbled accross this book trailer that I just HAD to share because it is really really cool, and well done.  I heard about this book last week somewhere, I can't remember, in a magazine maybe?  And thought my 11 year old daughter might like it as she is into ghost story scary stuff at the moment.  But now I'm thinking I might like it too!

ANYway, the book is called Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Eric Smith and the blog that posted a review and other cute things about it is over at Bloggin' about Books.

Here's the trailer!

MAILBOX MONDAY

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia over at The Printed Page.  It is now hosted by a different blog every month, this month it is hosted by The Blue Stocking Guide.

I have received some books lately, and here they are in no particular order:

FOR REVIEW.. Thanks Simon and Schuster Canada!

Fury by Elizabeth Miles 
Publication date August 30, 2011

First thing I want to say is... HELLO!  IS THAT NOT A GORGEOUS COVER???!!!

Here is the blurb from Amazon:

Sometimes sorry isn't enough....

It’s winter break in Ascension, Maine. The snow is falling and everything looks pristine and peaceful. But not all is as it seems...

Between cozy traditions and parties with her friends, Emily loves the holidays. And this year’s even better--the guy she’s been into for months is finally noticing her. But Em knows if she starts things with him, there’s no turning back. Because his girlfriend is Em’s best friend.

On the other side of town, Chase is having problems of his own. The stress of his home life is starting to take its toll, and his social life is unraveling. But that’s nothing compared to what’s really haunting him. Chase has done something cruel...something the perfect guy he pretends to be would never do. And it’s only a matter of time before he’s exposed.

In Ascension, mistakes can be deadly. And three girls—three beautiful, mysterious girls—are here to choose who will pay.

And:

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Publication date September 27, 2011

This is a pretty beautiful cover too, I must say, and the premise for this book is very intriguing.

Blurb from the cover:

Mara Dyer doesn't believe life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. It can.                                                                                                                                                  

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed. There is.                                                                                                       

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. She's wrong.

For more mailbox monday madness click here. 

REVIEW: PEACE FROM BROKEN PIECES BY IYANLA VANZANT

Peace from Broken Pieces by
Iyanla Vanzant
KINDLE EDITION

I saw Iyanla on Oprah and immediately ordered her book on my Kindle and basically could not put it down until I was done. She is such a powerful person to listen to, the things she said on Oprah just made me go, "Ah ha!" all over the place. Her book was very good, one of the most candid and absolutely raw memoirs I have ever read. This woman lays it ALL out there, she is so blatantly honest about every single moment in her life, but it's not just about that. This book is so much more. She gives us little lessons along the way, real soul lessons that we can actually take in and use. I truly read her book and felt that I had learned something about myself. 

It is a compelling read from a woman who once had it all, fame, fortune, a regular appearance on the Oprah Show, and then she lost it all. Everything. She was shaken to the very core of her being, and yes she was even angry at God whom she adored above all else. 

The only thing I will say that was a bit confusing was although I totally understand that Iyanla is a woman of God, sometimes I felt like her friends (near the end anyway) kept reassuring her that nothing was her fault. Her marriage ending, her career tanking, etc. That it was the pathology of her DNA that ran through her veins... it felt like, at those moments, that they all were giving her none of the culpability in her life. 

But other than that this is a  great book for anyone who is searching for meaning and purpose, you may not find all of the answers in it, but you will feel Iyanla's struggle, and may even see a bit of your own through her.  


Here is my favourite clip  from her last time on the Oprah show...


http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Oprah-and-Iyanla-Vanzants-Misunderstanding-Video


RATING:  4/5

TEASER TUESDAY -- MAY 3

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 2 teaser sentences from anywhere on that page
• try not to include any spoilers
• remember to include the author and book title

My teaser is from Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen.  I've actually had this on my TBR pile for years, but with the movie coming out I thought I better get on with it and read it.  I LOVE it, like REALLY REALLY love, beyond love.  I think it is because I wasn't expecting much.  For some weird reason I thought it was a book revolving around animals that talk.  But with the trailers of the movie on TV I thought, maybe that's not what it's about.. and I can't  believe it has taken me this long to read it.  

I love the main character as an old man, he's just the right amount of cranky and sentimental and hands down hilarious. 

Here's my teaser:

"Wake up Mr. Jankowski. You're having a bad dream."   

My eyes snap open.  Where am I?  Oh, hell and damnation. 

For more teasers click here...

TEASER TUESDAY -- APRIL 26TH

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme (and just happens to be my favourite!) hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading and anyone can play along!

• Grab your current read
• flip to a random page
• select two teaser sentences from anywhere on that page
• Really really really try not to include any spoilers!
• But DO include the name of the book and the author so we can all add it to our morbidly obese TBR piles!

My teaser is from a book that literally just landed on my actual door step today courtesy of Source Books (THANK YOU!) and Fed Ex.  The premise of this book is hilarious, and relates to my job in the film business in more ways than I care to even say.   

The book is Are You Going to Kill Me Now?  by Sloane Tanen and basically she is a teenager that is stranded on a desert island with 5 celebrities. My teaser, however, takes place when the main character is comparing her real experience with her pretend fantasy game she used to play with her friends.  Kind of like, "Who would you marry or bury?"  Kind of thing, except this has to do with being stranded on a desert island with 3 celebrities in 3 different huts.  The first hut is the celebrity that you would most like to hear talk but you can't say anything back.  She picked Stephen Colbert... good call.  The second hut is the person that you'd want to have listen to you but they could not talk back, and the third one is the one you get to make-out with but no conversation.  

Here's my teaser:

"I'd go with the fat girl from Hairspray because she seems nice and like she wouldn't judge me.  Plus, if she turned out to be boring, I figured she could always just sing."

For more TT's click here. 

REVIEW: THE SECRET ELEANOR BY CECELIA HOLLAND

The Secret Eleanor by Cecelia Holland

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade; 1 edition (August 3, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780425234501

Firstly I want to send a HUGE THANK YOU to Berkley Publishing Group for sending me a copy of this book an embarrassingly long time ago.  Better late than never I always say. (cough)

Now, the first thing I will say about this book which should tell you my feelings about it is... I LITERALLY closed the cover about a minute and a half ago and RAN to my laptop because I COULD NOT WAIT to tell you HOW MUCH I FRIGGEN LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!  

You all know by now that I love historical fiction, I mean I love other genres too, but this is my favourite fo sho.  I happen to wish I lived in the medieval times.  Oh I know what your going to say, "Lisa, that time period stunk.  I mean LITERALLY stunk.  People didn't bathe, rarely had teeth, women were treated like property or dirt or both...blah blah blah."  I can't explain it, maybe it's a past life thing.  But I just can disappear in a book set in that time period like none other.  

That being said. Another reason I enjoy books about historical royal folks is that I really know diddley squat about them.  I mean nothing.  Not next to nothing, not a little bit.  D-I-D-D-L-E-Y.  The only thing I can tell you about anything about any royal family is that there is a wedding coming up in a few days that might get some air time.  So, when I read books like this it's all new and very exciting to me. 

But enough about me.  

If you liked The Other Boleyn Girl, or books like that one with lots of twists and turns and "OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT HAPPENED, AND WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT..." kind of stuff, then this book is totally for you.  And even if you know the story of Eleanor, you will probably enjoy the way Cecelia Holland fleshes out the story. 

Here is the blurb for a summary, but not too much:

Eleanor of Aquitaine seized hold of life in the 12th century in a way any modern woman would envy!

1151: As Duchess of Aquitaine, Eleanor grew up knowing what it was to be regarded for herself and not for her husband's title. Now, as wife to Louis VII and Queen of France, she has found herself  unsatisfied  with reflected glory-and feeling constantly under threat, even though she outranks every woman in Paris.

Then, standing beside her much older husband in the course of a court ceremony, Eleanor locks eyes with a man -hardly more than a boy, really-  across the throne room, and knows that her world has changed irrevocably...

He is Henry D'Anjou, eldest son of the Duke of Anjou, and he is in line, somewhat tenuously, for the British throne. She meets him in secret. She has a gift for secrecy, for she is watched like a prisoner by spies even among her own women. She is determined that Louis must set her free. Employing deception and disguise, seduction and manipulation, Eleanor is determined to find her way to power-and make her mark on history.

Cecelia manages to pull you through the narrative and leaves you breathlessly turning pages as fast as humanly possible.  I read this book in 4 days.  Basically as soon as I finished the last one I reviewed (The Civilized World by Susi Wyss) I picked this one up and read while watching TV, read in the car waiting for my daughter at this or that activity whilst my 4 year old was in the back seat earphones on movie in front of her --- in short -- I could not put it down!!!!  And really, people, isn't that every book lover's dream anyway?  To pick up a book and have it grab you until the very last EXTREMELY satisfying page????  In fact, I really really really wish Cecelia would continue the story until Eleanor's death.  She lived a very long life, even in this day and age, she died at a very ripe old age of 82... EIGHTY TWO!  Imagine!

There is plenty of swoon-worthy moments, and loads of description of the food, clothing, castle stuff -- all of the things that make historical fiction so damn yummy.  But not in a real romance-novelly kind of way, which is perfectly fine for some people, but I like them straight up with a bit of the bodice ripping.. if you get my meaning. 

If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would.  It's that good. 

For more about Cecelia Holland and her works (all 23 of them!) you can visit her website by clicking here. 

RATING:  5/5

REVIEW: THE CIVILIZED WORLD BY SUSI WYSS

The Civilized World by Susi Wyss

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks (March 29, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780805093629

First of all I want to send a HUGE THANK YOU to Christine over at Henry Holt & Co. for sending me a copy of this book.  I absolutely hands-down... LOVED.. IT.

When I was first sent the email inquiring if I would like to read this novel, I was immediately drawn in by the cover.  Isn't is gorgeous?  And then I was told it was set in Africa, which I think I have mentioned, I have always loved to read books that are set there.  But especially now that my 4 year old daughter was born in Ethiopia, I have a particular fondness for books about Africa in general. 

I read this book in 2 days.  It was extremely engaging and although the cover says, "A novel in stories" (which at first makes it sound like a collection of short stories -- it's not), it weaves several story lines together in the most gentle way, and leaves you feeling very satisfied at the end. 

The novel follows the story of several characters, Ajoa and her twin brother Kojo being the "face" of the book, in my opinion.  I fell in love with Ajoa and her dream of opening a salon back in Ghana while she was a practicing massage therapist for foreigners in the Ivory Coast.  Her character reminded me of Mmm Precious Ramostwe from the #1 Detective series by Alexander McCall Smith.  She is instantly likeable and her vision of her salon as a means of providing freedom for her and her brother pulls the story along beautifully.  Even when her brother becomes desperate to leave the Ivory Coast for their beloved Ghana, she holds onto her dream while turning a blind eye to his fledgling criminal career -- to disastrous conclusion that would change her life forever.  Janice is the flip side of the story, a single woman living in Africa for decades and adopting an Ethiopian baby.  Janice was once Ajoa's employer, and it is through Janice that Ajoa is finally able to have peace with what happened to her brother in the Ivory Coast.  

There are other characters as well in the story, but they seem to just provide a further backdrop for the main story lines of Janice and Ajoa. 

Wyss' account of Africa is palpable, you can smell, taste and see clearly the landscape and people before you.  The author lived there for many years, and this lends an air of realism to the narrative, and pulls you into the setting and allows you to escape into the world she has created. 

If you liked Alexander McCall Smith's Ladies Detective series, you will really enjoy this book!

For more about Susi Wyss and The Civilized World you can visit the author's website here.

RATING:  4/5 

TEASER TUESDAY! April 19th

Teaser Tuesdays 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 2 teaser sentences from anywhere on that page
• try not to include any spoilers
• remember to add the title of the book and the author

My teaser is from The Secret Eleanor by Cecelia Holland, which I am totally loving.

"I'll see you there?  You promise?" He gripped her wrist, as if to hold her there.  "I'll die every day I don't see you again."  

Um.. swoon?

For more TT's click here. 

REVIEW: REMARKABLE CREATURES

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Dutton (Jan 5 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780525951452

First of all I want to send a HUGE THANK YOU to Penguin Group (Canada) for sending me a copy of this book for review!  I am embarrassed to say that it arrived last November, and what with school and my Mom's stroke, it got forgotten until recently.  Better late than never, right?  RIGHT?!!!

Here's the thing, though, I started this book at 8am THIS MORNING and finished it at 6pm.  And I really read it, I am no skimmer, not with review books anyway.  I have been known to skim through sections of my personal reads (kind of like now with Fall of Giants, some of the war discussion/politics stuff.. SNORE!)  

Remarkable Creatures had me intrigued from the first page and kept me glued to the end.  A small novel, but not in story, you will be able to finish it in short order and it will leave you with thoughts to ponder and best of all curious about the historical characters in the book.  

Some of my all time favourite reads are of books that take real-life but long dead people and fill in the blanks of the history books.  I am a huge sucker for that.  Such as Cane River, which ranks in heavy in my top 10, and Hugh and Bess by Susan Higgenbotham, and my most recent historical fiction His Last Letter.  Oh how I envy those authors, spending years knee deep in research of letters, and journals and news clippings of the day.  Taking fascinating people throughout history and fleshing out swoony love lives and complicated mother/daughter relationships.  It's just pure awesomeness. 

Remarkable Creatures takes the lives of two women in the mid 1800's, one of whom ended up being quite famous as a fossil hunter.  Mary Anning is credited with uncovering the very first complete skeleton of the Ichthyosaurus, and also uncovered another bizarre creature called the Plesiosaurus.  Obviously a woman with a non-traditional job that she literally fell into as a child while playing on the beach with her father, it was soon realized that she had "the eye" and could spot a fossil from a great distance and long before anyone else could.  Searching the beach everyday to bring small fossils home to her family so they could eat. 

One day while on the beach she met a fellow fossil hunter, Elizabeth, and the two formed an odd friendship.  Mary was no more than a child and Elizabeth, 20 years her senior, an aging spinster, intelligent, driven, and lonely in her pursuit of her curiosities.  

Mary and her brother uncover what arguably was the most important fossil find of the 19th century, and indeed challenged the religious and scientific views of the day.  The questions were beginning to surface, could there have been creatures before us that are no longer?  Did God make a mistake?  If God created the world and all of the creatures in it, why would he kill off these ones?  What is extinction?  As you can imagine, this ruffled many a feathers, and the fact that this was discovered by a "woman" made it a particularly hard pill to swallow by many.   

As most of you know by now, I don't like to give big long synopsis' of books and give away the story.  In fact, whenever I read a review, I tend to skip much of a synopsis because I like to go in fresh.  So, mostly I like to give you my impression and if I liked it and why. 

I LOVED it.  It was a great read, fast and the story moved beautifully from one page to the next. There is an element of romance in the story, but not too much and not in a stereotypical way.  There is the complicated life of a woman in that day and age, and what it means to be in your 20's and have no marriage prospects.  It asks the question, who deserves credit?  How does fame change a persons view of themselves and those around them?  

What is most important in life?  

If you have any interest in archeology or dinosaurs, than you will appreciate this book on that level as well.  I live in Alberta, we have arguably one of the most famous and extensive dinosaur museums in the world filled with fossils discovered right here in our province.  Reading the description of the two creatures Mary uncovered was really cool, because in the Royal Tyrell Museum are two exact replicas of the creatures in all their amazing glory, so I could easily picture them in my head.  And not just a photo from widipedia, I have seen the sheer size of the fossils that Tracy writes about, and it really blows my mind every time I visit the museum.  

Remarkable Creatures is a story about friendship between two likely women, one destined for greatness from infancy after surviving a lightening strike that is believed to have given her her gift of "the eye" and the other a prickly spinster.. both fossil hunters who uncover two of the most important discoveries in the 19th centuries and all of the politics and drama surrounding them.  

For more about Tracy Chevalier and her novels and, in particular, THIS one.. click here. 

RATING:  5/5


Interview with Tracy below: