Get Lost in Literature

My picks for the Tuesday Top Ten, as invented by  The Broke and Bookish . The Broke & Bookish bloggers seem to be operating on the same wavelength as me this week; I'd planned a blog of my favorite 2013 reads before I even read it on their schedule. Gotta love convenient coincidences. So here's the list of my personal faves, based on what I read this year, not necessarily publication date. These are the stories I didn't know I couldn't live without. 1.   Battleship: A Daring Heiress, A Teenage Jockey, and America's Horse by Dorothy Ours.  -----Nonfiction about Marion Dupont and her hunt race enterprise, reads like fiction. 2. Life of Pi by Yann Martel.  -----This has plenty of metaphors for the reader who likes to analyze and plenty of adventure for the reader who doesn't need a romantic subplot in every story. 3. A Density of Souls by Christopher Rice.  -----Emotionally raw story of bullying, bigotry, and the overwhelming power of ...

If you're familiar with the blog, you are probably already in love with the book and it certainly won't be a surprise or a let down to see this collection of amateur photography.  If you're unfamiliar with the blog, Dog Shaming , it's basically a photo blog like Tumblr or Pinterest where people can send pictures of their canine companions posing with signs that confess their crimes. That means these photos weren't done in a studio by trained photographers, they were captured by shutterbugs with naughty pooches. Personally, I thought the book was absolutely darling! I do think anyone familiar with dogs and the naughty things they do, will enjoy looking through these photos of guilty canine companions; it certainly a good gift idea for the dog lover in your life. Rating 4/5

Guess who got the new Kindle Fire for Christmas? If you guessed me, you're right. Guess who doesn't entirely know what to do with it? If you guess me, you're right again. Here's the thing. I spend a lot of time on my computer. I spend a lot of time with books. I spend a lot of time on horses. I try very hard to keep my worlds from colliding. The barn is probably the one place in the world where I never carry a book. And when I'm reading books, on a device, I want the device to resemble the pages of an actual book more than my computer screen. Which is why I picked out a Kindle Touch the day I went shopping for a eReader. It's simple, black and white, no extra buttons, no back light to tire my eyes. It had extremely long battery life and great memory. The Kindle Fire is an eReader for the gadget lover...Which I am not.  Dog Shaming  was my first download, mainly because I knew a book of photographs was the most obvious thing to have on a Kindle made for color...

Providence: Once Upon a Second Chance by Chris Coppernoll Jack Clayton is a devout Christian, who has spent most of his adult life working to help the poor. He collected the stories of the people who blessed his life, published those stories, and finds himself on a best-seller list with a bossy publishing agent who demands a personal memoir... A memoir Jack doesn't actually want to write because of a misspent youth in which he hurt a lot of people. I had trouble with the book. The writing was straightforward and easy to follow, but in the beginning Jack felt a bit bland. His character develops a bit more, after he's agreed to write his memoir and his character starts to become more flushed out. But then I feel like the story was wrongly titled, Once Upon a Second Chance ...I felt like it could also have been named, Self Flagellation for People Who Blame Themselves for Everything . Jack starts his memoir as he's graduating high school, leaving for Providenc...

I stuck with Providence and I found myself starting to enjoy it. It's a slow story and it get's a little preachy, but it's pretty good, so you're getting two quotes today instead of one. "Arthur Reed had been selling my book for five months-- and taking 50 percent of the proceeds from retailers even before I'd agreed to write it. Arthur could aggressive, certainly ambitious but this seemed out of character." and "Facts are two dimensional. They can't describe depth or intensity, or mystery; and that is, of course, where all the action is. Where the story lies. LIfe is what happens when the skies roll dark and the daylight burns away." I can't help but notice, all the things I highlight haven't been recorded as having been highlighted before... And the passages labeled as frequent reader favorites, mean next to nothing to me. Is it because this was intended for a reader with more Faith than I possess? Or because the people rea...

Y2K approaches and the town of Thebes spirals into chaos as Mrs. Leontina Scales sustains a head injury that leaves her senseless and her daughter, Tabitha, of questionable morals, takes control of the household. Jeremy Carr, a gay church choir singer, is torn between his past and his future, and left to perform for a convent full of aging nuns. I loved Gregory Maguire's first step out of the realm of fairy-tales and into that of religious satire and I'm surprised to find I'm one of the few who thought this book earned 5 stars. I think anyone who gave it a rating of two stars or less, doesn't understand satire or is too deeply devout to laugh at themselves. I thought it was fantastic to use humor to bring a bit of reality to light; the constant press for moral conformity in religious groups and the conflicts with the flawed individuals who attend. I also thought the parallels between Jeremy's long failed relationship with Willem to Tabitha's recently fai...

My picks for the Tuesday Top Ten, as invented by  The Broke and Bookish . Today's theme is Top Ten Books I Wouldn't Mind Santa Bringing Me . I struggled for this one. One could reasonably say, "Well, wouldn't the books on the Dec 3 and Dec 10 lists also be qualified for this list?" And why are so many lists revolving around books we don't yet have? But then I thought about how many books I have downloaded on my kindle, unread and unrated and it occurred to me: No matter how many books you want to read, there is always those books you just have to have a physical copy of... So which books on my To-Read list, do I want to physically feel in my hands, smell the new-book-smell, and lovingly peel each page back...? Hollow City by Ransom Riggs -- Though I don't think its going to be released in time for Xmas, but if I win a ARC copy it'll be a Christmas miracle! Inferno by Dan Brown --I just got this on kindle, but I have his 3 other Robert Langdon book...

I am not a Christmas person; for me, the best part of this holiday is the tree in my living room, sparkling and bright, wafting its scent through the house. But as I am surrounded by Christmas people, I am obligated to try my hardest to make the holiday bright and cheerful for them even if I'm not having the time of my life. Bah-Humbug!  Where's the Grinch when you need him? Yesterday night, my dad gave me a bit of money, and sent me to Walmart to look for some Stocking-stuffers for my mother's stocking. Normally that's his job, but his actual job had him working overtime and it was unlikely he'd escape to a store. So I discovered Walmart, the week of Christmas, was the epitome of madness. It was like watching panicked looters during the end of the world. Most of the shelves were cleaned out, others looked like they'd suffered a tornado. If I could get near a shelf, I had to get what I wanted or get out...Otherwise, strangers would growl at me. I walked fas...

Robert Langdon -- a world renowned Harvard professor of Symbology -- wakes up in a hospital in Florence, Italy with no memory of ever leaving Cambridge, Massachusetts. What's more, the doctors are telling him that he came into the ER with a gunshot wound to his head: the cause of his retrograde amnesia. When an assassin tries to finish the job, Dr. Sienna Brooks helps Robert escape, revealing the troubling item that she'd found in his coat pocket: a container traditionally used to transport biohazardous materials. Robert's search for answers must be conducted under the watchful eye of an organization out to silence him. First, Dan Brown couldn't have picked scarier subject content if he tried...There's more to this mystery than secret cults and ancient artifacts. The villain of this story is a mad scientist with some pretty radical ideas and he's using Dante's Inferno as a guide to "save" the world. He's worried that humanity is racing to...

This week for Quotable Thursday, I'm reading Providence by Chris Coppernoll. I've just started this, not sure if I like it or not. On the one hand, the writing is pretty good, not superb, but better than a lot of what's floating around out there these days. On the other hand, the main character Jack Clayton is a bit of a bore. "Though Christmas was nearing, my house was absent of a decorated tree or colored lights. Every corner of the room felt like how C.S. Lewis described Narnia: always winter, but never Christmas."  I'm going to give it a chance though, if only because I'm not far enough in to make an informed decision. Quotable Thursday originally brought to you by Bookshelf Fantasies .

Out of Oz (The Wicked Years #4) by Gregory Maguire Civil unrest doesn't quite cover the state of Oz as Dorothy re-enters, as Rain grows up. The world of Oz is at war, The Free State of Munchkinland versus Everyone Else. Rain spends her half her childhood in hiding and alone, the other half spent on the run with the Company of the Clock of the Time Dragon. By adolescence she's reunited with her family, unsure how to love, fearless, and angry. Out of Oz ties up the series beautifully. The story starts with its fair share of tragedies; Rain seemingly orphaned, Lady Glinda a prisoner of war, Sir Brr and Nor in a union destined for doom, and hapless Dorothy riding an earthquake in to Munchkinland just as Munchkinland needs a scapegoat. Emperor Shell has declared himself a deity. Liir and Candle struggle to do what's right by their daughter, when the hardly know what's right for themselves. Trism, Commander Cherrystone, Chistery and Nanny, all make an appearance, to ...

My picks for the Tuesday Top Ten, as invented by  The Broke and Bookish . Today's theme is, Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2013 Here are ten authors that blew me away with their talent this year. (I linked the names on my list to the stories I reviewed.) Robert Crais Max Brooks Christopher Rice Justin Cronin Charles Portis   Justin Blaney Brian Godawa Yann Martel Dorothy Ours Paulo Coelho

I finally did my Christmas shopping, so I could splurge on a new book without feeling too bad about it...And I grabbed myself a copy of Inferno by Dan Brown. Dan Brown wasted no time in this book; Robert Langdon has retrograde amnesia; he can't remember why he is in Italy, when he arrived, or why he has a gunshot wound to the head. So this is probably the fastest paced mystery in the series.... She ran a hand through her spiked hair, suddenly grasping the dire consequences of her botched assignment last night. With the single coo of a dove, everything had spiraled wildly out of control. What had begun as a simple mission... had now turned into a living nightmare. ...That quote is by a character called Vayentha; she's is just one of many people who seem to want Robert Langdon dead. Quotable Thursday originally brought to you by Bookshelf Fantasies .

I loved this story, it was dark and exciting; the narrator is a survivor of an alien invasion, searching for his wife in the chaos. For the literature lover, this is a tale written when stories were produced to teach and not just entertain. HG Wells subtly used a martian invasion to snub his nose at British imperialism; presenting a vicious struggle between conquerors and their inferiors. The book ends with the hopeful thought, that even something little can stand up against something big. Of course, this is another instance of me seeing the movie before I read the book, so in this case the narrator--in my head-- sounded an awful lot like Morgan Freeman. And if we're ever invaded for real, I hope the aliens hire him to narrate their evil plans... I know my review for this is tiny, but I absolutely loved it. Rating 5/5 Review originally posted:  Jul 13, 13

My picks for the Tuesday Top Ten, as invented by  The Broke and Bookish .  Today s theme is books on my Winter To-Read List. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey  The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard #1) by Scott Lynch The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson Parasite (Parasitology, #1) byMira Grant City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris, #1) by Jeff  VanderMeer Breathing Ghosts by Laekan Zea Kemp Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days, #1 ) by Susan Ee The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma The Horse God Built by Lawrence Scanlan

Welcome to Le Cirque des Rêves . A mysterious, one of a kind circus that, " Opens at nightfall, closes at dawn, " and is filled with wondrously impossible exhibits. Hector Bowen and Alexander choose their prodigies, Celia and Marco, and manipulate them into participating in a game, with the circus as their venue. This is no ordinary circus and it isn't just a venue; this is a battleground where magicians wage war in plain sight of people who don't believe in magic. This is about the people who play the game, those who witness it, and those swept along in unforgiving, enchanting wake of the night circus. First things first. There is absolutely, no way to review this book without praising the attention to detail. Everyone's heard the phase, "Show, don't tell," and Erin Morgenstern took great pains to make sure the reader was transported into the events happening inside her book. Everything was vividly described, from flavors of food to the scents ...

I'm still reading it The Night Circus , but I'm almost done with it... "The seek each other out, these people of such specific like mind. The tell of how they found the circus, how those first few steps were like magic. Like stepping into a fairy tale under a curtain of stars. They pontificate upon the fluffiness of the popcorn, the sweetness of the chocolate. They spend hours discussing the quality of light, the heat of the bonfire..."   Quotable Thursday originally brought to you by  Bookshelf Fantasies .

About 50 years in the future, the government as we know it no longer exists, the pharmaceutical companies own everything, and nature took what PharmAgra didn't want. The rich got richer, the poor got poorer, and the sick dropped dead. Anderson Carmichael just wants a car. Henry Weller wants his daughter's vision. Carmichael's got the ultimate bargaining chip; access to medical care. This is the dystopian story of how far a father will go to see his child healthy. There were big gaping holes in the story, as entertaining as it was... Little tidbits that weren't explained but maybe should have been. The Great Dying -- clues are dropped throughout the story and one can safely assume mutated food made people sick, less safely assume PharmAgra may have been responsible for it? but most definitely knew how to un-mutate the food. Branding-- little microchips implanted in necks, used to identify people. If you have a brand, you're a someone. If you don't, you live...

My picks for the Tuesday Top Ten, as invented by The Broke and Bookish . Originally, The Broke and Bookish, had Top Ten 2014 Releases I'm Dying to Read scheduled for today. I took a creative liberty and changed it to Books because I don't really keep track of the books I want to read by publication dates... Also, some of the books I'm waiting on, haven't necessarily announced a pub-date. So the subtle change in list-subject makes more sense for me. 1.    Parasite by Mira Grant ; I spent the month of November posting my reviews for Mira Grant's zombie series, which were so much fun to read, but now I want to see what she did with Parasites! Newish release. 2.  Dan Brown, Inferno ; new this year. 3.    Hollow City by Ransom Riggs; I actually think the expected publication is 2014. 4.    The Exorcist ... I had no idea the movie was based on the book until the week after this past Halloween, lol. I've never seen the movie, but I'd like to r...

I was sooo excited when I realized from Thursday to CyberMonday, Amazon was offering so many book deals! I've spent the last few days hunting for e-bargains and picking at leftover turkey. I must have checked in every few hours to look for books on my wishlist and was rewarded for my persistence. I managed to get 9 new books for little more than pocket change before the money on my Amazon account ran out. I should be all set with reading material for awhile... I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday, or at the very least got some good food and great titles out of it! Happy Monday!

Countdown: A Newsflesh Novella   by Mira Grant This was an ok novella... A bit of a let down after reading the Newsflesh Trilogy. What worked: I liked seeing the doctors who created the virus and the jerk who set it free as far as understanding how it all began.  And despite the peeks at the Mason family before Shaun and Georgia became a part of it, the POV of Marigold was most effective at explaining how innocent lives were being affected.  I liked at the end of each "chapter" they showed the news reports.  What didn't work: The writing was frantic and vague; I know it was supposed to be a short story, but if a prequel is going to be invented it should add to the story somehow--it needed a little development.  I wish the cause and effect had been built upon a little more; the Mason's are lovely before the infection and despite the devastating loss of their son I don't really see how they transformed into rating-hungry villains. Rating: 2/5...

This week for Quotable Thursday, I'm reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern...I admit after taking holiday craziness into consideration, I decided to pick a book I already knew I'd enjoy, having already read it (but not yet reviewed).There's no shame in reliving the magic and there is certainly plenty in this book! Then, so swiftly she appears not even to move, she picks up her jacket from the stage and flings it out over the seats where, instead of tumbling down, it swoops back up, folding into itself. In the blink of an eye folds of silk are glossy black feathers, large beating wings, and it is impossible to pinpoint the moment when it's fully raven and no longer cloth. The raven swoops over the red velvet seats and up into the balcony where it flies in curious circles. Quotable Thursday originally brought to you by Bookshelf Fantasies .

Blackout (Newsflesh Trilogy #3)  by Mira Grant I was surprised by Blackout. It does not have the high suspense of Feed, or the dark action of Deadline, but it's no less frightening. The CDC is out to prove that zombies haven't taken over the world, mad scientists have; and you're being given a truly inside look at the mad science by the pov of a clone. As you see the story inside the CDC progress, you begin to understand the gravity of the "cold equations"; the corruption, the power, the danger, involved in the science. She may have been created in a test tube, but she's still human... And they talk about her like a used car. You also get Sean's pov; he's still crazy, but the voices in his head are learning to go from helpful to venomous whenever he doubts himself. There is a severe lack of emotion in this book - not altogether unexpected from the CDC - but the team is coping with the possibility nobody's getting out alive, and if they do ...

My picks for the Tuesday Top Ten, as invented by The Broke and Bookish . This week's theme is: Top Ten Things I Am Thankful For (could be bookish or not).  Here is what I'm most thankful for this year! 1. Horses . They're my therapists; they keep grounded and sane. 2. Books. My escape from a world that tries to drive me crazy. 3. The Roof Over My Head . Seriously,when you're a broke computer-nerd/book-worm you can appreciate the fact that you have somewhere to live. 4. My Guinea Pig. He's old and ailing, but he still whistle's "Good morning," to me when I get out of bed. He's my little buddy. 5. The Internet . Some of my best friend can be contacted through it! 6. Chocolate . Mmmm.... The works of: 7. JK Rowling and Brian Jacques, 8. Edgar Allen Poe and Bram Stoker, 9. Gregory Maguire, Christopher Paolini, and Stephenie Meyer. 10.  Writers.  To the ones I didn't name and to the ones I did: Thank you for being brave en...

Pi Patel, unfortunately named after a pool, is a peculiarly devout boy growing up in India. His family consider themselves to be "Modern Indians" preferring to put their faith in Business than in God; his practises are unorthodox to his preachers and perplexing to his family.  The shifting of politics in India, force Pi's father to make the decision to sell off the zoo he owned and operated, and emigrate to Canada, beginning Pi's miraculous journey across the Pacific. After the cargo ship, transporting Pi's family and animals goes down, Pis is left stranded on a lifeboat with his belief in a higher power and a dangerous Bengal tiger... I don't consider myself agnostic or atheist, but I'm not traditionally religious... My parents aren't religious, they didn't take me to church or instruct me on what we believed; I was left to make my own conclusions about the world as I saw fit. I grew up believing in the power of books above all else; book...

Still reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel, but I'm almost done with it! I'm loving the story, although I admit maybe I didn't need quite so much detail on what happens when hyena eats a zebra... Oncoming death is terrible enough, but worse still is oncoming death with time to spare, time in which all the happiness that was yours and all the happiness that might have been yours becomes clear to you. You see with utter lucidity all that you are losing. Pi's not having a great time of it right now, but there is no reason you shouldn't! Happy Thursday! Quotable Thursday originally brought to you by Bookshelf Fantasies .

Deadline (Newsflesh Trilogy #2) by Mira Grant Shaun and his friends are in hiding; forced to lay low after the conspiracy they uncovered out on the campaign trail. An employee from the CDC shows up at their door, just after being declared dead. She's got information they need, as a new threat looms on the horizon-- Kellis-Amberlee has a new and dangerous vector as the conspiracy just keeps growing. This book was even better than the first! The first book was a bit more technical with a closer look at the bloggers of the future, the suspense dribbled out a little slower amidst confusion as the characters began to assemble the pieces of a conspiracy. Which seemed so awesome while I was reading, I didn't bother to imagine the the next level of the story would be so drastically different. The second book there is no shortage of action: zombies, running, screaming, paranoia... The conspiracy is here, and there is no where to hide. Biology and virology now overshadow our...

My picks for the Tuesday Top Ten, as invented by  The Broke and Bookish . Today's subject for Tuesday Top Ten: Books I'd Recommend To X Person ...(Lister's choice, who to recommend to). In this case, these are the books I'd recommend to The Reader Who Wants to Get Lost in a Fictional World . These recs are for the reader who just wants to escape and go on an adventure. These are some of my favorite retreats (some of these are series). 1. Harry Potte r by JK Rowling. I spent half of my life living in these books; at the end of the day, there are still few things better than hopping on the Hogwarts Express and seeing Harry and the gang. 2. The Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant . This is a newer, but completed trilogy; it's a frightening fun world to play in during those long summer waits between seasons of The Walking Dead. 3.   The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. High fantasy; a poor farm boy, Eragon, is changed forever when he discovers a sto...