Two Kisses for Maddy Giveaway Winner

Congrats to Joann who was comment #2!

Email me at stackofspines@gmail.com to claim your prize.  I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.

Thanks for playing & happy Monday all.

I’m back with a giveaway!

Hey Readers!  Are there any of you out there left?  I am working my way back into the book blogging world.  This guy has taken over my life since February (and before that if I’m being totally honest) so my reviewing has taken a backseat and my reading now involves lots of pictures.

But I don’t mind because we have a book themed room with special reading nook.  And a weimaraner who guards the door should any non-bibliophile try to enter.

Prints are from Trafalgar Square’s shop on Etsy.

I am working on a few reviews now but wanted to do a giveaway to celebrate my return of a good one I’d finished recently, Two Kisses for Maddy.  I follow Matt’s blog and couldn’t wait to read his book.  I have read quite a few memoirs and books written by authors who had blogs first (some you’ll find here if you poke around and some I just gave plain star ratings on GoodReads) and it’s at the top of my list for recommendation.  The story is not just a repeat of content that is available online and is refreshingly real and honest.  I devoured it in 36 hours.

To enter, leave a comment here or tweet me!  I’ll ship anywhere in the US.

P.S. Hey FTC, I bought this book with my own money and bawled my eyes out as I read it on my last week of maternity leave.  I’m still a bit hormonal and emotionally fragile.

Review – Mockingjay

I absolutely loved The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, and having read all three, I must say that Catching Fire was probably my favorite.  I figured I’d throw that out there right at the beginning, because Mockingjay was somewhat of a disappointment.  But Collins set the bar so high that I’m not sure there was any conclusion she could have written that wouldn’t have disappointed me.

In hindsight, sending children to fight for their lives all in the name of politics should probably have disgusted me more than fascinated me.  Here was a misaligned society with a strong female character meant for teens and I couldn’t help but love it.

The first two books were all action-packed, so how can I compare analysis and angst with such fast-paced horror?  I can’t.  Katniss has forever changed because of the situations she has faced – her innocence is gone forever.  And her childhood naiveté that helped her power through the tough times has hardened her spirit to the tough reality of a rebellion.  She aged ten years in the short time between books 2 and 3, and it is almost as if two different characters are in front of me.  I am sympathetic to her plight, and yet, irritated that my animal desire for blood lust times three overshadows my more sophisticated appreciation for the message Collins is trying to send.

In the end, the series taught me that there are no winners in a war.  Whatever the outcome, both sides lose.

Review – Tell No One

I appreciated this book for what it was – an action packed page turning mystery with a moderate attempt at some depth that challenges you to read it in an entire afternoon.  Some of the characters may make you roll your eyes, but each chapter’s end makes you forget your qualms and want to plow through the rest; Coben sucks you into the story so that even if parts annoy you, you are desperate to know how it ends.

This was my first Coben book, and like most mystery/thrillers, I tend to be favorable in my reviews because I’m so caught up in the action.  If you are the type to endlessly question, you and I probably might just have to agree to disagree with this genre.  I call these types of books slump-kickers, because they draw me in.  To be sure, they are not Pulitzer prize winning literature quality, but they still have their place in my stack.  I could not read them exclusively nor could I forsake them forever.

The loss of Dr David Beck’s young wife plagues him, so if you want to know what happened to Elizabeth or if she is still alive, support your library and check out Tell No One.

News

Earlier this summer, my book reading dwindled considerably.  It was ironically enough, just after I promised to start a personal summer reading challenge. I have yet to start any of the 3 books, but they are on my nightstand and in the official stack.

I joked the reading decline was because I had a new hobby, but as it turned out, that new hobby had me.

Baby Stack of Spines is on the way, due sometime around February 14, 2011.

I hope to continue my reviews, and I promise this won’t become a mommy book blog, but I can’t guarantee the posts will be as frequent as before.  A book themed nursery is planned, so I do want to share pictures eventually!

Review – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I wasn’t ready to hop on the bandwagon willingly, so as the old expression of greatness goes, it was thrust upon me.  I was given the first two books in the Millennium series by my mom who said “You must read this!”  And then I noticed a vast majority of my GoodReads friends were a step ahead of me with the Larsson love.  Since I wouldn’t have to wait out the 600-something person list at the library, I couldn’t really say no, could I?

The only thing I knew about the series when I picked it up was that it took place in Sweden, was a “crime novel” and “everyone” was reading them.  The most often heard complaint was that the book was slow, so I had to promise to give it at least 100 pages before making up my mind.  Fair enough.

I must say that I enjoyed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but for many reasons I haven’t heard people mention.  This was very much an intellectually stimulating book for me.  I found the first half more absorbing than the second; the plot setup, mysterious character weaving, and intricate business discussion was perfectly delicious.  The hors d’oeuvres were so great I forgot about dessert entirely.  Reading was not just a matter of figuring out what would happen, because I got lost within the details.  Larsson was always two steps ahead and five levels above my mental capacity for determining where exactly he was going with this.  My brain was putty in his crazy creative hands.

And his creation, Lisbeth Salander, is one of the most alluring characters I’ve encountered.  Despite (and through) her actions, she is crafted as neither laudable nor contemptible.  For every secret she unveils about someone else, one of hers is also.  It’s easy to make a protagonist a hero or a villain, but someone that has her own spectrum?  I’m simply amazed.

Needless to say, I’m reading the second book now.  And I’m sad Larsson has died, because I’d love to invite him to dinner, though I have no prayer of making him forget that dessert is coming.

Top Ten Tuesday – July 27, 2010

BBAW 2010 is already working its networking magic.  I’ve connected with a new awesome blog that is just up my alley, The Broke and the Bookish.  I’ve also been reading a few posts from Dead White Guys and the writer is quite the funny lady.  Both are worth a click.

And interestingly enough, both participate in B&B’s Tuesday Meme – Top Ten Tuesday.  So I’m going to give this a whirl for a while, because let’s be honest, I’m tired of teasers.  And, it sort of goes against my no spoiler review policy, doesn’t it?  Nobody loves surprises and hates spoilers more than Stack of Spines.

So here’s my list, in no particular order.*

1. A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving – not like anything I’ve read before; all the Owens I know are a trip

2. The Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follet -EPIC and worth all 1000 pages and then some

3. A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini – changed my worldview

4. Le Petit Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery – read this in French in High School and I’m sad I may not be able to again

5. A Thousand Acres – Jane Smiley – King Lear on its head and awesome feminist commentary

6. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling – just #4 is my favorite – the mermaid egg + bathtub scene?  best in whole series

7. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen – you must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you

8. The Giver - Lois Lowry – dystopias are awesomely disfunctional

9. Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen – love the characters

10. The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield – a love letter to reading

11. Columbine – David Cullen – best work of non-fiction I’ve ever read; I’m also fascinated with Columbine

*I’m going to be a rulebreaker.  Rest assured I don’t cut in line or steal your newspaper off your porch on Sundays for the coupons.  But I live in College Football Country and am a Midwestern Ohio State fan, so my list is technically called Big Ten and it has 11 books.  It goes to eleven.  (I’m sorry I couldn’t make eleven louder.)  Don’t hate me.

Review – Pray for Silence

When I heard Linda Castillo had another Kate Burkholder thriller up her sleeve, I knew I had to read it. Pray for Silence, her debut novel, was such a delightful surprise for me.  Before that I hadn’t read many thrillers and decided if I ever needed pulled out a book slump that a thriller would do it.

Lo and behold, the last two months have been quite the reading challenge for me.  I twittered (Tweeted?  What is the proper nomenclature here?) about it earlier this week and will be able to post more soon.  Thankfully my book club picked Harlan Coben’s thriller Tell No One for July and I’ve been able to blast through 180 pages in 2 days in preparation for our discussion tomorrow.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute, huh?

So, back to Pray for Silence.  I appreciate that Castillo understands my beef with sequels – that they are too formulaic, the characters not fresh and predictable, and the nagging constant comparison to the first novel in your head saying “This isn’t as good!” as you expect surprising greatness time and time again.  Because, obviously, she wrote the book for me.

I do believe Castillo’s dialogue evolved and there were less cringe-worthy cheesy moments in Pray for Silence.  Just the right number of elements were new, and just enough familiarity was there to slip into feeling comfortable with Painter’s Mill.  It is not necessary to have read Sworn to Silence first, but like the Harry Potter series, it will help your understanding of the overall picture if they are read in order.

So Kate Burkholder is back, bridging the gap between the English and Amish communities in small town Ohio.  The pages flew through my hands as I tried to figure out the mystery before it was revealed to me.  Some plot elements required me to suspend my disbelief a little, but overall the story was solid and not on my nightstand long.  The thriller/mystery angle and fast pace overrode the “Wait, could that really have happened?” questions.  If you’re one to dwell on the questions, you may not enjoy Pray for Silence as much.

I look forward to more in the Kate Burkholder series.  I’ve won both of Castillo’s books through GoodReads FirstReads giveaways, so I hope to continue my luck when #3 comes out!

Review – Loving Frank

I underestimated just how tragic Loving Frank is, both the book and the act.  In one of the most fascinating and horrifying works of Historical Fiction I’ve come across, Nancy Horan weaves an emotional tale fraught with themes as close as interpersonal relationships and large-scale as the early Twentieth Century Woman Movement.

What does it mean to love an artist?  Can you ever be #1 in their life when their passion is reinventing the world of Architecture?  How can a mother leave her children for years to pursue a tumultuous  relationship?  What happens when a woman tired of playing second fiddle finds her voice with a Swedish feminist?

There was also plenty of salacious tabloid news that would put today’s publishers to shame, and the age-old dilemma mothers face – can you have a career and a family and lead a fulfilling life?

Mamah says “Am I asking too much?  You tell me, Frank.  Because it feels like that my whole life, I have never asked enough of love or work or myself.  Except for the last two weeks, during which I have actually used my brain.”

and then Horan describes Mamah’s feelings

“[Mamah's children] would have to be adults to comprehend it.  But she believed they would see that her choice to leave their father was not meant as a cruel self-indulgence geared to make them unhappy.  Rather, it was an act of love for live.”

Though Loving Frank often left me with more questions than answers, this was a great book club discussion novel, invoking a powerful emotional response from all who attended.  My only complaint is the slow pace of the middle of the book.  I also wish there were more detailed architectural descriptions — I think that would have added a lot.

If you plan to read Loving Frank at any point and don’t know much about his life, I urge you - DO NOT GOOGLE.  The life Wright leads with Mamah Borthwick is worth discovering in these pages.  And the end will leave you reeling; it’s one of the most shocking I’ve come across.

Character Identification

How do you handle books where you don’t identify with the characters at all?

I’ve been stuck in two books the last two weeks, both of which I enjoyed but neither of which I devoured because I could not relate to the plight or the conflict or any of the drama.  With Loving Frank, I couldn’t fathom Mamah Borthwick abandoning her children for Frank Lloyd Wright year after year. And perhaps I had too- high expectations for Augusten Burrough’s memoir Dry, but his arrogant alcoholism got to me by the end.  I wanted to choke both of them.

To be sure, there were elements I liked in both – the writing style and feminist commentary by Horan, and advertising humor and blunt force honesty by Burroughs.  But overall, I felt both books were meant to showcase character development, so the little parts I liked were clouded by the overarching, complicated, and heavy feelings.  Feelings I just couldn’t share.

For the first time I’m debating skipping a review on one or both – both of which I managed t0  finish in the last 48 hours.  I’ve only ever skipped reviews for books I couldn’t handle.

So please tell me Pray for Silence, Everything is Illuminated, and In the Woods will be good slump busters!  If not, suggest one for the stack!  I need some good summer reads, friends.