Wordless Wednesday (Austin #2)

Texas State Capitol

Top Ten Tuesday: Jerkface!

Thanks to The Broke and the Bookish for hosting this weekly excuse for list-making!  This week's topic is Top Ten Literary Jerks.  Well, I guess the hero/villain dichotomy doesn't really work without Jerky Jerkerson, the jerky mayor of Jerkytown, Jerksylvania, so here are a few I found distasteful.

1.  Anne Coulter-I don't care if she's a real person (and that she isn't literary)!  She's still a bookish jerk!  She is everything that is wrong with the way politics is discussed in this country.  While we disagree about, oh, every single topic in American political and cultural life, I could live with that if she could express her disagreement without calling people names like the playground bully.


2.  Curly, Of Mice and Men-Curly was the boss's son, the little guy who liked to pick fights to try and prove what a man he was.  There should really be a sub-category of jerkiness just for boss's sons.  And to continue a theme...

3.  Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter-While not exactly the boss's son, he was a child of privilege who felt a need to hold it over everyone's head and generally make their lives miserable.

4.  Bill Sikes, Oliver Twist-He takes jerkiness to a whole new level.  I mean, is there any major crime he leaves undone?  Robbery, child abuse, domestic violence, animal cruelty, and murder-he's a one stop criminal shop.  Plus, he's a got a really foul attitude!

5.  Prior Godwyn, World Without End-I've been listening to the second installment of Ken Follett's epic tale of medieval cathedral/bridge building, and while most of the men in the novel make me want to run my car into the embankment with their sexism and superstition, Prior Godwyn takes the cake.  While you have to excuse most of the characters their ignorance due to, you know, the fact that they are living in 14th century England, he is purposefully and willfully deceptive, manipulative, greedy, and dishonest.

6. Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood, Matilda-While the Trunchbull has made my list of favorite villains and bitc..I mean, mean girls, this category seems prefectly made for Matilda's neglectful, conniving, hateful parents.  Thank goodness for Miss Honey!

7.  Big Jim Rennie, Under the Dome-Stephen King always has some jerky characters in his books, but very few rise to the level of Big Jim.  When the dome descends on his small Maine town, Big Jim, car salesman and city councilman, could have gone into action to help his fellow townspeople.  Instead, he steals their propane, gets anyone who disagrees with him thrown in jail and/or beaten, and tries to protect a meth lab that ends up destroying the whole town when it explodes.  That, and he doesn't even notice his own son has gone off the deep end.

8.  Daniel Cleaver, Bridget Jones Diary-I have to admit that I never read this book, only saw the movie version.  Chick lit isn't really my thing, but the movie had Hugh Grant in it, so there you go.  What I didn't realize going in was that he was the jerkface of that story.  Oh, but what a cute jerkface it is!

9.  Commander Fred, The Handmaid's Tale-Let's see, he and the other powerful men that killed the president and created a theocratic military regime keep fertile women as slaves, refusing to even allow them their own name, all for the glory of God and country.  And the description of the martial bed...ewwwww does not begin to cover it.

10.  Jack Randall, Outlander-When Claire finds herself transported back to 18th century Scotland, the first person she meets is this cruel, sneering man.  He later proves to be sadistic and single-minded in his desire to hurt her and have her husband Jamie as his own.  When Jamie is later captured by Randall, he is tortured and sexually assaulted by him.  Charming.

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!

Everyone had been certain that a friendship of two brothers and one woman could not last - that one brother, the better brother, would "take home the prize."

But Jonathan knew and took refuge in the truth - that even though Garret was so much more popular and accomplished and praised than Jonathan had ever been, they were equal in Thea's eyes.

(Pg 121, Slow Dancing on Price's Pier by Lisa Dale)

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. This month's Mailbox Monday is hosted by Mari Reads.

Here's what I received last week:

1) So Much Closer by Susane Colasanti (purchased from The Book Depository)

2) Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts (The Book Depository)

3) The Taker by Alma Katsu (The Book Depository)

4) Ten Beach Road by Wendy Wax (from the publicist)

5) When You Dare by Lori Foster (a surprise galley from the same publicist)

What books came into your house last week?

Spider Bones, Kathy Reichs

Back in my "only reads mystery and thrillers" days, I became infatuated with the Temperance Brennan series by Kathy Reichs.  I loved all of the smart, strong female detectives-Kinsey Milhone, Kay Scarpetta, Skip Langdon-but Tempe was one of my favorites.  Maybe it was the whole anthropology thing, but I devoured every book as soon as I could get my hands on it.

Then came the show Bones-so loosely based on this series that if the character didn't have the same name I would never have known they were related at all.  After the success of Bones, it felt to me like Reichs was calling it in with her books.  I know that there must have been pressure on her to keep churning out the books at the same one-a-year rate even after she started working on the show, but the last few books have been pretty thin-in numbers of pages, plot, and character development.

So it is with great pleasure that I am able to report that Spider Bones, her latest book, seems to be swinging back in the other direction.  In Spider Bones, Tempe investigates a drowning victim in Canada.  It seems like a clear case of accidental death, but there's a snag-the fingerprints identify the victim as a man who was supposedly killed in Viet Nam in 1968.  Tempe travels to Hawaii to the Joint Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command, or JPAC, a military agency tasked with searching out and identifying America's war dead from World War II, Korea, and Viet Nam.  What starts as a routine investigation turn violent when Tempe's work stirs up the interest of a local businessman with mob connections and a Samoan drug cartel.

While not as good as the best of her early books, this novel takes a step in the right direction.  The mystery kept me guessing, which can be hard to do since I've read so many mysteries and thrillers over the years.  The topic was interesting, and not something I knew before.  But what really makes this series for me is the interplay between Tempe and Andrew Ryan, the Canadian cop who she has an on-again-off-again relationship with.  If you're also a Reichs fan, I think that you will enjoy this one better than the last few.  I only hope they continue to go back to their glory days before the distraction of Bones.

Playing Hurt by Holly Schindler

ISBN-13: 9780738722870
Publisher: Flux
Published: March 2011
312 pgs
Source: Personal Library



After reading Holly Schindler’s debut novel, A Blue So Dark; a well-thought and emotional story between a fifteen-year-old girl and her schizophrenic mother (my review), I just knew I have to read her next release, Playing Hurt, which was out in March. Holly Schindler’s writing not only entices her readers but her story and the characterisations captivate you as well. You couldn’t help but to feel connected to her characters, though they are merely fictional characters. Reading Playing Hurt has once again evoked such emotions in me, but the feelings and all are very different as compared to A Blue So Dark.

Basketball player Chelsea Keyes has a bright future ahead of her and that she is ready to attend college with her athletic scholarship, but her hopes are all shattered into pieces after a horrible fall during the game. What is left of her is a fractured hip (which she has slowly recovered after the surgery) and a low morale which makes her miserable the more she thinks of it. Instead of a triumph life she has dreamt of, she now feels her life is nothing although she is comforted by the fact that she has a sweet and caring boyfriend, Gabe, who is always there for her whenever she needs it.

Hoping to restore her cheerful and positive spirit, her parents decided to send her for a three-week boot camp program at a northern Minnesota lake resort. There, she meets her trainer named Clint; a nineteen-year-old ex-hockey player who like her, is haunted by his past after his girlfriend died in an accident. Truth be told, she isn’t feeling too keen about the program and her worst fear is that accidents would befall on her again if she participates in any activities.

Clint, on the other hand, feels that work is the only thing in his life ever since of the passing of his girlfriend, Rosie. Unlike Chelsea, he gave up sports because it reminds him too much of Rosie and the accident. He simply didn’t have the heart and mind to play hockey despite the fact that Rosie’s accident has nothing to do with him or anything. Nevertheless, Clint and Chelsea are drawn to each other the more they spend time together and getting to know each other along the way. But as the three-week program is almost up, does that mean that their love and togetherness is coming to an end as well?

Told through Clint’s and Chelsea’s POVs in alternating chapters, Playing Hurt is a lovely story of two young characters’ journey towards finding hope and love, and also about exploring and finding their identity. Holly Schindler has once again captivated me through her wonderful storytelling but what made this a satisfying read is that these characters seemed real and honest to me through Holly’s skilful writing as she is able to capture the feelings and every emotions through their dialogues and you couldn’t help but to feel for them. I have to say I felt refreshed after reading this book as there is an uplifting note to it. However, I have to confess I wasn’t sure about Chelsea’s attitude to love as I got the impression that she and Gabe are in love from the beginning and that how could she falls for another guy she only knew for three weeks. But as I read further, I noticed that it is the connection that she feels with Clint (and vice versa) that speaks for everything and I felt myself rooting for them thereafter.

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Did you miss reading my post on my interview with Holly Schindler? Here's the link.

Wordless Wednesday (Austin #1)

Starting today for my Wordless Wednesday feature, I will post pictures of some of the places my husband visited when he travelled to Austin, Texas and St. Paul, Minnesota for his business trip in March and April. I hope you will enjoy them all!

Texas State Capitol