Manic Monday

Manic Monday is the list I compile of the interesting (to me) books ready for Tuesday release.

Tuesday, August 11,2009

Undiscovered Gyrl by Allison Burnett, paperback. Fiction, internet intrigue, blogs, teenage girls

South of Broad by Pat Conroy, hardcover. Fiction, friendships, South Carolina (author of Prince of Tides)

Smash Cut by Sandra Brown, hardcover. Fiction, legal mystery, suspense, Georgia

Blindman’s Bluff: A Decker and Lazarus Novel by Faye Kellerman, hardcover. Fiction, suspense, police spouses, LAPD, California

Atlantis Revelation: A Thriller by Thomas Greanias, hardcover. Fiction, archaeologists, conspiracies, Atlantis

Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay, hardcover. Fiction, fathers and daughters, missing persons, suspense

Know of any good reads that I've missed? Please comment about them! Also, tell us about your favorite independent bookstore!

Toodles,
BookLady

Snip It Saturday

It's Saturday! Time for a little snip-it, or preview, of the current book I'm reading. Enjoy!


The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: A Novel by Stieg Larsson
Vintage Books, c2008 (translation copyright by Reg Keeland)
ISBN 978-0-307-45454-6

So it seems everyone (and their mother) has read this book but me. This Vintage Books paperback edition was just released and it is on the PB Bestseller list. It is a story of crime, suspense and family saga. Alot of family saga. In fact, TOO MUCH family saga for my taste. I am on page 265 and am just now getting "in" to it. I tried my darnedest (is that a word?) to understand the family lineage, really I tried. But I got tired of it and just ended up skimming the paragraphs (and sometimes pages) of who's who in the Vanger family. Boring. But don't worry, I will not suffer you the same fate! I chose a scene which contains the more interesting side plot which includes the girl with the dragon tattoo.

Her classmates thought she was crazy and treated her accordingly. She aroused very little sympathy among the teachers. She had never been particularly talkative, and she became known as the pupil who never raised her hand and often did not answer when a teacher asked her a direct question. No one was sure whether this was because she did not know the answer or if there was some other reason, which was reflected in her grades. No doubt that she had problems, but no one wanted to take responsibility for the difficult girl, even though she was frequently discussed at various teachers' meetings. That was why she ended up in the situation where the teachers ignored her and allowed her to sit in sullen silence.

She left middle school and moved to another, without a single friend to say goodbye to. An unloved girls with odd behaviour.

Then, as she was on the threshold of her teenage years, All The Evil happened, which she did not want to think about. The last outburst set the pattern that prompted a review of the casebook entries from elementary school. After that she was considered to be legally . . . well, crazy. A freak. (page 229-230)

Good stuff! Of course, I am dying to find out what All The Evil is! The novel takes place in Sweden (another reason I can't "love" it; places I am not familiar with). The other main character, Mikael Blomkvist, is a journalist who is commissioned to solve a 30 year-old unsolved murder. Apparently, knowing the family lineage of the Vanger family is VERY important to the story. He has a year to live on the family owned island and solve the mystery. As a reader, the real mystery is how the two plots will intersect. So far, Mikael and Lisbeth (girl w/dragon tattoo) have only met once, briefly. What the heck is going on? I kinda don't care about the murder, I just want to know where the story is going. Maybe that's supposed to be the mystery!

Toodles,
BookLady

Grunion Run!

What is a grunion, you ask? A grunion is a tiny, silver fish. Fish can run? Well, yes and no. They "run" along SoCal beaches at night during their spawning season. They come on shore, that is, and when you see it, it's amazing!


I was lucky enough (they are only on shore for 4 nights) to happen upon a grunion run during my senior year in high school. During Prom. With Frank. I know, you can stop gagging now, but really, we are NOT the perfect couple! ::wink:: The sight was fantastic (the picture I found makes them look like dead fish out of water, believe me, they are VERY alive)! It's as if the entire shore is moving. They seem to glow silver in the dark and they flap like crazy to get back into the water. Before that night, I had never heard of a grunion. I was so afraid to walk out there -- eww, what if it touched my foot? Frank, the gentleman that he is, coaxed me rather lovingly to just get a little closer (do you know where this is going?). "C'mon, you don't have to go any closer than you want to. That's, it, just a little closer. I -- I mean-- they won't bite." We did end up on the shore, but I dared not touch one! People were actually trying to catch them with their hands! Apparently, that's how you fish for them.

Anyway, yes, we did end up having a romantic, moonlit kiss on the beach that night. Since The Kiss happened during the grunion run, I have to believe that our lives were destined to mesh into a series of "luck" and "love" that continues to this day. Maybe I will try to convince Frank to go out tonight. And just maybe, I'll get LUCKY and see the grunions again. Wonder if it will be the same after 22 years? I'd love to find out (hu-muna, hu-muna!).

Check out Beach California to read more about the Grunion Run. There is also a list of the beaches and times that the grunion are expected to be seen.

Toodles,
BookLady

My Favorite Reads

Time Was Soft There: A Memoir, A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co.
By Jeremy Mercer
Publisher: Picador, St. Martin's Press, New York
c2005
ISBN 0-312-34740-5

From Publishers Weekly
Mercer explains his memoir's title this way: "Hard time goes slowly and painfully and leaves a man bitter.... Time at Shakespeare and Company was as soft as anything I'd ever felt." His graceful narrative follows struggling writers as they live on potato soup and dreams at Paris's famous expatriate bookshop. Mercer, a former Ottowa Citizen crime reporter, finds himself at Shakespeare one gloomy Parisian day in 1999, in his late 20s, with not much money and no plans for the future, trying to evade some angry newspaper sources back home. With little fanfare, he is taken into the store by its owner, George Whitman, a kindly yet scatterbrained man, who explains, "I run a socialist utopia that masquerades as a bookstore." Mercer begins working as an eager unpaid employee, running errands, acting as a referee between the writers who hang out there and ringing up sales (it's no B&N superstore: when Mercer asks where the credit card machine is, he's told, "Dude, Shakespeare and Company doesn't even have a telephone. Of course we don't take credit cards"). Mercer portrays the assorted characters and their adventures with an eye for detail and a wry sense of humor. Francophile book lovers will enjoy his finely crafted memoir.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

When I read it:
We took a road trip up to Sacramento to visit friends on New Years in 2007. Of course, we passed through San Francisco! I do not travel much, but when I do, I MUST visit an independent bookstore. My goal for that trip was The City Lights Bookstore, for it's history and just plain "coolness!" I found this book there and was on a fixation of the Shakekespeare & Co. bookshop in Paris at the time.

Why I chose it:
. . . Because of my fixation on the Shakespeare & Co. bookshop in Paris! I also read Shakespeare & Company by Sylvia Beach (the original owner of the bookshop) and when I get my mind on something, I go all the way (meaning, I want to visit it someday, too!). Mercer's memoir is about his time there and his relationship with the current owner, George Whitman. Shakespeare & Co. is a haven for writers. They are/were allowed to live IN the bookstore! Mercer enters into the bookstore's world with high hopes of writing a "brilliant novel at the bookstore" and be considered an "acclaimed genious." What transpires is a personal story of hope, maturity, and "life imitating art." The book has been acclaimed as a living biography of George Whitman, a very good one!

Visit At Home with Books to read more Favorite Reads.

Wordful Wednesday

FOOTBALL BEGINS

My son plays football (he is visible in the 2nd pic, white t-shirt and red shorts). It is a grueling sport for a kid, he has played since he was seven years old. He loves it. Official practice began Monday night, the famed "hell week" is going on now. They run, run, and run some more. Next week they get their pads, then they will hit, hit, and hit some more!

Visit SevEn cLoWn CirCuS: Wordful Wednesday-Animal Incidents to see Angie's pictures and view more participants in Wordful Wednesday! :)

Manic Monday

Good morning, fellow book and beach lovers! Welcome to Manic Monday where I list some of the books that will be released Tuesday. I call it Manic, because the amount of books released each week is absolutely CRAZY insane! It takes me AGES ::wink:: to browse through the lists and lists of titles, then decide which to include here!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Eclipse (The Twilight Series) by Stephenie Meyer (paperback) vampire, romance, PAPERBACK!!!

Bad Moon Rising: A Dark Hunter Novel by Sherrilyn Kenyon (hardcover) paranormal; vampire/werewolf; gothic romance

The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners by Luanne Rice (hardcover) women's fiction; family issues; summer stories

I Can See You by Karen Rose (hardcover) romantic suspense; computer/online murder mystery

The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom (hardcover) debut author; ghosts; haunted house

Alibi by Teri Woods (hardcover) thriller; crime novel

The Last Ember by Daniel Levin (hardcover) legal suspense; religious/archaeological thriller (said to be comparable to DaVinci code!)

Of Bees and Mist: A Novel by Eric Setiawan (hardcover) debut author; mysticism; mystery; supernatural

Non-Fiction of Interest
A Long Bright Future: The Very Good News About Living Longer by Laura L. Carstensen, Ph.D (hardcover) longevity; financial security; healthy aging

Of course, these are not all books released, if you know any of interest that I missed, please comment about them here!

Toodles,
BookLady

P.S. April Showers is having a totally groovy blog design giveaway!
Check it out, pretty please! ::bats eyelashes::

Sundays in My City

Welcome to Sundays in My City! Unknown Mami has devoted her Sunday postings to wonderful pictures of her city. Today, she invites us all to join in. Visit her to add your link or just to see how other bloggers spend their Sundays!

In my small city, we are lucky enough to have a labyrinth. It is a quiet, spiritual place to walk, meditate, and pray. The above photo is the entrance. The photo below is the angel statue which is a reminder of the sacredness (of quiet, peace, and no talking "policy").




The next photo is of the center of the maze. Here, one can sit and rest while praying or meditating before re-entering the maze to follow the way back out.




I enjoyed my walk to the labyrinth today. I felt calm and refreshed afterwards. (I spent about 15 minutes in the center of the maze, desperately trying to quiet my mind!) I have lived here for 20 years and love to share my favorite places with people. Our city is only 3.5 square miles, but it is full of wonderful surprises. Join me (and Mami!) every Sunday as I share these treasures with you!