Read, Remember, Recommend by Rachelle Rogers Knight

Read, Remember, Recommend by Rachelle Rogers Knight is an excellent organizing journal for passionate readers, but maybe not for book bloggers.  As an avid reader with a to-read list in the hundreds, there are not enough pages in this book to house all of my reading wants and needs.  An online version of this book may have been a better product, allowing readers to continuously add pages to their loaner and recommendation lists. . . but then wouldn't we call it Good Reads or LibraryThing?

The explanations on how to use the journal at the beginning seemed unnecessary, but could be helpful for a reader who has never kept track of their reading.  

However, what is really useful in this journal are the lists -- lists of Pulitzer Prize winners, National Book Award winners, and more.  There's room to add new book award winners, but again there should be more spaces attributed to this.

The loaner pages and recommendation pages are essential to any reader interested in lending their books to friends, family, and neighbors or recommending specific books to the other readers in their lives.  It seems that these sections are thinner than the others, and depending on how many books a reader owns and loans out or recommends, these blank pages should be photocopied before they are filled up.

Finally, the journal includes a list of online resources for book lovers, which seems pretty comprehensive in terms of places to search for book blogs and lit blogs, but I take issue with the term "lighter" to describe some wonderful bloggers who may not have PhD's in literature, but have valid points about structure, theme, literary devices, etc.  While many are not professional reviewers, their perceptions and analyses of books are no less valid or insightful, which the term "lighter" implies. 

With all of that said, however, Read, Remember, Recommend is an excellent resource for stellar literature, online recommendations and information, and a place to write down reader's thoughts about their books as they go along -- whether or not those thoughts end up on a blog.

I plan on using this book for a completely different purpose.  I've attended a number of writing conferences and have often heard the best way to figure out where your writing will be accepted by publishers and literary journals is to check out the acknowledgments of authors and poets who have writing similar to your own.  As a result, I plan to use the journal pages to keep track of those literary magazines, publishers, and other locations where I should be sending my work, and hopefully that will translate into some publications.  I've got a ton of books to go through and a good stack of pages in this book to fill up.

I've got an extra copy for one of my readers anywhere in the world.  Here are the rules:

1.  Comment on this post about why you want to get your mitts on this reading journal.
2.  Spread the word about the giveaway via Twitter, Facebook, blogging, etc. and leave me a link.

Deadline April 12, 2010, at 11:59 PM EST

About the Author:

Rachelle Rogers Knight is a passionate reader who has enjoyed books her entire life. Rachelle self-published Read, Remember, Recommend and Read, Remember, Recommend for Teens in 2007, and earned the Bronze Medal for "Independent Publisher of the Year" from Independent Publisher Online Magazine in 2008. Sourcebooks, Inc. is releasing new and improved editions of the self-published hit this April.

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Also Don't forget to check out the next stops on the 2010 National Poetry Month Blog Tour, Jenn's Bookshelves and West of Mars.


FTC Disclosure: Thanks to Sourcebooks for sending me a free copy of Read, Remember, Recommend for review.  Clicking on title and image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary, though appreciated.

© 2010, Serena Agusto-Cox of Savvy Verse & Wit. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Savvy Verse & Wit or Serena's Feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah Giveaway

One lucky reader of my blog, anywhere in the world, could win a signed copy of Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah courtesy of The Book Report Network and the publisher, St. Martin's Press.

I haven't had a chance to read and review this book yet, but boy does it sound enticing.  Check out this synopsis:

Can a woman ever really know herself if she doesn't know her mother?

Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard; the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters. As children, the only connection between them was the Russian fairy tale Anya sometimes told the girls at night. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise from the women in his life: the fairy tale will be told one last time—and all the way to the end. Thus begins an unexpected journey into the truth of Anya’s life in war-torn Leningrad, more than five decades ago. Alternating between the past and present, Meredith and Nina will finally hear the singular, harrowing story of their mother’s life, and what they learn is a secret so terrible and terrifying that it will shake the very foundation of their family and change who they believe they are.

To enter:

1.  Leave a comment about why you want to read this book.
2.  Tweet, Facebook, Blog, or otherwise spread the word and leave a comment with a link.
3.  Become the blog's Facebook fan in the left hand column, leave a comment that you did so, and receive another entry.

Deadline March 31, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST.

FTC Disclosure: Clicking on title and image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary, though appreciated.

© 2010, Serena Agusto-Cox of Savvy Verse & Wit. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Savvy Verse & Wit or Serena's Feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom

Christopher Ransom's The Birthing House was our latest book club selection, which was supposed to branch myself and Anna of Diary of an Eccentric out into the world of horror, etc.  I started off with an audio book I purchased from the bookstore, but finished up with a borrowed copy of the hardcover from the library.  OK, let's get to the review.

Conrad Harrison and his wife Jo are having severe marital problems in The Birthing House, and as a way to rebuild his marriage away from the pressures of Los Angeles, Calif., Conrad buys a home in Black Earth, Wisconsin, following the death of his father.  Jo isn't exactly thrilled with the birthing house or the fact that it was in a small town in the middle of nowhere, but she has little choice after Conrad gives her an ultimatum.

Readers will find moments of suspense and confusion in this novel, which could be traced back to the ability of the writer to properly sequence certain events.  Ransom has a knack for writing internal dialogue that adequately reveals characters' true emotions and faults.  But in terms of creating a sense of fear in the reader, Ransom's writing is hit or miss.

"He was starting to doubt that he had actually seen it move when the doll took another step -- click -- and then another after that one, moving with renewed purpose, as if it had just found what it was looking for.

But that's crazy, because it has no eyes.

Conrad was splayed crooked on the bed, immobilized as the absurd stick figure doll, no wider than a scarecrow Barbie, came at him in rapid steps -- click, click, click, CLICK, CLICK, CLICK! -- and raised its pipe cleaner arms to attack."  (Page 76)

It is clear that as the book moves on that Conrad is losing his mind, but how far has he lost it and how much of the haunting is real, and what is the history of this birthing house?  Ransom waits too long to reveal anything of substance about the birthing house, and readers will grow frustrated as Conrad wanders about, bumbling over the teen next door and her voluptuous, pregnant curves, while his wife is out of town for sales training.  In fact, the absence of Jo and her odd behavior on the phone leaves her character underdeveloped and almost pointless to the story until the final chapters.

"He wanted to touch the ghost, if that's what it was, maybe even help it.  Her.  He was terrified, repulsed, and drawn to it as he was drawn to the girl and the destruction she would bring down."  (Page 189)

There are many instances where The Birthing House reads like a bad horror movie in which the characters willingly put themselves in harm's way and refuse to contact the police or outsiders fail to intervene.  Ransom is a good writer, but this novel falls flat.  The narrator of the audio book was good at differentiating characters' voices, but the material in the novel made some of the scenes very comical when read out loud.  As a book club selection there is a great deal to talk about, but is it really worth the time spent?

To enter to win a copy of The Birthing House and/or Ravens (click for my review) on audiobook (GLOBAL):


1.  Leave a comment on this post about what horror book you've enjoyed.
2.  Facebook, Tweet, blog, or otherwise spread the word and leave a link on this post.

Deadline is March 30, 2010, 11:59 PM EST

This is my 4th book for the 2010 Thriller & Suspense Reading Challenge, and I'm counting this as a horror thriller.

This is my 18th book for the 2010 New Authors Reading Challenge.







FTC Disclosure: Clicking on title and image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary, though appreciated.

© 2010, Serena Agusto-Cox of Savvy Verse & Wit. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Savvy Verse & Wit or Serena's Feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran

http://www.librarything.com/er

Johanna Moran's The Wives of Henry Oades begins with the journey of a young family to New Zealand from England, but once on foreign soil, the family is met with tragedy.  Henry Oades leaves New Zealand for a new life in America where he becomes a farmer and rebuilds his life.  The story is based upon a 19th century court case involving a man with two wives, according to Moran's Website.

"Henry introduced the children, clapping a proud hand to John's shoulder, prying six-year-old Josephine from Margaret's leg.  Margaret turned back to the watery haze that was her parents, spreading her feet for balance, her pretty going-away shoes pinching.  She'd been told the river was calm."  (Page 5)

Moran's story is unique and even more intriguing because it has a basis in fact, but in many ways the writing is stilted and it is difficult for readers to picture the settings in detail.  Additionally, there are some details that could be excluded in favor of speeding up the plot, which drags for the first 75 pages.

Margaret is a prim woman from a proper English family, who is thrown into a colony where not everyone is as well-bred as she is.  There's a period of adjustment for the Oades family, but even that adjustment is just the beginning.  With much of the point of view focused on Margaret, the sudden shift to Henry's viewpoint once Margaret and the kids disappear from his life is a bit jarring.  Readers could find that they are not as well connected with Henry and that he is not as developed as Margaret's character.  This stumbling block can take a while to overcome, but then readers are thrust into another story, that of Nancy Foreland, a recently windowed, pregnant woman.

Despite these drawbacks, the struggle of Margaret and Nancy to adapt to a new situation in which they both find themselves as the wives of Henry Oades will keep readers turning the pages.  Overall, The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran is a detailed account of one family's immigration journey and an exploration of what it truly means to be a family.


To win a copy of The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran (US/Canada):

1.  Leave a comment on this post about what court case you've found fascinating.
2.  Blog, tweet, Facebook, or otherwise spread the word about the giveaway and leave me a link in the comments.

Deadline March 18, 2010, at 11:59PM EST

About the Author:

Johanna Moran comes from a long line of writers and lawyers. She lives on the west coast of Florida with her husband, John. The Wives of Henry Oades is her first novel.

Check out her Website.

This book is my 15th book for the 2010 New Authors Challenge, and thus signifies my completion of the challenge, though I could be reading more new-to-me authors throughout the year.

If you are interested in the rest of the TLC Book Tour for The Wives of Henry Oades, check them out.




FTC Disclosure: Thanks to LibraryThing Early Reviewers for sending me a free copy of the book for review.  Clicking on title and image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary, though appreciated.

© 2010, Serena Agusto-Cox of Savvy Verse & Wit. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Savvy Verse & Wit or Serena's Feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Giveaway of Almost Home by Pam Jenoff

Pam Jenoff's Almost Home is a book of political intrigue and grief.

If you missed my review, please check it out.  Also please check out my interview with Pam Jenoff and the second part of the interview on D.C. Literature Examiner.

If you're living in the U.S. or Canada and want a copy of Almost Home, leave comments on the review and interviews and fill out the Google Form below:

DEADLINE IS MARCH 13, 2010, at 11:59 PM EST.

Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show by Frank Delaney

Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show by Frank Delaney is a coming of age novel set during a tumultuous time in Ireland's history.  Set in the early 1930s, Ireland and Britain were in the midst of an economic battle in which farmers refused to keep paying back the loans that enabled them to buy farmland.  And Britain consequently began placing tariffs on all Irish goods -- all the while the political system in Ireland was tenuous.

"Of course it was all still being run by politicians.  We have an old saying here:  'No matter who you vote for, the government always gets in.'"  (Page 15)

The narration is conversational in tone as Ben MacCarthy tells his family history, with tales on the side about the political climate of the time.  Although he digresses from the main story of his father's disappearance and reappearance with the Venetia Kelly Traveling Show, MacCarthy warns you ahead of time that he often falls off topic, but that most of his stories have some relevance to the main narration.  A quirky technique, but enjoyable given that the digressions are entertaining.

"So, throughout this story you can expect three kinds of sidesteps:  Important Digression, which will usually be something to do with factual history; Important Digression, where a clarification needs facts and I will ferry them in from a side road; and -- my favorite -- Unimportant Digression, which can be about anything."  (Page 10)

Delaney has created a multitude of characters with their own depth and meaning in the story, and there are references throughout to other classic works.  He has created an energized menagerie through which readers will see and experience through Ben's eyes as a young man in search of his father and himself.  In many ways Ben is like his father, especially as the narration progresses.  Readers will find that he is unwinding his story slowly and deliberately, mirroring how his father contains his emotions and his true passions from his family.

"Beside me, my father reacted so hard that he made the bones of his chair creak.  He pulled back his hands, tightened them into fists, and held them in front of him like a man containing himself."  (Page 79)

The deliberate way in which the story unfolds enables readers to learn more about the MacCarthy family, the Kelly's, and the climate of Ireland at the time.  A nation and families stuck between the old traditions and the modern ways of the world, seeking the best path through to the other side.  What propels Ben on this journey and what does he learn?  Readers will want to pick up a copy of Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show to find out.

To enter for 1 signed copy of Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show or 1 audiobook narrated by Frank Delaney (US/Canada only):

1.  Leave a comment on this post of what you would like to see in Ireland.
2.  Leave a comment on my interview with Frank Delaney.
3.  Blog, Facebook, Tweet, or spread the word about the giveaway.

Deadline March 1, 2010, at 11:59PM EST.

About the Author: (Photo Credit: Jerry Bauer)

Frank Delaney was born in Tipperary, Ireland. A career in broadcasting earned him fame across the United Kingdom. A judge for the Booker Prize, several of his nonfiction books were bestsellers in the UK, and he writes frequently for American and British publications. He now lives with his wife, Diane Meier, in New York and Connecticut. Ireland is his first novel to be published in the United States.

 This is my 11th book for the 2010 New Authors Reading Challenge.

My 1st book for the 2010 Ireland Reading Challenge.

FTC Disclosure:  I received a free copy of Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show by Frank Delaney from publicist Leah Paulos and Random House.  Clicking on title links or images will bring you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben Winters

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben Winters is another mash-up of classic fiction and fantasy.  The basic story is the same as the Marianne and Elinor deal with abject poverty, searching for love and affection, and relatives who are less than pleasant, while at the same time navigating their sisterly relationship. The twist is that sea monsters have taken control of the water and attack humans daring to cross the sea or live below it in Sub-Station Beta.

"Colonel Brandon, the friend of Sir John, suffered from a cruel affliction, the likes of which the Dashwood sisters had heard of, but never seen firsthand.  He bore a set of long, squishy tentacles protruding grotesquely from his face, writhing this way and that, like hideous living facial hair of slime green."  (Page 37)

Readers will either enjoy reading a mash-up of Jane Austen's work with its fantastical and historically inaccurate elements (i.e. the existence of wet suits, submarines, and underwater domes where people live and work) or they will throw the book aside as ridiculous.  The trouble with these genre benders is that they often polarize readers in one camp or another.  Unlike Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which merely inserts new sentences to achieve the goal of making the Bennets zombie slayers, Winters creates a story nearly all his own, but using Austen's Dashwood sisters.

"'It is impossible that she did not know,' Sir John answered, 'For a sister to a sea witch is certain to be a sea witch herself.'  . . .  'As I said, the witches take the physical form of human women,' explained Sir John.  'There is nothing they can do about their personalities.'"  (Page 320)

By remaking Austen's world and threatening the characters in it with deranged sea monsters, Winters takes a number of liberties with the text, although he does maintain Austen's style for the most part.  However, unlike Grahame-Smith's mash-up where readers discover how the Bennets became skillful zombie slayers, the mysterious Sub-Station Beta and its "experiments" are not revealed or even hinted at for most of the book.  This flaw can make it difficult for readers to continue reading this adventure because so much is unknown and the readers are scrambling in the dark as characters run from monsters, play games, chat while being attacked by monsters, bring up mysterious smoking mountains and five-pointed stars, and generally seem to shrug off the danger.

Overall, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters resembles the dangers of other sea-faring novels -- even 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea -- and mixes it with ramped up social commentary a la Jane Austen.  The latter half of the novel is the most action packed and is almost hurried along.  But by the end, readers get swept up in adventure, myth, and outrageous challenges and have nothing to do but enjoy the ride. 

To Enter to win 1 copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith and 1 copy of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben Winters:  (This giveaway is global)

1.  Leave a comment on this post about what Austen novel mash-up you want to see next.
2.  Leave a comment on my review of Pride & Prejudice and Zombies.
3.  Blog, Tweet, Facebook, etc. and leave a comment with a link on this post.

Deadline is Feb. 19, 2010, at 11:59 PM EST

About the Author:

Ben Allen H. Winters is a writer who lives in Brooklyn with all the other writers.




FTC Disclosure:  I received a free copy of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters from the FSB Associates and the publisher for review.  Clicking on title links or images will bring you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary.

This is my 3rd book for the 2010 Jane Austen Challenge.

This is my 10th book for the 2010 New Authors Reading Challenge.

The Weight of Heaven by Thrity Umrigar

Thrity Umrigar's The Weight of Heaven is a heavy with grief, emptiness, and struggle.  The Bentons (Ellie and Frank) lose their son, Benny, at age seven from meningococcus.  Ellie has liberal leanings politically and is a therapist to clients in Ann Arbor, Mich., while Frank is a proud, American business executive with residual issues of abandonment.  The loss of a child can be daunting for any family, and it is clear how grief of this magnitude can slowly rip a family apart.

"And now they were two.  Benny was gone.  What was left behind was mockery -- objects and memories that mocked their earlier, smug happiness.  Benny was gone, an airplane lost behind the clouds, but he left behind a trail of smoke a mile long:"  (Page 2)

As this American couple struggles with the loss of their son, Ellie and Frank embark on a new life in India when Frank is transferred to a new HerbalSolutions factory.  The distance between them had gaped wide by this point, and both hope that the experience will help them repair their relationship and bring them closer to one another.  However, in rural India with its impoverished population, Frank and Ellie find that their values change and their current circumstances and grief dictate their reactions to one another, their servants, the local community, and other expatriates.

"Now she was trying to control the sway of her hips, trying hard to resist the tug of the pounding drums that were making her lose her inhibitions, making her want to dance manically, the way she used to in nightclubs when she was in her teens.  But that was the beauty of the dandiya dance -- it celebrated the paradoxical joy of movement and restraint, of delirium within a structure.  This was not about individual expression but about community."  (Page 220)

Readers will be absorbed by the local community and its traditions, the struggles of the Benton's servants, and the stark beauty of India.  But what really makes this novel shine is the characters and their evolution from idealistic college students and young parents to a grief-stricken and dejected married couple in a foreign nation.  The tension between Frank and Ellie is personified in the dichotomous views each character reveals to the reader about the Indian community from the lax work environment and labor disputes at Frank's factory to the deep-rooted sense of community and communion with nature shown through Ellie's interactions with individuals at a local clinic.

The Weight of Heaven is more than a novel about grief; it is about how grief can distort perception and push people to make life-changing decisions that can broaden their horizons and transform them forever.  Umrigar's prose is poetic and full of imagery that paints a vivid picture of India and its rural community and its city life in Mumbai/Bombay.  Class differences, the struggles of American expatriates, grief, death, and marital woes are explored deftly in this novel, and it is clearly one of the best novels of 2010.

To win 1 copy of The Weight of Heaven; this giveaway is international:

1.  Leave a comment about what nation you would move to or have moved to.
2.  Blog, Tweet, Facebook, etc. about the giveaway.

Deadline Feb. 19, 2010, 11:59PM EST

About the Author:

Thrity Umrigar is the author of three other novels—The Space Between Us, If Today Be Sweet, and Bombay Time—and the memoir First Darling of the Morning. A journalist for 17 years, she is the winner of the Nieman Fellowship to Harvard University and a 2006 finalist for the PEN/Beyond Margins Award. An associate professor of English at Case Western Reserve University, Umrigar lives in Cleveland.

This is my 9th book for the 2010 New Authors Challenge.

This is my 1st book for the 2010 South Asian Authors Challenge.

If you are interested in The Weight of Heaven, please check out the rest of the blog tour.



FTC Disclosure:  I received a free copy of The Weight of Heaven from the publisher and TLC Book Tours for review.  Clicking on title and image links will go to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary, though appreciated to fund international giveaways.