Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine in which book bloggers spotlight one title that they are anxiously awaiting.

This week, I chose:

To be published by Hachette Book Group, October 2010


From the publisher's website:
In this debut novel, Peter is a simple man who lives by a simple truth--a person gains strength by leaning on his constants. To him, those constants are the factory where he works, the family he loves, and the God who sustains him. But when news of job cuts comes against the backdrop of an unexpected snowstorm, his life becomes filled with far more doubts than certainties.
With humor and a gift for storytelling, Billy Coffey brings you along as he spends his snow day encountering family, friends, and strangers of his small Virginia town. All have had their own battles with life's storms. Some have found redemption. Others are still seeking it. But each one offers a piece to the puzzle of why we must sometimes suffer loss, and each one will help Peter find a greater truth--our lives are made beautiful not by our big moments, but our little ones.

What are you waiting for?

Like handbags?

Just a note to let you know that if you like designer handbags, there is an ongoing giveaway that you might be interested in.  As described by a representative of the publisher,
"Tomorrow, to mark the launch of her new romance novel, Aching for Always, Gwyn Cready is giving away a leopard print Kate Spade bag ($225 value), reminiscent of the shoes her heroine is wearing on the cover.
To enter, just go to gwyncready.com .  The giveaway ends October 4, 2010."

Too much of a good thing

Adam & Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The year is 2017 and Thom Bergmann, an astrophysicist has uncovered definitive proof of extraterrestrial life. He puts the proof on a flash drive which he gives to his wife Lucy shortly before he is killed on the streets of Amsterdam. Meanwhile, Pierre Saad, an Egyptian anthropologist has discovered ancient scrolls which tell an alternate Genesis story. During the next several years, an alliance forms between fundamentalist Christian, Muslim and Jewish individuals to prevent the revelation of both discoveries. In 2020, Saad convinces Lucy  to fly the scrolls out of Egypt, but her plane goes down over a garden-like area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In this mysterious verdant paradise, she meets Adam, a mentally ill American soldier who was raped and beaten by enemy soldiers and left there naked to die. Upon seeing Lucy, who is also naked having discarded her burning clothes, the delusional Adam believes she is his “Eve” sent by God to live with him in the Garden of Eden. When their lengthy time in this garden paradise is marred by an act of violence, Lucy and Adam make their way back to civilization, and a race to protect the flash drive and the codex ensues.

Suffice it to say that there is an awful lot going on in this novel. Midway through the book I realized that one of the things that was bothering me was that the two stories were not very well integrated. The mystical story that takes place in the mysterious garden was simply too jarringly interspersed with the modern day thriller regarding the murderous plot to destroy the codex and the flash drive. Both of the stories were well written, but in very different styles, and it was that constant back and forth in mood that I found distracting.

In addition, I felt as though there were simply too many ideas or themes being pressed for one novel. The author explores religious intolerance; creationism versus alternate explanations for the origin of mankind; the idea that the real original sin was not disobedience, but rather violence; and the ultimate futility of war. There were definitely parts to this book that I enjoyed, and it was certainly not a matter of me “forcing” myself to finish. I just think that this was a monumental undertaking that, for me, proved too much to consider all in the confines of a single book.

I was provided an advance reader’s edition of this book by the publisher, William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Having fun yet?

In a much earlier blog post, I described the personal reading goals I had set for myself this year. These goals stemmed from an initial challenge I entered to read 12 books that had been on my bookshelves for a very long time. From that simple, purposeful challenge, a monster was born.

First, I decided that I should expand the personal goals to include 12 books outside my reading comfort zone, as well as 12 classics. Okay, these goals are admirable and purposeful too: it is always a good thing to expand your horizons, and you can never be too well-read (as opposed to being too thin, which you certainly can be, but I digress).

Did I stop there? Oh no…For some reason that I have yet to fathom, I decided to sign on to three other reading challenges. The first was a summer reading challenge that required me to read ten books, each of which fulfilled some random requirement like having summer in the title or a flag on the cover. The ending date was September 21st, and I finished early. The second and third challenges, A to Z title and author lists, for a total of 52 additional books, came next.

So what exactly was I thinking here? It certainly can’t be that I needed ideas about what to read. When I’m not reading books, I’m reading about books: magazines, book reviews, internet articles, book sites, book blogs…and on and on. And I am pretty confident that I can still recite my ABCs without help. Apparently, I have entered these challenges for no discernible reason other than fun. Fun? Well, maybe that was the original idea, but lately I find myself asking, “are we having fun yet?“

My reading choices are now being somewhat skewed to meet these arbitrary guidelines and I am beginning to resent it.  Yes, I have even checked out a book called The X-mas Factor solely because of the X title. Don’t ask what I’m going to do about an X author.  Will I finish? We’ll see. Will I do this again next year? Heck no.

Well, maybe just one…I have always wanted to read the Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels…

Man's best friend, indeed

The YouTube sensation in book format just in time for the holidays!  If you have not yet seen this video, go to YouTube and watch it...I dare you not to have misty eyes by the end.

For dog lovers and for those who love them, this beautiful little book is a must.  God and Dog illustrates the lyrics of Wendy Francisco's moving ode to the love dogs have for their humans and to the love God has for his people.  Included in the book is the sheet music to the song.  It occurs to me that this book would be especially wonderful for those elderly dog lovers who may not have access to the YouTube video, and for children too young for the computer.

I was provided a copy of the finished book for review by Hachette Book Group.

A lovely book



An Amish Christmas
by Cynthia Keller
On Sale Date:  October 26, 2010



My rating:  4 of 5 stars  

When James Hobart loses his job he tries to recoup some of his loses by secretly taking a huge financial gamble that ends up wiping out his family’s entire material wealth, including their house. As his wife Meg and their three children face the prospect of going from a lifestyle that afforded them all the modern amenities and more to living with Meg's frugal, unforgiving parents, the family relationships disintegrate. While en route to Meg’s parents, the Hobarts are involved in a car accident in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and they are taken in by an Amish family for several weeks until the car is repaired. Over the course of their stay, the Hobarts experience the Amish way of life and the new perspective on family, work, and love they gain changes their lives for the better.

I found this book to be an entirely charming and enjoyable read.  There is always a danger with holiday or religious themed books that the "nice" factor will overwhelm the narrative so that you feel as though you are being preached to, or that the book is so sweet that it hurts your teeth to read it. Cynthia Keller has managed to avoid both these pitfalls.

An Amish Christmas Story depicts Amish life in a way that is both interesting and informative.  The religious emphasis is subtle; the theme of forgiveness is present, and the ending is, if predictable, not unrealistic. I would note that despite the title, I would not consider this a typical “Christmas book“ in that the story does not revolve around, nor really take place at Christmas, although the story does end on Christmas Day. Instead, it is more a cautionary tale of how easy it is in the modern world to lose one’s way spiritually, and an invitation to consider what is truly important in life. In that sense, I suppose the message of Christmas is there, without the commercial elements -- making it truly An Amish Christmas story.

I received an ARC of this book for review from the publisher, Ballantine Books through the First Impressions program at BookBrowse.

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine in which book bloggers spotlight one title that they are eagerly anticipating.


For me this week it is:

Crazy by William Peter Blatty
Forge Books
Release Date:  November 9, 2010

From the publisher's website:

Bestselling author William Peter Blatty warms our hearts with a funny yet deeply moving nostalgic tale of memory, mystery . . . and miracles.

New York, 1941: Joey El Bueno is just a smart-aleck kid, confounding the nuns and bullies at St. Stephen’s school on East 28th Street when he first meets Jane Bent, a freckle-faced girl with red pigtails and yellow smiley-face barrettes who seems to know him better than he knows himself. A magical afternoon at the movies, watching Cary Grant in Gunga Din, is the beginning of a puzzling friendship that soon leaves Joey baffled and bewildered.

Jane is like nobody he has ever met. She comes and goes at will, nobody else seems to have heard of her, and is it true that she once levitated six feet off the ground at the refreshment counter of the old Superior movie house on Third Avenue? Joey, an avid reader of pulp magazines and comic books, is no stranger to amazing stories, but Jane is a bewitching enigma that keeps him guessing for the rest of his life—until, finally, it all makes sense.

Rich with the warmth of a bygone era, Crazy captures both the giddy craziness of youth—and the sublime possibilities of existence.

This novel, from the author of The Exorcist, sounds wonderful to me.  What are you waiting for?

For your listening pleasure

Recently, I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in anticipation of a blog talk radio interview to take place tomorrow, September 13th, at 7 p.m.

During the show, Kristina Riggle will discuss her recently released novel about three women in their mid-thirties who face significant family issues while trying to live the life they imagined for themselves when they were young. Anna, a successful corporate attorney returns to her hometown and must deal with her mother's failing business and the father who abandoned her when she was a child. Amy, formerly overweight, continues to struggle with self-esteem issues and allows her insecurities to influence her decision-making in critical areas of her life. Finally, Cami, the daughter of an abusive father, is forced to pick up the pieces after a devastating betrayal and try to begin life again.

I find these shows to be quite enjoyable. I am always interested to hear authors speak about their work: what made them choose a particular subject, how they created their characters and how they feel about them, what the process of writing itself is like. I have great respect for those who write and then put themselves out there for others to critique. If this sounds like something that interests you, you can log on here, and stay for as long as you like.

Equal to the buzz

ONE DAY by David Nicholls

My rating : 4.5 of 5 stars

There are certain books, apart from the instant best-seller types, that generate a certain buzz prior to release and immediately thereafter. The problem with the advance hype is that sometimes it can lead to markedly high expectations and utter disappointment. One Day, which was released in England prior to publication in the U.S. in June of this year, had earned praise from critics and writers alike. As a result, it was with mild trepidation that I started this book, hoping for the best, but fearing the worst. I needn't have worried. I loved this book.

On the night of their university graduation in Edinburgh, moneyed, stylish, Dexter Mayhew and spectacle-wearing, socially conscious Emma Morley, take their friendship to a new level when they realize their attraction for each other. As Emma goes off to make a difference in the world, Dexter flits about Europe, indulging in sexual and drunken escapades. They keep in touch over the years, while each tries to find his or her place in life, and the reader is given a glimpse into their lives on the yearly anniversary of that fateful graduation night. Hence, the "One Day" of the title.

Through the years, Dexter and Emma rise and fall in pursuing careers and happiness, and often one is up at a moment of the other's failure. At first it is Emma who struggles, and then as the years go by, it is Dexter who flounders, descending into drug and alcohol related problems just as Emma has pulled her life together. At various times, they are the victims of a series of missed connections, letters and phone calls that might have made a difference in the way their relationship progressed. In telling their story Nicholls has an uncanny ability to evoke the awkward feelings, and general uncomfortableness between these two individuals despite their underlying attraction.

But it is not just in casting the romantic aspect of the relationship that Nicholls is so spot on: it is his ability to capture the yearning that Dex and Emma have to live that life that they saw for themselves at graduation --that bigger life that we all think we are going to lead when we're young. His portrayal of Dexter's anxieties about aging -- the insecurity and horror he experiences upon realizing that he is turning into a suburbanized version of his former urban playboy self -- is priceless.

The device of re-visiting the principals on the same day each year sounded like such an unworkable gimmick to me, but I was so wrong. It is fascinating to me how well the device works, without having any idea how it does. After reading the first few paragraphs of each chapter, the reader knows exactly where these two are in their lives without a lengthy, boring chronology of the year before. And at the end of each chapter, I was left wanting to know where they would be when the story took up again. Finally, the resolution of the story is just perfect...sad, but perfect.

There are already plans to make a movie of this, but I can unequivocally say that I will not see it. I loved this book too much to allow anyone else to interpret it for me. Dexter and Emma are very real to me, and I want to keep my vision of them for myself.

I highly highly recommend this book.

I received an ARC of One Dayfrom the publisher, Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine in which book bloggers spotlight one title that they are eagerly anticipating.

For me this week it is:



Release date: October 12, 2010 by HarperCollins

From Amazon.com:
Jane Leavy, the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy, returns with a biography of an American original—number 7, Mickey Mantle. Drawing on more than five hundred interviews with friends and family, teammates, and opponents, she delivers the definitive account of Mantle's life, mining the mythology of The Mick for the true story of a luminous and illustrious talent with an achingly damaged soul.

Meticulously reported and elegantly written, The Last Boy is a baseball tapestry that weaves together episodes from the author's weekend with The Mick in Atlantic City, where she interviewed her hero in 1983, after he was banned from baseball, with reminiscences from friends and family of the boy from Commerce, Oklahoma, who would lead the Yankees to seven world championships, be voted the American League's Most Valuable Player three times, win the Triple Crown in 1956, and duel teammate Roger Maris for Babe Ruth's home run crown in the summer of 1961—the same boy who would never grow up.

As she did so memorably in her biography of Sandy Koufax, Jane Leavy transcends the hyperbole of hero worship to reveal the man behind the coast-to-coast smile, who grappled with a wrenching childhood, crippling injuries, and a genetic predisposition to alcoholism. In The Last Boy she chronicles her search to find out more about the person he was and, given what she discovers, to explain his mystifying hold on a generation of baseball fans, who were seduced by that lopsided, gap-toothed grin. It is an uncommon biography, with literary overtones: not only a portrait of an icon, but an investigation of memory itself. How long was the Tape Measure Home Run? Did Mantle swing the same way right-handed and left-handed? What really happened to his knee in the 1951 World Series? What happened to the red-haired, freckle-faced boy known back home as Mickey Charles?

"I believe in memory, not memorabilia," Leavy writes in her preface. But in The Last Boy, she discovers that what we remember of our heroes—and even what they remember of themselves—is only where the story begins.

Yes, I am a huge baseball fan, but I also like biographies, as this one appears to be, that are more than just a simple chronology of the person's life.

What are you waiting for this week?

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday, started by Marcia at The Printed Page, is an opportunity for book lovers to see what books fellow readers have brought into their homes during the week. This month's host is Kathy at Bermudaonion's Weblog.

This week I received


from the publisher, HarperCollins;


through the BookBrowse First Impressions Program;

and

from the publisher, Hachette Book Group.

How about you? What books are new to your house this week?

A male perspective

I'M WITH FATTY by Edward Ugel

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Edward Ugel embarked on "The Fatty Project," after being diagnosed with sleep apnea at the age of 36. At the time, Ugel was a stay-at-home dad to two young daughters and had gained a significant amount of weight upon losing his job in the financial industry. Faced with the prospect of wearing a sleep mask to help him breath at night, Ugel set out to lose fifty pounds over the course of a year. He documents his journey in this book.

I have read a fair number of memoirs focusing on weight-loss or eating-related issues that were written by women. I'm With Fatty offers a male take on the whole food-addict, body image discussion that is both refreshing and funny.

What I particularly enjoyed is that Ugel makes clear that he is not about to surrender his passion for cooking or eating in the name of thinness. Instead, he tries to chart a course that caters to his love of food while making choices that will improve his health and lower his weight. Indeed, some of the major conclusions that he draws as the year comes to a close are that he must be realistic about his love of food to succeed, and that repeated failures are a necessary part of the road to ultimate success. I also appreciated that he devoted a considerable amount of time during the year to examine his tortured relationship with food, and that he shared what he discovered about himself with his readers. Much more than a "diet book," I'm with Fatty is a frank account of one man's attempt to change his eating habits from the inside out.

There is a fair amount of what my mother would call "salty language" in this book, so if that is an issue for you, be forewarned. For me, I could have done without the rather lengthy chapter on his experience with a colonic/cleansing regimen, but overall, I found this book to be an entertaining read that I would recommend to both men and women alike.

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher, Weinstein Books.

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine in which book bloggers spotlight one title that they are eagerly anticipating.

Christmas at Harrington's by Melody Carlson



From the publisher's website:

Sometimes the best gift is a second chance

Christmas is approaching, and Lena Markham finds herself penniless, friendless, and nearly hopeless. She is trying to restart her life, but job opportunities are practically nonexistent. When a secondhand red coat unexpectedly lands her a job as Mrs. Santa at a department store, Lena finally thinks her luck is changing. But can she keep her past a secret?

Reading Christmas at Harrington's, a story full of redemption and true holiday spirit, will be your newest Christmas tradition.

Publication Date: October 10, 2010
Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

I admit it, I'm a sucker for Christmas-themed books, and this one looks like a winner!
What are you waiting for?