It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Haven't participated in this weekly event for a while, but I need all the help I can get to keep my reading on track. It's hosted by J. Kaye of J. Kaye's Book Blog. Want to let everybody know what you're reading? Just go here and leave your link.

Last week, I finished reading Venom, the new thriller by Joan Brady. See my review here. Also finished The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells, one I've had on my TBR list for many years. No review yet - hope to get one up today or tomorrow.

This week, I'll be getting back to a book I started earlier in January, Joan Didion's Play It As It Lays. Also reading Quattrocento by James McKean.

Next up, it'll be The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington.

Battle of the Prizes, American Version

I did this one last year and enjoyed it so much that I'm signing up again for the 2010 version. I found it to be a great way to nudge myself into filling in some of those huge gaps in my experience of modern American literature.

The Battle of the Prizes Challenge (American Version) is once again being hosted by Rose City Reader, and runs from February 1, 2010 to January 31, 2011. The challenge pits the winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction against the winners of the National Book Award (but in a nonviolent way, of course). You can read all about it, and find links to book lists, on the challenge announcement page here.

Since I'm not really drawn to any of the "double-dipper" winners (other than the ones I've already read), I'll most likely be choosing the option of reading two books from each list, for a total of four books. I haven't decided yet which books I'll read this time around, but I've got a list of possibilities on my challenge blog. I'll also be updating my progress there, during the year.

Now I just have to decide if I dare sign up for Rose City Reader's Battle of the Prizes Challenge, British Version!

Review: Venom

Written by Joan Brady
Simon & Schuster, 2010; 470 pages
First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2010

**Note: This review refers to an uncorrected proof of the novel.**

Description from the publisher:

Recently released from prison, David Marion didn't expect to find a hitman at his door. Warned that a powerful secret organization is after him, David goes underground and off the radar - waiting for the perfect moment to wreak revenge.

Physicist Helen Freyl has just accepted a job offer from a giant pharmaceutical company who are close to finding a cure for radiation poisoning. But when the mysteriously sudden death of a colleague is followed by another, Helen begins to doubt her employers' motives and realizes that her own life is in danger, too.

There's a lot to like in Venom, Joan Brady's new novel, a follow-up to her bestselling Bleedout. The suspense-filled thriller is well-written, fast-paced, and deliciously convoluted. It tells a complicated tale of industrial espionage and international skullduggery. And along the way, we're introduced to some memorable characters, and even get a bit of romance thrown in. Something for everyone.

The story revolves around Helen Freyl, twenty-nine years old, a physics genius, with "fine bones" and "porcelain skin," and a fortune inherited from her father. Already you hate her, right? But Helen is troubled, too: "people kept dying around her." Both her parents and the man she loved have died violently. So when Univers Chemical and Analytical Industries (UCAI) offers her a fellowship with the Follaton Medical Foundation in London, she jumps at the chance to spend a year in England, helping them with their public relations problems. The Foundation's work is concerned with victims of the Chernobyl disaster, and they need someone to help them explain their scientific research to the public and the press. And Helen seems perfect for the job.

David Marion is also young and attractive, but has lived a very different life from Helen's. Recently released from prison, he was a neglected and abused child who grew up with none of Helen's advantages. But in prison he made connections with some powerful people (one of whom was Helen's father) who took up his case and won his pardon. Now, however, someone on the outside is trying to get him killed, and he's gone underground to try to find out who and why.

I won't say much more about the plot, since I don't want to give anything away. But bee venom and the search for a cure for radiation poisoning feature prominently. People get killed along the way, and the surprises keep coming right up to the end.

I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would at the outset, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a real page-turner. I did have a few problems with it - length being one of them: Even though it's a complicated story, I think it's just slightly longer than it really needs to be. Then, too, there aren't many really likable characters in the book; and the two major characters, David and Helen, are the least attractive of them all. And Brady's attempt at American southern or midwestern dialect is unfortunate to say the least. She has Lillian, the Freyl's housekeeper, spouting "if'n" and "gots to" so often, it was like stumbling into an old Hattie McDaniel epic - and this from a character who runs a large household and handles computers and email with aplomb.

Also, some of the plot elements were a little hard to accept, even for the thriller genre which always calls for a certain amount of suspension of disbelief. The romance between Helen and David is a stretch - reminiscent of those 1930s screwball comedy films with the runaway heiress falling for the ditch-digger (no offense to any ditch-diggers out there). Not an impossible development, but certainly not something you'd expect to happen. And the episode with David jumping out of his tent in the middle of the night and using his Swiss Army knife to attack a wandering moose - well, let's just say it took a heck of a lot of suspension of disbelief to keep reading after that!

Read Chapter One of Venom.

I'd like to thank Simon & Schuster UK for providing me with the ARC of this novel. I'm also indebted to Book Chick City, host of the Suspense-Thriller Challenge, for letting me know the ARC was available. All the opinions expressed in the above review are my own; no payment, aside from the ARC itself, was received.

Booking Through Thursday: Twisty

This week's Booking Through Thursday asks a complicated and twisted question: "Do you like books with complicated plots and unexpected endings? What book with a surprise ending is your favorite? Or your least favorite?"

I do like a book with a lot of plot twists and turns and surprises. I read a lot of mysteries and thrillers and suspense stories, and I love it when they keep me guessing right up to the end. However, sometimes if a plot is too complicated, I can get bored with trying to keep up with all the developments - so I guess there's a fine line between complicated and messy.

I'd really have to think long and hard to come up with a favorite (or least favorite) surprise ending. Out of all the books I've read in the last few years, The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry is one I really enjoyed for its "twisty" story. It has surprises on almost every page, and the ending manages to bring a new perspective to everything that's happened along the way.

Certainly one of the most memorable surprise endings is to be found in Leonard Cohen's 1966 novel Beautiful Losers. It's pretty well-known (or should I say infamous?), so I don't think I'll be giving anything away (but I'll throw in a ***SPOILER*** alert just the same) when I say that the idea of the central character turning himself "into a movie of Ray Charles" was more than a little startling for me when I read the book many years ago. But I was a lot younger then and that was easily the weirdest book I had encountered at that point in my reading life. Come to think of it, it's probably one of the weirdest I've ever encountered.

A-Z Wednesday: "Y"

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicki at Reading At The Beach, and here are the guidelines:

To join, here's all you have to do:

Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.
Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(Amazon, Barnes and Noble etc.)
4~ Return to the host's blog and leave your link in the comments.

************

This week's letter for A-Z Wednesday is "Y." So I went to my shelves, and this is what I pulled out.

The Years, by Virginia Woolf (published 1937)

Book Details at LibraryThing

Description from Amazon.com:

A tour de force written near the end of Virginia Woolf's brilliant career. . . . The Years is a sweeping tale of three generations of the Pargiter family, from the late nineteenth century to the 1930s. . . . A novel about the passage of time and the small moments that comprise everyday experience, The Years is a deeply moving and profound work by one of the truly original writers of the twentieth century. Less experimental than her earlier novels, The Years was Woolf's most popular work during her own lifetime.

One of the many paperback editions of the book:

And a French edition, which I think has a really great cover:



And the author, probably sometime during the 1920s:

This is one Virginia Woolf novel I haven't read. But researching it for A-Z Wednesday has piqued my interest, so I'm putting it on my "must read" list for this year.

Teaser Tuesdays: Venom

This week my teaser lines come from Joan Brady's thriller Venom. I just finished reading this one, and hope to get a review up today or tomorrow, if all goes well. I should note that the quote comes from an uncorrected proof of the book, so it may differ from the actual published version, due to be released later this year.

And, yes, I know this is more than two sentences, but it's short and I just couldn't pass up that last part:

Justice Samuel Clark woke up on the outskirts of America's capital city with thoughts of breakfast coffee. He loved the morning even when his wife was at home. Without her? Pure bliss. [p.19]

Don't you just love to see a happy marriage? I wonder what my own hubby would say about that sentiment. Probably best not to ask, right?


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizb17 at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or do a little teasing yourself, head on over to her blog. And these are the rules: Grab your current read; Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on 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!

2010 Challenge Round-up

I keep telling myself I'm finished with challenge sign-ups for 2010, and then I keep finding new ones to tempt me. But I just wanted to do a little summary list of the ones I've gotten myself involved in, so far, for the year ahead.

• 42 (Sci-Fi) Challenge
  ~ See the announcement and sign-up page and/or blog here.
  ~ See the challenge page on my challenge blog here.
  
• A to Z Challenge
  ~ See the announcement and sign-up page and/or blog here.
  ~ See the challenge page on my challenge blog here.
  
• Art History Challenge
  ~ See the announcement and sign-up page and/or blog here.
  ~ See the challenge page on my challenge blog here.
  
• Awesome Authors Challenge
  ~ See the announcement and sign-up page and/or blog here.
  ~ See the challenge page on my challenge blog here.
  
• Bibliophilic Books Challenge
  ~ See the announcement and sign-up page and/or blog here.
  ~ See the challenge page on my challenge blog here.
  
• Books of the Century Challenge
  ~ See the announcement and sign-up page and/or blog here.
  ~ See the challenge page on my challenge blog here.
  
• Decades Challenge
  ~ See the announcement and sign-up page and/or blog here.
  ~ See the challenge page on my challenge blog here.
  
• New Authors Challenge
  ~ See the announcement and sign-up page and/or blog here.
  ~ See the challenge page on my challenge blog here.
  
• RYOB (Read Your Own Books) Challenge
  ~ See the announcement and sign-up page and/or blog here.
  ~ See the challenge page on my challenge blog here.
  
• Series Challenge (Season Four)
  ~ See the announcement and sign-up page and/or blog here.
  ~ See the challenge page on my challenge blog here.
  
• Support Your Local Library Challenge
  ~ See the announcement and sign-up page and/or blog here.
  ~ See the challenge page on my challenge blog here.
  
• Themed Reading Challenge
  ~ See the announcement and sign-up page and/or blog here.
  ~ See the challenge page on my challenge blog here.
  
• Thriller-Suspense Challenge
  ~ See the announcement and sign-up page and/or blog here.
  ~ See the challenge page on my challenge blog here.
  
• Typically British Challenge
  ~ See the announcement and sign-up page and/or blog here.
  ~ See the challenge page on my challenge blog here.
  

And that's it for right now: a total of fourteen. Of course, January still has a week to run, and the Read Your Name Challenge looks almost unavoidable, so this may not be the final count.

Books of the Century Challenge

One of the bookish activities I always enjoy is rediscovering old best-sellers. In fact, for the last couple of years, I've been thinking about hosting a challenge based on that concept. But it's always seemed like such a massive and amorphous undertaking that I've talked myself out of it every time.

But now Tim of A Progressive on the Prairie has saved me the trouble (thanks so much, Tim!) and has announced the Books of the Century Challenge, giving participants a chance to go back and read some of the popular and significant works from the last century. It's a great opportunity to find out what appealed to your parents and grandparents, if they were reading back in the day. Also a nice chance to step out of your usual comfort zone and try a new genre or author.

The challenge is based on Daniel Immerwahr's The Books of the Century website, and as Tim says, the sheer number of possible titles means that this will be an ongoing challenge. That makes it even more attractive from my point of view. Also, it could tie in well with the Decades Challenge - another challenge I just couldn't resist this year.

You can sign up and read all about the challenge (and also find links to the book lists) by paying a visit to the challenge announcement page. There are six levels of participation, and for this first year I think I'll try for the first level (Popular Literary Culture 101) and read five books from the entire list. That gives me over 2,000 works to choose from! I've got a fairly extensive list of possible picks on my challenge blog, and I'll be updating my progress there, as the year goes on.

Booking Through Thursday: Favorite Unknown

This week, the BTT question is: "Who's your favorite author that other people are NOT reading?"

And, predictably enough, the answer that springs to mind would be ME!!!

Just kidding, of course. In order to get anyone to read me, I'd actually have to publish something. And having arrived at my rather advanced stage in life with all those unrevised first drafts filed away, that is seeming more and more unlikely. So maybe I should give this a little more thought.

Most of my reading these days is either popular fiction or classic literature, so most of the authors are pretty well known. A few years ago, I might have said Anthony Powell; but lately he's been getting quite a lot of highly deserved attention, and can't really be called un-famous anymore. Same thing with Barbara Pym - people no longer look puzzled and say "Barbara who?" when I mention her name.

I suppose the most obscure writer I've come across recently would be Katie Kitamura - I read her debut novel The Longshot last year and really loved it. But as she's only published the one book, I don't suppose she really qualifies here. Maybe after she publishes that second novel I'm sure she's working on right now.

Teaser Tuesdays: Good Morning, Midnight

So, here we are with January more than half over. Are you having as much trouble believing that as I am? One minute it's "Oh, come all ye faithful," and the next minute you're gathering Easter eggs. Tempus fugits, don't it?

OK, enough philosophizing. This week, my teasers come from Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys. I haven't actually started this one yet, but I'm thinking of reading it for a couple of the challenges I've signed up for. Rhys's work can be awfully depressing, so I'm still trying to talk myself into it. I read her novel After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie a few years back and came away believing it should have been sold with a month's supply of Prozac. So I cheated a little with this one, looking for a quote that wouldn't make anyone want to slit their wrists. And it was a struggle, but here's what I came up with:

When I saw him looking up like that I knew that I loved him, and that it was for always. It was as if my heart turned over, and I knew that it was for always. [p.130]

Now that sounds OK, doesn't it. Pretty positive, not too heavy. Not typical, though. Here's the first random quote I found (much more representative, I'm afraid):

Yes, I am sad, sad as a circus-lioness, sad as an eagle without wings, sad as a violin with only one string and that one broken, sad as a woman who is growing old. Sad, sad, sad. . . . [p.45]

See what I mean? I think I'll just go back to bed now. Sad, sad, sad. . . .


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizb17 at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or do a little teasing yourself, head on over to her blog. And these are the rules: Grab your current read; Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on 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!

Themed Reading Challenge 2010

I really thought I was finished signing up for reading challenges for 2010, but I guess I was wrong about that. Just found one more I cannot possibly pass up. Caribousmom is once again hosting the Themed Reading Challenge in 2010 - just read five books between February 14th and August 14th, and you choose your own theme. How fun is that?

I mulled over a lot of possible themes, but I think I'm going with one that's close to my heart - "women of a certain age." That is, books with older female protagonists. And what's older? you may ask. Well, I would say probably over fifty. And I would also say that's a very rude question, kiddo!

It's a theme I especially enjoy because I'm an older female protagonist myself now. Or maybe, in my case, that should be antagonist. Well, whatever.

I haven't decided on any particular titles yet, but I've got a list of possibilities on my challenge blog, and I'll be updating my progress there, as the year goes on.

Booking Through Thursday: Flapper or Not?

This week's BTT topic is about jacket flaps: "Do you read the inside flaps that describe a book before or while reading it?" Ah, to flap or not to flap? That is the question.

And my answer, as usual, would be yes and no.

I probably don't read the dust jacket information (or back cover, for paperbacks) as much as I once did. These days, by the time I get to the book store or library, I've usually done quite a lot of online research about most of the books I'm likely to be interested in. So most of the time I really don't need to read the jacket info. Sometimes I wait until I've finished reading the book, and then go back and see what the inside flap has to say.

But I still love to browse the shelves, and always hope to discover some unknown, un-researched gem. And, of course, part of that experience is reading those dust jacket descriptions. So I might not be a full-fledged flapper, but I definitely have flapping tendencies.

How about you? Flapper or non-?

A-Z Wednesday: "W"

This week's letter for A-Z Wednesday is "W." So I went to my shelves, and this is what I pulled out.

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte

Book Details at LibraryThing

Description from Amazon.com:

Emily Bronte's only novel, Wuthering Heights remains one of literature's most disturbing explorations into the dark side of romantic passion. Heathcliff and Cathy believe they're destined to love each other forever, but when cruelty and snobbery separate them, their untamed emotions literally consume them.

Set amid the wild and stormy Yorkshire moors, Wuthering Heights, an unpolished and devastating epic of childhood playmates who grow into soul mates, is widely regarded as the most original tale of thwarted desire and heartbreak in the English language.

My old Signet paperback edition:

A newer Penguin edition, with cover art by fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo:

A-Z Wednesday is hosted by Vicki at Reading At The Beach, and here are the guidelines:

To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.
Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)
4~ Return to the host's blog and leave your link in the comments.

Teaser Tuesdays: Play It As It Lays

This week my teaser lines come from Joan Didion's 1970 novel Play It As It Lays. This one has been on my TBR list for many years now - don't know why I haven't gotten around to it before now, since Didion is one of my favorite writers. I've just read the first few pages, so I'm not really sure how any of these characters relate to one another, but here's the snippet:

"The food was unspeakable, my clothes mildewed in the closet, you can have Cozumel," BZ's mother said. She was playing solitaire and Maria sat transfixed by the light striking off the diamond bracelets on her thin tanned wrists. [p.57]

Well, BZ's mother may not have been impressed with her visit to the tropics, but after the frigid temperatures we've had the last few weeks, I'd definitely be willing to brave a little mildew for a lot of sun and surf, and margaritas on the beach. I'm ready to go right now!


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizb17 at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or do a little teasing yourself, head on over to her blog. And these are the rules: Grab your current read; Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on 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!

The Romance Reading Challenge 2009: My Bad

Well, I believe I've finished wrapping up all the 2009 reading challenges I actually completed. So I guess it's time to talk about my one total failure in the bunch.

The Romance Reading Challenge looked sooo tempting back in December of 2008, when I first signed up. And I had every intention of reading all five of those romance novels I had lined up.

Never happened.

I think the only book I read all year that could even vaguely be thought of as a "romance" would be Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. I guess I'm just not as much of a romantic as I thought I was.

So, my apologies to Naida (The Bookworm) who hosted the challenge. And I still think it's a great idea for a challenge - just not the right one for me.

Challenge Completed: Lost In Translation 2009

The Lost In Translation Challenge is another reading challenge that ended with December, even though I'm just getting around to writing a wrap-up post. It was hosted by Nonsuchbook, and asked participants to read six books in translation during the year.

This was another fun challenge. I read several books that were outside my normal "comfort zone," and a couple that had been on my "must read" list for several years. I also discovered several authors who were new to me.

Here's the list of books I read, with links to reviews. I'm still missing a couple of those reviews, but I'm hoping to remedy that later in the week.

My List:

1. Solaris. Stanislaw Lem
2. The Book of God and Physics. Enrique Joven
3. The Unit. Ninni Holmqvist
   
4. The Angel's Game. Carlos Ruiz Zafon [review to come]
   
5. The Friend of Madame Maigret. Georges Simenon
   
6. The Lover. Marguerite Duras [review to come]
   

I'd like to thank Nonsuchbooks for hosting this challenge - it was certainly one of my favorites. Oh, and one more thing - isn't that one of the greatest buttons ever?

Challenge Completed: 2nds Challenge 2009

This is another challenge I completed in 2009, but have yet to write a wrap-up for. Another challenge hosted by J. Kaye (of J. Kaye's Book Blog), the 2nds Challenge ran throughout 2009, and ended on December 31. The idea was to read at least twelve books by authors you'd only read once before.

This one was a lot of fun since it encouraged me to revisit authors I had enjoyed in the past, and allowed me to dive into some of those books that had been on my TBR list for many years.

Here's my list of books read (with links to reviews where reviews exist):

1. A.S. Byatt: Angels & Insects
2. Dan Brown: Angels & Demons
3. Eudora Welty: The Optimist's Daughter
4. Douglas Preston: Brimstone (with Lincoln Child) [review to come]
   
5. Penelope Lively: Moon Tiger [review to come]
6. Carlos Ruiz Zafon: The Angel's Game [review to come]
7. John Updike: Rabbit Is Rich
   
8. Ellen Gilchrist: Victory Over Japan
   
9. Lincoln Child: Dance of Death (with Douglas Preston) [review to come]
   
10. Susan Hill: The Woman in Black
    
11. Bram Stoker: The Lair of the White Worm
    
12. E.L. Doctorow: Homer & Langley [review to come]
    

It would be really hard to choose a favorite from this bunch, but if forced I'd probably have to settle on Updike's Rabbit Is Rich. It's really a beautifully written book.

I want to thank J. Kaye for hosting the challenge, and all the other participants for so many great reviews. My TBR list has been dangerously expanded once again!

Challenge Completed: Suspense-Thriller 2008-2009

Another challenge I completed last year, but haven't wrapped up yet is the Suspense & Thriller Challenge. It was hosted by J. Kaye of J. Kaye's Book Blog, and started back in 2008.

I loved this one. So much so that I've already signed up for the 2010 version. I want to say a really big thank you to J. Kaye for hosting and doing all that work, and to all the other participants for their wonderful reviews and recommendations.

Here's my list of the books I read, along with categories, and links to reviews where reviews exist (I'm still working on those - so, more to come). I enjoyed all the books (some more, some less, of course), so I'm not going to choose a favorite, but I will say I was probably most surprised by Angels & Demons: after all the hype, it was really a much better read than I was expecting.

The list:

1. Action Thriller: Blasphemy, by Douglas Preston [review to come]
2. Amateur Detective Mystery: Wish You Were Here, by Rita Mae Brown
3. Cozy Mystery: Mrs. Malory and Death By Water, by Hazel Holt
4. Drama Thriller/Mystery: The Private Patient, by P.D. James [review to come]
5. Historical Thriller: Land of Marvels, by Barry Unsworth [review to come]
6. Literary Thriller: The Bookman's Wake, by John Dunning [review to come]
7. Murder Mystery: Cover Her Face, by P.D. James
8. Police Procedural Thriller: The Way Through the Woods, by Colin Dexter
9. Psychological Thriller: Mr. White's Confession, by Robert Clark
10. Religious Thriller: Angels & Demons, by Dan Brown
11. Serial Killer Thriller: Dance of Death, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child [review to come]
    
12. Supernatural Thriller: Brimstone, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child [review to come]

A to Z Challenge 2010

Yes, I am seriously deranged. I know it. I admit it. And I don't seem to be able to do anything about it.

Here's another challenge I'm signing up for in this shiny new year. Don't know how I managed to miss it until now, but the A to Z Challenge, hosted by Becky of Becky's Book Reviews, is definitely an irresistible challenge. It runs throughout 2010, and the rules are really simple: read 26 to 52 books, alphabetically (either by author or title, or a combination of the two). I'm opting for the 26 books by title category, and yes, I think I've already got something in mind for Q, X, and Z!

I'm not going to make a list in advance, but I'll be updating my progress on my challenge blog.

Christmas Reading Challenge: Reviews and Wrap-Up

Well, we're a whole week into the new year now, so I guess it's time to get myself off my whatever, and start wrapping up all those challenges that still need wrapping up.

I'll begin with the one I just finished – the Christmas Reading Challenge, hosted by Michelle over at The True Book Addict (many thanks, Michelle!). This one was fun and easy. It started around Thanksgiving, back on November 26th, and the challenge was to read one or more books with holiday themes. Here's a brief look at the three books I read:

Crewel Yule
Written by Monica Ferris
Berkley Prime Crime, 2004; 245 pages

Publisher's description:
Snow is not the only thing falling this December. . . spirits are, too. That's because this year's needlework convention in Nashville is tragically interrupted when Milwaukee shop owner Belle Hammermill tumbles nine stories to her untimely death. At first, Betsy Devonshire thinks the fall was just an unfortunate accident. But Belle's unsavory reputation as a seductress, thief, and jealous friend causes suspicions to flare. She had plenty of enemies with more than enough motive. In fact, three of her alleged victims were at the convention, all with anger in their hearts and vengeance in their minds. . .

Of the two whodunits I read for the challenge, I think this was my favorite. I've read several other books in Ferris's Needlecraft Mystery series, and I've enjoyed them all. The stories revolve around Betsy Devonshire who owns and manages a needlework shop in the small town of Excelsior, Minnesota, and does quite a bit of amateur sleuthing on the side. The books are very "cozy," and this one was especially so – what with the entire cast of characters being completely snowed in at one hotel for several days.

I have to say that the murderer, although not actually revealed until the last few pages, was pretty easy to spot, fairly early in the book; but that didn't really detract from the fun. The books always include a lot of detail about needlework and designers, and this volume was no exception – in fact, Ferris used several real-life designers and needlework marketers as characters here. And I was especially interested in this book because I've recently stayed in a hotel much like the one described in it, but in Memphis rather than Nashville. I also liked the fact that Betsy's friend, police sergeant Jill Cross Larson got to play a more prominent role in this book. Jill has always been one of my favorite characters in the series, and I was glad to see her getting a little more time on stage.

Santa Clawed
Written by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown
Bantam Books, 2008; 240 pages

Description from Amazon.com:
Murder casts a shadow over the yuletide cheer in bestseller Brown's 17th Mrs. Murphy mystery to feature Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen, former postmistress of Crozet, Va. On a visit to the Brothers of Love Christmas tree farm, Harry, her husband and their animal friends are dismayed to stumble on a murdered monk. Someone has cut the throat of Christopher Hewitt . . . and placed a Greek coin, an obol, under his tongue (in Greek mythology an obol ensures safe passage to the underworld). Deputy Cynthia Cooper and sheriff Rick Shaw's investigation grows to include the similar murder of Brother Speed, a former jockey. Who's targeting the monks? Next, Harry's almost killed after her wily pets alert her to money hidden on her land. Figuring out whodunit leads the Haristeens and the authorities to a double-edged discovery regarding the root of all evil. . . .

Rita Mae Brown's Mrs. Murphy mysteries are a very fun series of cozies. Yes, they're formulaic, but that's not necessarily a bad thing in cozy mysteries. You know what to expect, and you come to really love all the regular characters and plot devices. And this one doesn't disappoint, although I did notice a few differences from the earlier books. It was the first of the books I've read in which Harry has been remarried to her husband "Fair," so the dynamics were a little different than in the earlier books when they were divorced. Harry seemed a bit removed from the action here, and her pets were a little more central; a lot of the goings-on were seen from their point of view – which I enjoyed very much (not that I don't like Harry, but the critters are just very appealing characters).

Also, the little town of Crozet with all its wonderful (and slightly wacky) citizens doesn't really play as big a part in this book – most of the action centers around the Brothers of Love Christmas tree farm and the hospice run by the Brothers. That also means that there are a lot of new characters to meet and keep tabs on. Nothing wrong with that, but I did miss the presence of some of those regulars. This one kept me guessing right up to the end, and ultimately I only figured out part of the mystery – there was more going on than I anticipated, and I love it when that happens.

Christmas Card Magic
Written by Margaret Perry
Doubleday, 1967; 127 pages

This book is subtitled: The Art of Making Decorations and Ornaments with Christmas Cards. It's a vintage craft book, and although out-gunned by today's sophisticated digital technology, it's very charming and still has some very good ideas for making inexpensive Christmas trinkets and do-dads – all using those old Christmas cards you've been saving. (You haven't been saving all your cards over the years? Shame on you!) As the author says in her introduction:

With a pair of scissors and a pot of paste this storehouse of treasures can be transformed into villages, creches, mobiles and mats, carousels, candle ruffs and candy containers, coasters and posters, and centerpieces for parties the whole year round.

And then she goes on to show us just how to do it. Very old school, I know. But a lot of these crafts (especially making old-fashioned valentine cards, and Christmas villages) really bring back a lot of happy childhood memories. One of my favorites of her "clever ideas" is the Santa Claus orchestra (below), made with various Santas and other figures playing musical instruments. It would make a very cute mantle decoration, don't you think?


I'm guessing it's not an easy book to find. But if you stumble across it at the library or a used book store, give it a look – it'll probably bring a smile or two.

Booking Through Thursday: Gifts

This week's BTT topic is about books as holiday gifts: "What books did you get for Christmas (or whichever holiday you may have celebrated last month)? Do you usually ask for books on gift-giving occasions or do you prefer to buy them yourself?"

Good questions, and I'll be very interested to see everybody's answers. Me? I don't usually ask for books as gifts, since I buy so many for myself during the year. And, not too surprisingly, I didn't receive any bookish gifts from anyone this year. But I did buy two books as gifts to myself from Santa – Margaret Drabble's The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws, and A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book. And, until just this moment, I didn't think about the fact that those two are sisters – a bit of a strange coincidence, hmmm?

Haven't started reading either book yet, but I'm definitely looking forward to both of them. Of course, the Byatt book is four thousand pages long (just kidding, although it really is a chunkster), and since I find her books can be a little hard to get through anyway, it looks like that one may be a year-long project for me.

How about you? Did Santa or anyone else bring you any good books this year?

Teaser Tuesdays: A Thing of Beauty

So here we are, already five days into the new decade. Can you believe it? I can't. Of course, I'm still sort of stuck in 2009 – finishing up reviews, wrapping up challenges, wondering where the time went.

But this week, I'm looking forward, too – starting my reading for the new year. And today my teaser sentences come from one of those books, The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears. It's the first in a series of detective novels set in the world of art, artists, galleries, and museums. This is the first of the books I've read – for once, I'm starting at the beginning of a series instead of jumping in, midstream. I haven't gotten this far in the book yet, so I'm not sure who's speaking here, but I can certainly appreciate what they're saying:

"What people find beautiful changes over time; you only have to look at the pale, flabby women painted by Rubens to realise that. They were reckoned to be the peak of sensuality in the seventeenth century, now they're overweight matrons; the modern age prefers the skinny Botticelli types. " [p.67]

Pale and flabby? You know, it's just possible I was born a few centuries too late!


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by mizb17 at Should Be Reading. If you'd like to read more teasers, or do a little teasing yourself, head on over to her blog. And these are the rules: Grab your current read; Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on 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!

Books Read in 2010

Cumulative Reading List for 2010.

JANUARY 2010
1. The Griffin and Sabine Trilogy. Nick Bantock:

• Griffin and Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence. (1991; 48 pages; fiction)
• Sabine's Notebook: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin and Sabine Continues. (1992; 48 pages; fiction)
• The Golden Mean: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin and Sabine Concludes. (1993; 48 pages; fiction)

2. The Anthologist. Nicholson Baker (2009; 243 pages; fiction)
3. The Raphael Affair. Iain Pears (1990; 191 pages; fiction)
4. Venom. Joan Brady (2010; 470 pages; fiction)
5. The Island of Dr. Moreau. H.G. Wells (1895; 245 pages; fiction)

FEBRUARY 2010
6. Quattrocento. James McKean (2002; 307 pages; fiction)
7. People of the Book. Geraldine Brooks (2008; 372 pages; fiction)
8. Contact. Carl Sagan (1985; 432 pages; science fiction)

MARCH 2010
9. Mrs. Malory and Any Man's Death. Hazel Holt (2009; 247 pages; fiction)
10. The Brontes Went to Woolworths. Rachel Ferguson (1931, 2009; 188 pages; fiction)
11. Heresy. S.J. Parris (2009; 355 pages ARC; fiction)
12. A Stitch in Time. Monica Ferris (2000; 247 pages; fiction)
13. A Fair Maiden. Joyce Carol Oates (2010; 165 pages; fiction)
14. Before the Throne. Naguib Mahfouz (2009; 130 pages; fiction)

APRIL 2010
15. The Swimming Pool. Holly LeCraw (2010; 307 pages ARC; fiction)
16. An American Type. Henry Roth (2010; 278 pages ARC; fiction) [Review to come in May]
17. A River in the Sky. Elizabeth Peters (2010; 307 pages ARC; fiction)
18. Live To Tell. Lisa Gardner (2010; 390 pages ARC; fiction)

MAY 2010
19. The Map of True Places. Brunonia Barry (2010; 403 pages ARC; fiction)
20. Tinkers. Paul Harding (2009; 191 pages; fiction)
21. The Last Child. John Hart (2009; 373 pages; fiction)
22. Innocent. Scott Turow (2010; 406 pages; fiction)
23. The Hypnotist. M.J. Rose (2010; 405 pages; fiction)

JUNE 2010
24. The Forgotten Garden. Kate Morton (2008; 549 pages; fiction)
25. The Magicians. Lev Grossman (2009; 402 pages; fiction)
26. The Spider Bites. Medora Sale (2010; 131 pages; fiction)
27. The Three Weissmanns of Westport. Cathleen Schine (2010; 445 pages, large print edition; fiction)

JULY 2010
28. Noah's Compass. Anne Tyler (2009; 277 pages; fiction)
29. The Good Psychologist. Noam Shpancer (2010; 238 page; fiction)
30. Damaged. Alex Kava (2010; 255 pages ARC; fiction)
31. The Egypt Game. Zilpha Keatley Snyder (1967; 215 pages; fiction)
32. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Alan Bradley (2009; 374 pages; fiction)

AUGUST 2010
33. Think of a Number. John Verdon (2010; 418 pages ARC; fiction)
34. All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost. Lan Samantha Chang (2010; 205 pages ARC; fiction)

SEPTEMBER 2010
35. The Inheritance. Simon Tolkien (2010; 325 pages; fiction)
36. The Convent. Panos Karnezis (2010; 214 pages ARC; fiction)
37. The House Next Door. Anne Rivers Siddons (1978; 356 pages; fiction)
38. Cards on the Table. Agatha Christie (1936; 197 pages; fiction)

OCTOBER 2010
39. Animal Farm. George Orwell (1945; Kindle edition; fiction)
40. Book of Shadows. Alexandra Sokoloff (2010; 312 pages; fiction)
41. After Claude. Iris Owens (1973/2010; 206 pages ARC; fiction)
42. The Dark Half. Stephen King (1989; 467 pages; fiction)
43. We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Shirley Jackson (1962; 140 pages; fiction)

NOVEMBER 2010
44. The Vanishing of Katharina Linden. Helen Grant (2009; 285 pages ARC; fiction)
45. The Distant Hours. Kate Morton (2010; 672 pages ARC; fiction)

DECEMBER 2010
46. Juliet. Anne Fortier (2010; 447 pages ARC; fiction)
47. The Weird Sisters. Eleanor Brown (2011; 318 pages ARC; fiction)
48. The Thirty-Nine Steps. John Buchan (1915; fiction)
49. Operation Terror. Murray Leinster (1962; fiction)

Fall Into Reading 2009: The Wrap-Up

I've put this off for a couple of weeks now, thinking I'd get more reviews written (silly me). But I guess it's really time to wrap-up the 2009 Fall Into Reading Challenge.

I read a dozen books during the course of the challenge, and enjoyed almost all of them – Bram Stoker's Lair of the White Worm is the only one I really wouldn't recommend to anyone. So I think that was a pretty successful season of reading. Only one of the books I read was actually on my original list of possible reads, but several had been on my TBR list for a long time; so the challenge definitely helped me there.

Here's the list of books I read, with links to reviews if any:

1. New Year's Eve. Lisa Grunwald
2. The Man in the Picture. Susan Hill
   
3. The Woman in Black. Susan Hill
   
4. From Doon with Death. Ruth Rendell
   
5. The Friend of Madame Maigret. Georges Simenon
6. The Lair of the White Worm. Bram Stoker
   
7. Homer & Langley. E.L. Doctorow [review to come]
   
8. The Uncommon Reader. Alan Bennett [review to come]
   
9. Stardust. Joseph Kanon [review to come]
   
10. The Lover. Marguerite Duras [review to come]
    
11. Santa Clawed. Rita Mae Brown
12. Christmas Card Magic. Margaret Perry
    

Thanks to Katrina at Callapidder Days for hosting, and to all the other participants for the many great reviews. I've added quite a few more titles to my "must read" list, and I always love it when that happens!

The 2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

OK, I admit it – I'm seriously addicted to reading challenges. And I am trying to keep it under control, but this is one I really need.

One of my goals for 2010 is to buy fewer books. Which means I'll be reading more of the books I already own, and borrowing more books from the public library. So this challenge is a natural for me, and fits right in with my program. Right?

The 2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge is being hosted by J. Kaye of J. Kaye's Book Blog, and runs throughout 2010. Just about anything qualifies, as long as it's checked out of the library – audio, e-books, young adult and young reader. Re-reads are allowed, and so are crossovers with other challenges. There's no need to list your books in advance, but if you choose to, you can change your list at any time. And you don't need a blog to participate.

There are four levels to choose from:

• The Mini - Check out and read 25 library books.
• Just My Size - Check out and read 50 library books.
• Stepping It Up - Check out and read 75 library books.
• Super Size Me - Check out and read 100 library books.

To read about the challenge and sign up, visit the challenge announcement page here.

I'm going to be signing up at the "Mini" level, although I hope to do better than that. I won't be making a list in advance, but I'll be updating my progress on my challenge blog during the year.