Dead as a Doornail, Charlaine Harris

Well, Sookie Stackhouse fans, I finally read number 5, Dead as a Doornail.  Love, love, triple love this series! 

In this installment someone appears to be out to get the shifters around Bon Temps, and since Sookie is related to or secretly in love with about half of them this is of some concern.  Add to that Eric's persistence in trying to remember what happened between them during the Witch War, Bill's reappearance, and some political shenanigans in Alcide's pack and you have quite a mess for Sookie to clean up, as usual.

If you have no idea what the paragraph above is about, shame on you!  If you enjoy campy, soapish story lines involving the paranormal, you probably already read these books, but if you haven't, go get them NOW!  Harris's books are escapism at its best.  No real thought required, just a desire to immerse yourself in a completely unbelievable world that is inexplicably believable in these novels.

OK, I do have to admit that I did think a little bit when I read this one...and I have one complaint, Ms. Harris.  Seriously, how many men have to be fighting for Sookie's attention?  Thank goodness no one ever started that Team Edward/Team Jacob nonsense with these books.  You'd need several Facebook fan pages to take care of Team Bill, Team Sam, Team Eric, Team Alcide, Team Calvin, and now Team Quinn (though I would totally be a fan of Team Sam!).  Also, if you are going to give her any more suitors, can one of them not be a testosterone-fueled, macho, paternalistic guy?  I'd like the next one to say, "Wow, Sookie, look how strong and smart and loyal you are...I know that you can take care of yourself, so instead of swooping in to save you even when you don't want me to, I'll be here when you get home to fix you some tea."  Now that would be a guy I could get behind.  Regardless of that small complaint, I will be starting Definitely Dead pretty much as soon as I finish this review.

Teaser Tuesdays (and an award)

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• 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!

"I will hold him ransom. I give you fourteen years of maternal bliss and life to enjoy your love whelp in the Realm of Flesh. But when I tell you to return, you will bring the child back with you for a lovely family reunion. If you do not return, I will flay your lover every day and force him to eat his skin, for all eternity." He stretched his neck down, down, to press his tacky nose against the woman's horrified face. "Do you agree?"

(Pg 7, Half World by Hiromi Goto)

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Darlyn of Darlyn & Books awarded me a You've Made A Difference Award and I cannot thank her enough!

Quoted from Darlyn's post: "This award is given to followers who have been with you since the beginning of your blog, who have continually stuck with you, and who are still there."

The rules of this award:
1) Link to the blogger you received this award from
2) And then pass this award onto ten other followers or bloggers that have been with you since the beginning.

I want to pass this award to ALL my readers for reading my blog (because you all inspire me to write better), and especially to the following friends who have been there for me since the beginning of my blog (in no particular order):

~ Julia @ Julia's Books Corner
~ Alice @ Hello, My Name Is Alice
~ Wendy @ Musings of a Bookish Kitty
~ Nymeth @ Things Mean A Lot
~ Iliana @ Bookgirl's Nightstand
~ Naida @ The Bookworm

Thank you! You all rock!

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

This Monday post finds me sitting at the computer much later than usual, still nursing my coffee.  Ahhh, sweet three day weekends!  Pretty soon every day will feel like a three day weekend-only 6 more days of school left.  Well, two more days of "school" and then a picnic and three half days.  Surely we will all survive!

This week I finished Little Bee, by Chris Cleave, as well as When She Flew, by Jennie Shortridge.  That brings me up to a whopping 30 books on the year (for a full list click here), putting me very far behind in my quest to complete the 100+ Book Challenge.  Come on, summer!  I've got some serious making up to do.

Right now I am reading Dead as a Doornail, by Charlaine Harris.  Number five in the Sookie Stackhouse series, I'm only about 50 pages into it but I am enjoying it just as much as the others.  That may have something to do with the fact that I just finished watching the HBO series On Demand-I figured I better keep myself immersed in Bon Temps if I don't want the show to outpace me!  I got #5 and #6 together through Bookswap, so I may just read Definitely Dead next.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Monday Ramblings

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I had had a long weekend since last Friday was a public holiday for us here - Vesak Day. Initially my husband and I had talked about going for a short vacation during this period, but we changed our mind at the last minute. And since the opening of Universal Studios Singapore in March this year, we had talked about visiting the theme park and what made this visit so exciting is that it is the second Universal Studios Theme Park to open in Asia (the first in Japan) so all of us were looking forward to it.

So last Wednesday, we went to the theme park but unfortunately its main attraction - Battlestar Galactica (the world's tallest dueling roller coaster) was not available so we could only marvel at the structure from afar and took some pictures. Anyway, my post for this trip would be forthcoming so stay tuned for that!

Reading wise, I finished reading Hate List by Jennifer Brown last Friday. I totally enjoyed the reading experience, though I have to say it wasn't a happy story but still a powerful and thought-provoking read. My review will be up soon.

There's no Mailbox Monday post today since I did not receive any books last week, but I did buy two books over the weekend: Half World by Hiromi Goto (illustrated by Jillian Tamaki) and Keep Sweet by Michele Dominguez Greene. Actually I have plans to read another book after finishing Hate List but I just could not help picking up Half World for my next read because the premise sounds so intriguing! It is a coming-of-age story with a fantasy theme and I knew I just have to read it, now! Anyway, I am already mesmerised by the plot and I cannot wait to share my thoughts with you once I am done with it.

So that's my account of what's been happening in my life for the past few days. What about you? Did you go anywhere? What books are you reading now?

When She Flew, Jennie Shortridge

I will admit to being a little nervous when my friend Mary gave be the book When She Flew, by Jennie Shortridge.  Shortridge is a childhood friend of hers, and as a result I started worrying about what I would write here if I didn't like the book.  (It never occurred to me not to write a review...guess I'm a book blogger for real now!)  Thankfully I enjoyed the book, and am therefore let off the hook of having to write a negative review of a friend (which is what it would have felt like!).

When She Flew is the story of Jess and Lindy.  Jess is a police-officer, a single mom of a single mom-her daughter had a baby at 16 and left home to live with her father.  Lindy is the 13 year-old daughter of an Iraq war vet.  She and her dad have been living "off the grid" in the Oregon wilderness.  When a birdwatcher catches sight of Lindy and reports a child in danger to the police, Jess and Lindy's worlds meet with jarring consequences.

In terms of story, this book reminded me a little bit of Jodi Picoult Light, and I mean that as a compliment.  It's the kind of story that Jodi Picoult likes to tell-one about family and love and society and redemption.  However, Shortridge's book is heavier on the personal and lighter on the political than a Picoult book is.  The story is simple without being simplistic, an easy read that still provides depth and substance.  It highlights one of the most current of current-events, the Iraq war and its repercussions, in a way that isn't preachy or jingoistic, just honest.

My only criticism is that Jess's character seemed so guilt-ridden over her choices as a mother.  Her daughter, enraged by her mother for kicking her father out when she was 10 or so, becomes combative, finally removing herself mostly from Jess's life when she gets pregnant.  Throughout the book Jess expresses remorse again and again for putting her career before her daughter, but nothing about the way that their life is described makes me think she was an absent mother.  I think that too often working women are portrayed in media, and made to feel guilty for, having a career and interests outside of child-rearing.  We are all supposed to be horribly conflicted and feel guilty the whole time we are away, living only for the moment we can be with our precious child again.  While I'm sure that is the experience of some women, there are also plenty of women who see their career as an important part of their identity, and who don't feel as though they have to sacrifice everything about themselves to say they are a good mom.  Balance is possible.  I understand why Shortridge wrote Jess that way-she needed a plausible motivation for her actions in the story.  I just wish some other mechanism could have been found to make that happen.

But, as my friend Mary will tell you, I tend to over-analyze anything remotely feminist in nature.  Mary, if you're reading this, I'm sure you are shaking your head and chuckling that I manage to find something political in such a simple, personal story.  Well, you know me...I love nothing more than a good debate!  Regardless of how I feel about Jess's motivation in the story, this book is an enjoyable, poignant read.

Little Bee, Chris Cleave

Little Bee is the story of a Nigerian refugee, an English woman, and a superhero.  The refugee is Little Bee herself, a 16 year old Nigerian girl who fled her country to escape retribution for being witness to the destruction of her village. It seems her village had the bad luck to be located on top of a large reserve of oil, and the government and the oil companies wanted to get at it without having to worry about little things like relocating people or paying them fair value for their land.  On the day "the men came", Little Bee and her sister watched as their family and friends were killed and their houses burned to the ground.  They escaped through the woods, only to be caught hours later on the beach.  Improbably, Sarah, the Englishwoman, and her husband were walking down that beach, on a vacation.  When the men caught up with the girls, Sarah and her husband tried to protect them, with tragic consequences.  Two years later, Little Bee contacts Sarah.  She's in England, having stowed away on a boat and spent the time since they last met in a detention center.  Little Bee's call starts another sequence of tragic events in motion for Sarah, her husband, and her son, Batman.

I don't usually read reviews of a book while I am reading it, but I did look into this one a bit.  Mostly because the back cover has such an unusually cutesy "summary" for a rather tragic story.  It reminded me of the Series of Unfortunate Events narrator, who was constantly telling you to stop reading, only in reverse.  Anyway, the reviews were pretty evenly mixed between good and bad, and I guess that's how I felt about the novel in general-good and bad all mixed up together.

So, what's bad?  I understand suspension of disbelief when reading fiction, but the idea of two middle-class English people choosing to take a vacation to Nigeria seemed too implausible to me.  Maybe I don't know enough about the tourist industry in Europe, but Nigeria, with it's oil wars, seems like a strange place to go. Without that visit to the beach, none of the rest of the novel would have been possible the way it was written.  However, I'm not sure why we needed to see the story of an African refugee through the eyes of a middle-class English woman at all.  Cleave seemed to be trying to equate the experience of Sarah with the experiences of Little Bee, and frankly that is just ridiculous.  It felt very much like white-liberal-guilt-redemption fantasy to me.  Sadly, in our world, it does often happen that the only way we pay attention to the plight of those in the developing world is by how it affects our own experiences.

What's good?  Little Bee as narrator makes the rest of the slightly unbelievable story worth it.  Her  voice as written by Cleave is lyrical and innocent, yet worldly and wise.  My favorite thing in the book is the first line:  "Most days I wish I was a British pound coin instead of and African girl."  Little Bee's point of view makes everything that Sarah and her family go to look small.  While his portrayal of her could also smack of "noble savage" stereotype, she is shown with a depth of human emotion and a capacity for good and for bad that makes her completely relate-able.    What is also good is the fact that regardless of how he goes about it, Cleave does a good job highlighting some of the problems of refugees.  Most rational people would consider Little Bee a political refugee, but because England did not recognize the oil wars in her country "officially", she was left in a gray area legally.  I was shocked to discover after reading a bit that she was only 14 when she came to England, but she was thrown into detention with adults and given no schooling.  Our oil addiction in the developed world helped create the situation in the first place, but we avert our eyes to the consequences, and then call the displaced human beings refugees or illegal aliens, and deport them back where they came from.

Final verdict-an entertaining, imperfect, enlightening, enjoyable read.  I mean really, aren't we all a little good and a little bad thrown in together?

Friday Book Blogger Hop

Welcome hoppers!  I hope that everyone has had a great reading week!  Haven't had much time for exploring new blogs this week, but here are a couple that I continue to love!

S.Krishna's Books

Page Turners

Reading with Tequila

 

Crazy-for-Books  hosts this weekly meme.

 
ABOUT THE HOP:

In the spirit of the Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and find new blogs that we may be missing out on!  This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books!  It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs that they may not know existed!  So, grab the logo, post about the Hop on your blog, and start HOPPING through the list of blogs that are posted in the Linky list below!!

The Hop lasts Friday-Monday every week, so if you don't have time to Hop today, come back later and join the fun!  This is a weekly event!

Your blog should have content related to books, including, but not limited to book reviews.

If you start following someone through the Hop, leave a comment on their blog to let them know!  Stop back during the week to see other blogs that are added!  And, most importantly, the idea is to HAVE FUN!!

Booking Through Thursday: Bedside

What books do you have next to your bed right now? How about other places in the house? What are you reading?

I don't keep books next to my bed. In fact, I have a small table in our living room where I kept all my current reads, including magazines. As for the rest of my TBR pile, they are kept in our study room and store room.

Though my choice of books are always on-the-spur-of-a-moment thing, however I do have a few books in mind for my next reading; two of which are review copies, a few YA novels and a Japanese fiction titled Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse, translated by John Bester. I'm currently reading Hate List by Jennifer Brown, which is both a powerful and a riveting read. My review will be up next week.

So what are you reading? And what's on your reading list next?

Confessions of the Other Mother

What makes a person a mother?  How do women who do not identify with traditional femininity fit into the role of mother?  What is it like watching your partner have a physical closeness with your child that you will neve have?  These are all questions posed (and sometimes answered) by the collection of essays Confessions of the Other Mother: Non-Biological Lesbian Moms Tell All.

I was drawn to this book (despite my previously stated aversion to most non-fiction) because my partner, Amanda, could have contributed to the book.  While our 16 year old daughter came about the old-fashioned way from my first marriage, Amanda and I have been raising her together since she was about eight.  I wanted to get some insight into the kinds of experiences that other women had had with blended families.

Had I been paying more attention to the actual table of contents during my book buying frenzy at the conference where I bought this book, I would have noticed that there is only one essay in the book about step-mothering. But I'm glad that I didn't pay more attention, because I would have missed out on some fascinating stories.  From poignant to frustrating, political to deeply personal, the authors of these essays have shared an experience that not only helps me understand lesbian mothering, but actually gave me insight into straight fathering.  It never occurred to me that women who identify strongly as butch would have trouble not just being called mother, but with identifying with our society's definition of maternal.  Or that there would be jealousy from the non-birth spouse over the closeness of breastfeeding (this was the one that got me thinking about straight fathers).  Or that people were really so insensitive as to ask which mother is the "real" mother.

The one that spoke the most strongly to me was written by one of the women who brought about the lawsuit that led to the Massachusetts gay marriage decision, Hilary Goodrich.  Her partner had to have a C-section while delivering their daughter.  The baby was born in some distress, so she was rushed to the NICU, and Goodrich went with her.  After sitting next to her daughter's bed until the crisis passed, she went back to check on her partner-and was told that she could not "visit" because she was not "family".  She then tried to go back to the NICU, where she was stopped at the door because she was not the "mother".  Imagine not being able to go to the person you love or your child when they are sick or in pain, and the frustration and anger you'd feel.   

There has been a lot of debate in our country over the years about what makes a family.  I think that most of us have gotten our heads around the idea of single parents, blended families, and families with grandparents as the main child-rearers.  Based on the stories in Confessions, we still have some work to do on honoring and valuing the love and care that exists in families led by same-sex parents.

Wordless Wednesday

Merlion Park

The Merlion in Merlion Park is a well-known tourist icon of Singapore.

The Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay

The Esplanade is also referred by many Singaporeans as "The Durian" or "The Big Durian" due to the outer architecture which looks like the tropical fruit.

Singapore

(March 10th, 2006)

Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James

ISBN-13: 9780425226742
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Published: March 2009
304 pgs
Source: Personal Library

I have to confess that the main reason I picked up this book was due to my addiction to a drama serial I watched lately, in which it featured a charismatic lawyer who had lost his memory due to a brain surgery and how fate has brought him and his ex-girlfriend back together again. Though this book has nothing to do with that show, the hero in this book was a lawyer too and on top of that, I have read a few rave reviews of it which are enough to pique my curiosity.

Anyway, Practice Makes Perfect was a fun and entertaining read. Packed with witty dialogues and with a theme surrounding the battle between the sexes, this story is about two talented and ambitious lawyers who managed to find love in each other despite their differences and through some ordeals they encountered.

What I enjoyed about reading this book is the clash between the protagonists; Payton Kendall is a feminist at heart while J.D. Jameson is a cocky hero who thinks he has it all. It is no wonder that they could not see eye to eye with each other; and the most interesting part is where they are to compete with each other for the role of partner at the firm but what they did not realise is that despite all the competitions their feelings for each other have already taken shape right from the beginning they have set eyes on each other. Though I liked the idea that they are more or less attracted towards each other earlier (never mind if there is any misunderstanding issue or whatsoever), I have to say it might make the story more intense and interesting if they are portrayed as a pair of bitter rivals and nothing more as I would like to know how they would resolve their differences and all.

My views aside, I have to admit I had great admiration in Payton because of the way she handles things well in a calm and professional manner, and not because of her role as a lawyer but more of how she could manage to turn things around during an awkward situation (readers who have read this book about the court scene would be able to get what I meant). As for J.D. Jameson, the feminist in me cheered when I learnt that he did show remorse after all the things he had done to Payton earlier, and vice versa. All in all, I enjoyed reading this book. It made me laugh and think that opposite attraction does work. After all, there are no rules when it comes to the laws of attraction, and I couldn't agree more with that.

Other reviews:
Angieville
Babbling About Books, and More
Books Lists Life
Dear Author
The Raving Readers
(Let me know if I missed yours.)

Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
  
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• 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!

Ben paused to look at each of them. "We've decided to name only one litigation partner this year. Only one of you will make it."

It was as if all the air had been sucked out of the room.

(Pg 72, Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by One Person's Journey Through Books, this weekly meme gives us bloggers a chance to review our reading week and plan for the next one!

Last week I finished Confessions of the Other Mother: Non-Biological Lesbian Moms Speak Out, which is exactly what it sounds like it is-a collection of essays from lesbian moms who did not actually give birth to their children.  Review to come soon!  I also finished The Diamond of Darkhold, which I already reviewed here.
Rounding out the list for last week was Town in a Blueberry Jam, by B.B. Haywood.

This week I'm reading Little Bee by Chris Cleve.  So far I am loving the narrator of Little Bee, an African refugee from Nigeria who comes to England to find the family she met during one horrifying day "when the men came" to her village.  I love the first line:  "Most days I wish I was a British pound coin instead of an African girl."  I got back to class two nights a week instead of one this week, so until school gets out I'm back to one book at a time.  Hope everyone has a great reading week!

Mailbox Monday and My Very First Library Loot Post!

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia from The Printed Page where readers get to share the books that came into their house last week.

Here's what I received last week, which I bought from The Book Depository:

1) Seize the Fire by Laura Kinsale

2) Extreme Danger by Shannon McKenna

What books came into your house last week?

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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. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

I know I did mention before that I haven't visited a library for a long time, due to the fact that I'm such a slow reader and that I'd rather read books at my own pace (and not to mention I've a huge TBR pile waiting to be read), but last Friday while I was waiting for my husband to arrive so we could have our dinner before we went for grocery shopping at a neighbourhood mall, I spotted a public library situated next to the foodcourt so as a way to pass the time and also out of curiosity, I stepped into the library not expecting to borrow any books until my attention fell upon this book:

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Suddenly, I lost all my self-control when it comes to saying no to library books and I knew I just have to read this! So there you have it, my very first Library Loot post! So does that mean that I would be borrowing more books in the near future? Frankly speaking, I have no idea and with this little experience I have learned to say, "Never say never".

Scrumptious Dessert?

So, remember a couple of weeks ago I wrote a review of People of Sparks and how I felt like City of Ember was just an appetizer for People of Sparks and I was wondering if the last book,  The Diamond of Darkhold, would be a scrumptious dessert. Well, I finished The Diamond of Darkhold, and it tasted more like a Hostess Twinkie than tiramisu. 


The Diamond of Darkhold is the final chapter in the story of Lina and Doon, two residents of the former city of Ember, current residents of the village of Sparks, the surviving remnant of a civilization that annihilated itself through greed and violence.  The story picks up during the first winter that the former residents of Ember are living in Sparks.  After living their whole lives underground, the Emberites were unprepared for the cold, rainy weather of above-ground winter.  Lina and Doon decide to return to their former home to try and find something to help their new neighbors get through the long winter months.  They find hints in an old book that the people who built their city may have left something behind, and they set out to find it.

It's not that I didn't enjoy the book, because I did (after all, Twinkies are a tasty snack!).  I just found there to be the same general lack of substance in this book as in the first, City of Ember.  The story was enjoyable, the characters were well-written, the setting was evocative-there just weren't enough universal themes for me to sink my teeth into.  People of Sparks had so much to say about the way that we as a society view outsiders, or the way people use fear to manipulate others, or the way that we solve (or fail to solve) conflicts. Diamond of Darkhold was entertaining, but ultimately it didn't really speak to any larger truths.  I realize that I read lots of things for entertainment only-I certainly don't expect existential enlightenment from a cozy mystery or formula thriller.  However, if a young adult novel is going to really grab me, given the readability level, it has to have something more to say.

Welcome Hoppers!

Come on in-the water's fine!

Here's some great blogs I've found on the Hop lately:

Our Year in Books-a husband and wife team reading their way through the year, GREAT reviews!
The Book Whisperer-Very witty, very smart blogger from "across the pond"

ABOUT THE HOP: (Hosted by Random Ramblings)

In the spirit of the Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and find new blogs that we may be missing out on!  This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books!  It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs that they may not know existed!  So, grab the logo, post about the Hop on your blog, and start HOPPING through the list of blogs that are posted in the Linky list below!!

The Hop lasts Friday-Monday every week, so if you don't have time to Hop today, come back later and join the fun!  This is a weekly event!

Your blog should have content related to books, including, but not limited to book reviews.

If you start following someone through the Hop, leave a comment on their blog to let them know!  Stop back during the week to see other blogs that are added!  And, most importantly, the idea is to HAVE FUN!!

Town in a Blueberry Jam, by B.B. Haywood

A month or so ago I was lucky enough to win Sharon's Garden of Book Review's Spring Cozy Give-Away.  One beautiful spring day I received a box with over 10 titles-HOORAY!  Thanks again Sharon!

Now, it should be said that I am fairly new to the cozy mystery sub-genre.  Last year I was browsing on the Books-A-Million website, and I discovered a couple new mystery series with female protagonists.  I assumed they would be like Sharon McCone or Kay Scarpetta.  Instead, they were more like Jessica Fletcher.  Women of a certain age, ordinary moms/shopkeepers/bakers/scrapbookers/librarians/vampires/telepaths (OK, I guess vampires and telepaths are not ordinary, but there are cozy mysteries about them, so whatever) solving mysteries not because it is their job, but because they are kind and thoughtful, or nosy and bossy, or wrongly accused themselves, and want to see justice done.  Little did I know that I was finding a new-to-me sub-genre complete with it's own websites and blogs!

So, with a box full of cozies to choose from, I picked Town in a Blueberry Jam, by B.B. Haywood.  Mostly I chose it because it is the beginning of a series, and most of the other titles are continuations, so I wanted to start something fresh.  The story revolves around the ridiculously-named Candy Holliday, a former marketing exec turned blueberry farmer in southeastern Maine.  After her marriage failed, and her mother died, she moved with her father, Doc, to Blueberry Acres to try a different kind of life.  As the story opens Candy is preparing for the annual Blueberry Festival, which includes the pageant to crown the Blueberry Queen.  After an unexpected turn-of-events leads to the winner being a 30-something woman instead of a high school student, chaos and murder ensue.  Candy and her best friend Maggie are left to try and find the truth behind this mysterious death.

The thing about cozy mysteries is that you just have to take them as they are.  They are light, rather shallow, easy to read, and I don't know about you but I can usually see the answer to the mystery coming from pretty early on in the book.  What makes them enjoyable, at least for me, is the fact that they are light, rather shallow, easy to read, and easy to figure out.  They are the perfect book for when my brain is tired, like it is at the end of a school year.  I don't necessarily want deep, thoughtful literature.  I want escapism.  Town in a Blueberry Jam helped me to escape from the stress and chaos that the end of the year brings in my world.  There are two major things in its favor.  One,  it is set in my favorite part of the country, New England.  Haywood does a good job evoking a small-town summer in that part of the world.  And, it kept me guessing.  I thought I had it figured out, but there was a twist at the end that I didn't see coming.  Overall, Town in a Blueberry Jam was a pleasant, if not earth-shattering, way to spend a couple of days.

This Week's Top Ten-Best Villains

Welcome to another Top Ten, a weekly meme hosted by Jillian at Random Ramblings.  This week's topic is best villains.  I think that writing a good villain is actually more of a feat than writing a good hero. Authors can create flawed, layered, multi-faceted heroes, but to create a truly, deliciously evil villain takes skill beyond the usual. At least in my humble opinion, a great villain is one that you have a end up having a grudging respect for, despite their evilness. They inspire revulsion. They are the characters that we love to hate.

My list comprises characters from young adult and adult fiction, old characters and new. In no particular order, here are my picks...

1. The Trunchbull, from Matilda by Roald Dahl:  The Trunchbull is probably my favorite young adult villain.  There is no other word for her but bully.  She uses her power to make others feel small, and her complete lack of human feeling towards the children under her "care" makes her truly despicable.

2.  Bill Sikes, from Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens:  Even the musical version of Oliver Twist can't make light of the evil that is Bill Sikes.  He's brutal, heartless-basically he has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.  Kidnapping, domestic abuse, murder...and no remorse

 3.  Hannibal Lecter, from Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris:  He was already on my list of the best characters I've read, and he fits here as well.   No one embodies what it means to be a sociopathic serial killer like Lecter.  Deliciously played by Sir Anthony Hopkins, he is perhaps the most delightfully chilling character I've ever watched or read.

4.  Nurse Ratched, from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kessey:  The story of an Oregon insane asylum is horrifying enough, but add a sadistic, power and control-hungry head nurse and you have a recipe for horror.  Characters like Nurse Ratched are all the more frustrating because of their complete control of the hero.  I felt as helpless as the inmates in the face of Nurse Ratched's calm, rational, evil logic.

5.  The White Witch, from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis:  The way she manipulates Edmund into betraying his brother and sisters was so devious!  And what kind of evil does it take to make it always winter but never Christmas?

6.  Cruella De Vil, from The Hundred and One Dalmations, by Dodie Smith:  I'm not sure that most children's publishers would have the nerve to publish a novel with such a horrible, selfish woman.    I mean, really, she's going to slaughter a bunch of innocent puppies to make a coat.  

7.  Anne Coulter, from, well, every Anne Coulter book:  OK, I know that she is not a fictional character, but I think that her cruel sarcasm, her complete lack of compassion, her namecalling, and her general mean-spiritedness make her truly villainous.  It's not just that she and I disagree politically and philosophically about EVERYTHING.  There are people that I disagree with deeply that I respect and admire.  It's how nasty she is-I would disapprove of her behavior even if she was a flaming liberal like myself putting down conservatives the same way she demonizes liberals.

8.  Max Cady, from The Executioners, by John D. McDonald:  Known better to most people as Cape Fear, from the two movies of that name starring Robert Mitchum and Robert DeNiro respectively, Max Cady is creeeeeeeeepy!

9.  Sauron, from The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R.Tolkien:  The prototype for Harry Potter's Lord Voldemort was darkness and death incarnate.  His evil sucked in all light, all love, all hope.  I think that the scariest part of that series is not the fierce battles between the heroes and the army of Sauron, but the utter devastation and barrenness, the soul-sucking slog that was the journey to Mordor.

10.  Annie Wilkes, R.N., from Misery by Stephen King:  One word-CRAAAAAAZY!  OK, two words-blowtorch.

On Folly Beach by Karen White

ISBN-13: 9780451229212
Publisher: NAL Accent
Published: May 2010
416 pgs
Source: Joan Schulhafer Publishing & Media Consulting
(ARC)


I fell in love with Karen White's writing style after reading a few of her earlier work - The Lost Hours and the Tradd Street series so when I knew she has a new book coming out this month, I just knew I have to read it!

Set in the 1940s and the Year 2009, On Folly Beach tells the story of the life of three women - Emmy during the present day, and Margaret and her younger sister, Lulu during the WWII period. Told in a third person perspective and with Emmy's and Margaret's stories alternate between the time span through chapters, I find this method to be effective as it allows the readers to get sucked into their stories at the same time instead of splitting into parts (which can be also effective in portraying the story but in a different light).

The story opens when Emmy is still depressed from the loss of her husband. To distract her from drowning into her misery, her mother suggested that she bought Folly's Finds, a bookstore at Folly Beach in South Carolina. Emmy is not at all keen with the idea in the first place, after all she is so used to her life living in her parents' place, tending to her mother's bookstore. Her curiosity is piqued only after she discovered some love notes written in some of the used books her mother had bought from Folly's Finds, and she thinks it might not be a bad idea to go to Folly Beach after all.

Upon reaching Folly Beach, she is somewhat touched by the warm hospitality from Abigail, the woman who owns Folly's Finds and her son, Heathcliff (he was named after a character in Wuthering Heights) but she could not say the same towards his great aunt, Lulu, for she feels Lulu's cool demeanour whenever she is around her. However, Emmy knew the older woman might have some answers in regards to the love notes found in those old books so she is hoping to find out some truth from her, though she knew it might take her some time and efforts to break the ice. Besides the mystery surrounding those love notes, Emmy is also interested in Lulu's bottle trees and why she is so adamant about continuing to sell them from the store's backyard.

When Emmy began to discover more love notes, the more she learned about the past history at Folly Beach and the relationship between Lulu and her elder sister, Margaret. The most interesting part is where readers will learn not only about Margaret's life but also her relationship between her lover, Peter as well as her cousin, Catherine.

While reading this book, I was very much like Emmy as we both have questions surrounding Margaret, Peter and Catherine, and not to mention Lulu who played an important role in this story. However, this is not all about mystery and secrets but is also about finding hope and having a second chance. With great characterisation and an intriguing plot, Karen White has succeeded in bringing this heartwarming story to life. And before I end this post, I need to mention that I absolutely loved the literary references mentioned in this book, as I am sure this will delight many booklovers. There, I said it. I hope I managed to convince you into reading this book because I really enjoyed it.

(Click here for other bookbloggers' reviews.)

Hey, Want an E-Readers for Free?

Monica at The Bibliophilic Book Blog is being very generous right now-she is giving away 10 e-readers!  If you'd like to get in on the giveaway action, go to her site, become a follower, and sign up!

Wordless Wednesday

Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore
March 10th, 2006

Below are just a few exhibits shown in the museum. We did not take many pictures due to the lightings. And most of the pictures we took are too dark anyway.

I can't remember what artefact this is. It might be a religious artefact but I am not sure.

A Dragon Robe worn by the Chinese Emperor

Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• 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!

In the top right margin of the right-hand page was handwriting, the black of the ink now a bruised shade of purple.

The broad, thick strokes of the letters were undoubtedly made by a male and as she brought the book closer to read it better in the dim light, she found herself blushing at the intimacy of his words.

(Pg 32, On Folly Beach by Karen White)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This week was a pretty good week for me.  I finished Push, by Sapphire, and City of Ember and People of Sparks, by Jeanne DuPrau.  I've started to have hope that I will actually get back on track for the 100+ Book Challenge that I so enthusiastically signed up for in January.  What is it about that dark, cold month that makes us want to take up new challenges (which we often put down again by February!)

Right now, I'm working on one of the cozy mysteries I won in the spring giveaway at Sharon's Garden of Book Reviews, called Town in the Blueberry Jam, by BB Haywood.  It's a fun, light read for the end of the school year.  I'm also reading the last book in the City of Ember series, The Diamond of Darkhold.  Is it wrong that I hope there are some kids on lunch detention today so I can sit at my desk and read during my lunch duty?

I'm also still making my way through Confessions of the Other Mother: Non-Biological Lesbian Moms Tell All.  I'm really enjoying the essays, but I can only get through a couple before I am ready for something else.  It's not a difficult read at all, but without a narrative holding the whole thing together my very tired, end-of-the-school-year-brain starts to wander after 20 pages or so.  So hopefully I'll finish that up this week as well.

Have a great week everyone!