Now & Then

Anna O’Shea has been having a very bad time of it.  After her third miscarriage, her husband left her for the office manager of their dentist’s office.  To add salt into that wound, the office manager was already pregnant, something that Anna had desperately wanted to be.  Anna leaves home for a bit with her travel-writer friend to England, Scotland, and Ireland.  Shortly before leaving Ireland, an old woman hands Anna a package wrapped in paper.  There is no time to open it before going home, however, and definitely no time once she gets there.  Anna arrives home to messages from her mother that her brother p is in the hospital after having been in a car crash.  That isn’t even the worst of it!

It turns out that Patrick’s accident occurred as he was traveling from Massachusetts to New Jersey where his son, Joseph had been arrested and was being held in juvenile hall, he was supposed to pick Joseph up.  Anna is dispatched to go pick up her nephew and inform him about his father’s accident.  As Patrick is going to be transferred to another hospital, Anna takes Joseph back to her house for a good night’s sleep before they go to see his father.  During the night, however, something in Anna’s luggage calls to Joseph.  When she wakes up and sees that he has the package from the old woman, she angrily grabs at it and suddenly they are both being whisked back through time to Ireland of 1844, where they become separated and must figure out how to find one another and return to their own time.

I was skeptical for a lot of the first part of the book.  I don’t mind a bit of fantasy mixed into my fiction.  I loved “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” for instance.  I didn’t really feel that initial time travel was well justified.  I didn’t have a problem with not yet knowing WHY they went back in time, I figured that would be explained later.  What I didn’t believe is how quickly Anna figured out what happened.  Even as they were being pulled backwards through time, she thought to herself ‘hey, we’re time traveling!’  I would expect it to take more time, for her to have to figure out what was going on.

Anna and Joseph’s characters started to grow on me partway through the book, however.  I liked the way that Sheehan developed them during their time in the past.  Their love stories were fairly well drawn, considering that she was trying to develop two separate love stories in the same book.  By the end, I would say that I definitely enjoyed the story, particularly the way that Sheehan resolved the question of why they traveled back in time and what resulted from their discovery.

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

*****Giveaway*****

I have four copies of “Now & Then” to giveaway.  I’m sending them out myself, so I can send up to 1 of them anywhere in the world, and up to 1 of them to Canada.  The other two will be US-only.  This giveaway will end Monday, December 7th.  Please fill out the following Google Form to enter:

This review, along with the giveaway, was done with books received from  the publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Post from: Devourer of Books

Now & Then – Book Review and Giveaway

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2. Smart Mama’s Green Guide – Book Review and Giveaway
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I’m wrapping up a great reading week and looking forward to a week that is going to be slower on the reading and blogging front.  My parents arrived in town last night and I have one set of grandparents coming in today for a quick visit, until tomorrow, when the other set comes in.  I’m sure it is only a coincidence that this is Daniel’s first Thanksgiving and people are traveling up to see us.  I’m sure they’re really here for me, my husband, and my parents…

Maybe not.  Both of Daniel’s aunts will be here this week, too.  I’m lucky Daniel’s still nursing, because otherwise I might not see him at all this week!  My husband might just be out of luck.

Anyway, I did well with my reading this week, I finished five books, although one of them I’d been working on probably for the last 2-3 weeks, just reading bits here and there.  Here’s what I finished:

This coming week you can look forward to reviews of at least “Now & Then” (and a giveaway!) and “The Madness of Queen Maria”  I haven’t decided about Wednesday, I may just leave it at a Library Loot post with no review, but we’ll see.

In addition to getting a lot of reading done, this week was also busy on the blog.  For one thing, I posted a product review and (international!) giveaway for a very cool bookmark.  In addition, I also posted a Literary Road Trip that helped explain where I got my love of reading. a challenge called Blogger Unplugged, and the following book reviews:

As for my memes this week, I had a great book for my Tuesday Teaser and a whole bunch of great books in my Library Loot.

I had a good week, and I hope you did too!  Happy Thanksgiving week to my American readers!

Some of the books mentioned in this post were sent to me for review.  This information can be found in their individual review posts.

Post from: Devourer of Books

The Sunday Salon – Pre-Thanksgiving Edition

Related posts:

1. The Sunday Salon Week in Review
2. The Sunday Salon – The Ides of November
3. The Sunday Salon – October 11, 2009

Sorry, that was quite a tangent!

Anyway, the other day on Twitter (oh, Twitter, you are like a petri dish!), I was talking with Candace from Beth Fish Reads about the need for all of us to take a break now and then.  A lot of people chimed in that they had a hard time stepping back from their blogs, Google Reader, and Twitter.  Part of the reason for it is that many of us have become good friends, but we don’t live near one another and don’t talk on the phone, so we need blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and the rest of it to keep up with one another.  I know that more than one person said that they felt like they would miss out on something if they turned off the internet.  Maybe we all just feel like we need permission to unplug ourselves.

Well, Candace and I are GIVING you permission.  More than that, we’re CHALLENGING you to unplug sometime between now and the end of the year.  The holidays are a great time to spend with family and, even though I know sometimes the blogging community feels like family, take some time off to spend with your IRL (in real life, for those of you who don’t know) family.

Here are the rules: there are no rules.  We’re just suggesting that you pick a time between now and the end of the year (or anytime, really!) to unplug.  Turn off Twitter, don’t blog, etc.  If you need to give yourself a Twitter limit instead of turning it off, sure, whatever works for you.  Choose a day, a week, evenings, whatever, but unplug, relax, and fight blogger burnout.  Also, don’t worry about having posts go up when you’re unplugged!  If you have some and want to preschedule, okay, but don’t kill yourself trying to get some up, that defeats the whole point!  Just grab the button and get off the computer!

Personally, I’m going to be unplugging on November 26th and 27th, and December 23-27th.  I won’t be on much at all between Christmas and New Years, but I may pop in now and then, since I have to work part of that time anyway.

By the way!  For those times when you AREN’T unplugging over the next month or so, there is a great run down at Beth Fish Reads of the ways to connect this holiday season!

Post from: Devourer of Books

Blogger Unplugged – A (Sort of) Challenge

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Lighting Their Fires

Rafe Esquith is a *superstar* in the education world.  His 5th graders learn more than the regular curriculum, they perform Shakespeare (often traveling extensively to do so) and read things like “To Kill a Mockingbird.”  Although they come from a highly disadvantaged area, his students score in the top 5-10% on standardized tests, which is a phenomenal accomplishment.  My husband is a high school teacher in a similarly disadvantaged area (although the number of his students in poverty is not as high as at Rafe’s school, it seems to be steadily increasing); he has read both of Rafe’s previous books and incorporated some of his ideas into his classroom.

When I was given the opportunity to review Esquith’s new book, “Lighting Their Fires,” which is being marketed equally to teachers and parents, as opposed to primarily teachers like his other books, I jumped at the chance.  I knew that my husband had really enjoyed Esquith’s other books so I thought this was a good opportunity for me to read something he enjoyed, as well as for him to read Rafe’s new book, which I knew he would be excited about.

Rafe’s students are amazing, but they don’t start out like that.  They have become amazing through hard work by parents and teachers.  ”Lighting Their Fires” is Rafe’s attempt to help parents understand what they can do to help their children become amazing as well.  The format was very engaging; all of his tips are told against the backdrop of his trip to a baseball game with some of his students.  This book does stand on its own, but from what my husband says is enhanced by having read the previous books.

Many of Rafe’s tips are good, and he certainly has more basis for them than many so-called parenting experts, having worked with countless students, and following many of those students from late elementary school through college.  At other times, though, felt he was a little judgmental, or rather perhaps was over-generalizing.  He railed against television, which is certainly not a good habit overall, but he also made it sound as if there is never anything worth watching, yet at the same time he repeatedly extolled the virtues of using movies as educational aids.  That simply didn’t seem very consistent to me.  I was also a bit annoyed by the fact that it seemed he talked about using movies to teach far more than using books.  I just wish there was a little more parity, I wanted more book ideas!

I thought it was good, although not great, but my husband really enjoyed it.  I do think there will be some helpful ideas for us as Daniel grows.

Edit:  In regards to the books, it seems he talks about them MUCH more in his books for teachers.  He certainly challenges his students with literature that most people wouldn’t give to elementary students.  I just wish he’d talked more to the parents who will read this book about how to use literature to teach their children.

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

This review was done with a book received from FSB publicists.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll be rich!  Rich I tell you!

Post from: Devourer of Books

Lighting Their Fires – Book Review

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1. Work Hard. Be Nice. – Book Review
2. Your Amazing Newborn – Book Review
3. Charles and Emma – Book Review

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

Well, last week I admitted I have a problem with the library.  I take out more books than I could read every week.  I think that if I wasn’t reading anything from my shelves and any review books I could probably get to most of my library books before they were due, but between review books and the Clear Off Your Shelves challenge, library books don’t make up more than a 1/3 of my reading, which is why taking another 9 books out of the library book this week is ridiculous.  At least I’m keeping the circulation numbers up!

At least this time it wasn’t simply a case of ‘my eyes are bigger than my reading time’ gluttony.  Many of the books I took out were so I will be able to join in the 20 Minute Book club on That’s How I Blog.

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane for Jenn’s show on December 1st
The Wednesday Witch by Ruth Chew for Dawn’s show on December 8th
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr (audio) for Meg’s show on December 15th
The Little Stranger by Sarah Water (audio) s for Rebecca’s show on  January 12

I wish I could say I’d been restrained and that is all I had taken out, but alas that would be a lie.  I also got all of these books:

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Raising a Reader by Jennie Nash
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (audio)
After by Amy Efaw
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Have you read any of these?  Did you get anything good from the library this week?

Post from: Devourer of Books

Library Loot

Related posts:

1. Library Loot – October 2, 2009
2. Library Loot – June 18, 2009
3. Library Loot – September 24th, 2009

The House on Tradd Street

Melanie hates old houses.  This is sort of an odd characteristic for a realtor, but she has a good reason for hating them.  It is in the old houses that spirits tend to remain, and  when they realize that Melanie can see them, the usually want something from her.  When she approaches Nevin Vanderhorst about his house at 55 Tradd Street, all she wants is for him to give her the listing when he leaves it, but instead he leaves it to her in his will, with the expectation that she will solve the mystery of what happened to his mother, who supposedly ran away when he was very young.  The house is in such bad shape that Maggie probably never would have accepted the bequest, except that it came with money with which to fix up the house.  Melanie ends up with an entire cast of characters helping her fix up the house, including her best friend, her semi-estranged father, and an historical true crimes author, Jack, whose mother was friends with Melanie’s when they were younger.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, although I think I ended up liking it a little less than I thought I would, perhaps because so many people were raving about how fantastic it is.  “The House on Tradd Street” had fantastic writing and a story that kept me pretty engaged, but I thought it lost a little steam towards the middle of the narrative, around the point where Marc Longo was introduced as a rival to the ‘is he a love interest?’ character of Jack.  Everything also seemed to happen very quickly.  Jack moved into the house with Melanie after a break-in, but the two of them had not  met before she inherited the house.  At one point in the middle of the book I caught myself thinking “wait, WHY is Jack here, again?”

Despite some slightly unbelievable things in the relationship between Melanie and Jack, as well as a few things that were pretty predictable, I did really enjoy “The House on Tradd Street.”  I would say my favorite parts were the way Melanie interacted with the spirits, as well as the way the mystery was resolved.  Although I didn’t love it quite as much as everyone else did, I’m still excited to read the sequel, “Girl on Legare Street” next week.

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

This review was done with a book purchased by me. *
These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Post from: Devourer of Books

The House on Tradd Street – Book Review

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3. The Sunday Salon – Pre-Thanksgiving Edition

One of the main times I lose my bookmarks is not between books, but in the middle of them.  I open my book, set my bookmark down, then get up and move somewhere else with my book.  Then my bookmark falls behind something or gets knocked under something else, and I don’t see it again for weeks.

When Amanda from Reading Comfort offered me the chance to review more of their products after I so loved my book buddy (check out a promotional video for the book buddy), I asked her to send me either the elastic bookmarks or the glittermarks, to see if these bookmarks could pass the Devourer of Books I-suck-at-bookmarks test.  Here are the pictures of some of the bookmarks from the Reading Comfort site, first the Glittermark, then the Elastic 4-Ribbon Bookmark:

I’m happy to say, friends, that yes, these bookmarks DID live up to my expectations.  Not only that, but everyone at the Justine Larbalestier book signing all admired the pretty bookmark I had on my copy of “Liar.”

I love that these bookmarks are pretty, I love that they have multiple ribbons to mark multiple places (note: the glittermarks seem to have between 1 and 4 ribbons, so check that out before you buy if that matters to you), and I love that I CAN’T LOSE THEM when I’m reading.  Don’t get me wrong, I can (and did, temporarily) lose them if I take them off my book and don’t put them away properly, but I’m not sure what anyone can do about that.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when you use these, though:

• They are stretchy, but they are not super loose over most books.  That means if you put them over the cover ONLY of a paperback, you’re likely to damage the cover.  This is more true for the Elastic Bookmarks than the Glittermarks.  My solution has been not to put the bookmark on until I’ve read at least 20 pages of my paperback, then put it over the cover and the first 20 pages.  Times when I haven’t been able to read 20 pages before needing to mark the page, I start out by putting the bookmark on from the back, and just putting it over a chunk of pages.  If you’re reading a hardcover, you can just put the bookmark straight on the cover
• If you read books in the bath, you need to be careful of the ribbons.  I prefer to have my ribbons go from the bottom of the book to the top (opposite of how the Glittermark is shown above), so I had to figure out what to do with the ribbon.  Pretty soon I was able to just loop it around where the bookmark attached, and it worked great.
• Dangling ribbons can be attractive to cats!  On the other hand, they can also keep small babies entertained, and if they’re attached to the book you’re holding aren’t a choking hazard.

Like I said, once I figured out how to make these work best for me, I looooooooved them.  They would make great stocking stuffers!

You can buy the Elastic 4-Ribbon Bookmarks, the Glittermarks, and, yes, the Book Buddy from Reading Comfort’s website.  And P.S.: they’re offering a 15% discount through the end of 2009 if you type the code blogger when checking out.

***************

When Reading Comfort sent me these bookmarks, they sent me more than I need for myself, so I’ll be giving a green 4-ribbon bookmark away to one lucky winner.  Contest open internationally, closes at 11:59 pm Central on Monday, November 30th.  Winner will be contacted by email.

Here’s what you can win:

To enter, fill out the following Google Form:

Post from: Devourer of Books

Reading Comfort Elastic Bookmarks and Glittermarks – Product Review and Giveaway

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2. BBAW: Reading Meme
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The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

In this, the second book in John Scalzi’s “Old Man’s War” series we get a look into, as you might guess, the Ghost Brigades of the Colonial Defense Forces.  Charles Boutin was a civilian scientist for the CDF who has defected to the enemy.  In order to figure out how to fight him, the CDF turns to the ghost brigades and creates a new soldier with Boutin’s DNA, Jared Dirac.  Dirac must prove to his superiors and himself that he is not the traitor Boutin was.

John Scalzi has proved yet again that he can write science fiction that I actually like – rare for any author other than Douglas Adams.  His characters are interesting, witty, and sympathetic and I love the say he pieces together his stories.  I know people that DO read science fiction like him, but to me he’s the science fiction writer for those who don’t like science fiction.

I’m excited to finish off the series now, I’ve read everything but “The Last Colony.”

Buy this book here and support this blog.  Purchase from:
Powells.
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.
Amazon.

Post from: Devourer of Books

The Ghost Brigades – Book Review

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Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Please avoid spoilers!

“Those are from before I knew him.  I’m just telling you he didn’t try to shoot himself tonight.  It was some insane hunter.”

-Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, p. 66

Post from: Devourer of Books

Teaser Tuesday – Shiver

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James Whitcomb Riley

James Whitcomb Riley, who lived from 1859-1916, was known as both the children’s poet and the Hoosier poet.  Originally writing in Hoosier (Indiana) dialect for the newspaper the Indianapolis Journal, Riley eventually wrote over 1,000 poems and over half of them in dialect.

I partially credit James Whitcomb Riley with my love of reading.  My grandfather gave my mother a book of Riley’s poetry shortly before I was born which she began reading to me from the day I was born.  When I was young, my favorite of James Whitcomb Riley’s poems were The Raggedy Man, The Man in the Moon, and Little Orphant Annie (not a typo, that’s part of his Hoosier dialect).  I can still recite Little Orphant Annie by heart, actually.  When I was still teaching I would turn off the classroom lights on Halloween and recite it for them “…and the goblins’ll getcha if you don’t watch out!”

Okay, this is making me really nostalgic.  I think I’m going to go and order “The Best of James Whitcomb Riley” to reread to Daniel..and myself!

The Literary Road Trip is the brainchild of Michelle at GalleySmith.  It is a chance for book bloggers to spotlight local authors and their books.  I will be spotlighting authors and books from Illinois (my current state of residence) and Indiana (my state of birth).

If you are planning to buy this book, please do so from one of the links below and support this blog:
Powells.
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.
Amazon.

Post from: Devourer of Books

Literary Road Trip – James Whitcomb Riley

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