I just met my first real-life book blogger!!!!

Book blogging is fun and all, but sometimes it is nice to get a little extra treat. For me that treat was today. My husband stayed home with the boys and I went to the coffee shop to finish my book for my Pretty Paper Book Club, it is my real life book club here in Corvallis, Oregon. We were reading Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis for this month. I finished it at our grand Sunnyside Cafe about a minute before I was supposed to be a book club. Lucky for me everyone else was just on time too.

That isn't even the best part! I am excited to announce I have met my first real-life fellow book blogger in person! YAY!! It was so fun to meet Alyce from At Home with Books who lives but 30 minutes from where I live! We gathered for lunch at Evergreen Indian Restaurant, and then off to coffee (tea or decaf too) and desert for our sugar addict tummies, Oh, and to discuss the book. It was a blast, Alyce is the perfect new addition to our group and it seems she enjoyed herself too. I am so happy she did.

The only two things I am bummed about: 1.) I brought my camera and forgot to take pictures (it is what I do every time). 2.) I have to wait a whole month to have a cool bookie day with good girlie friends again!! ....oh, what a life! ha! ;)

Flirting With Forty

Title: Flirting with Forty
Author: Jane Porter
Pages: 368
Yearly Count b: 89

From the first page, this really wasn't my type of book. It is a chick lit, which many times I enjoy, but this read wasn't doing it for me. Jackie, the main woman has recently gone through a divorce with her husband and she is suffering, trying to make up for things with her kids, work harder to earn more money and keep her emotions, well just hidden mostly. She doesn't want her family or friends to know that she is really hurting, hurting for the family comforts she once had. One of her closest friends Anne buys her a trip to Hawaii but then can't make it with her....Jakie will have to make the choice to go alone or stay home in Seattle or head for the sunny beaches with her worst enemy, herself.

The whole book seems so selfish, as if she is making up for all the times she had to choose her kids over herself and her husband over herself and now it is her turn! HAHA, life isn't like that, and it should never be like that. Her kids need her, and she is in this very superficial relationship with a surfer guy in Hawaii. She makes more and more trips over...but the relationship doesn't get any deeper. I don't think that this relationship helps her overcome anything, more than anything it strings her out and takes her away from what really matters.

There aren't many twists or turns in this read, it is pretty straightforward and predictable. I felt it was repetitive and like Kai, the surfer guy that she falls for, I was begging her to not mention again how old and out-of-date or wrinkly and stretched out, or saggy she was. Honestly I know some people loved this book, it really just wasn't for me, I couldn't relate at all. I am not young, but I don't feel old, I am not divorced, and with two little monkey running around I am far from lonely, or lacking in physical contact. However, if that is you, if you fit into any of those categories...this would be a book for you, at least I think it would.

Author Website: Jane Porter
Flirting with Forty is going to be aired as a movie on Lifetime tomorrow, December 6th at 9pm/8 central. I think that would be a better format for this material, it just seemed too fickle for a book.

For better, and probably more positive views on this book check these folks out:

My Friend Amy
Bermudaonion's Weblog
Book Critiques
Sharon Loves Books and Cats
The Tome Traveller's Weblog
The Printed Page
A Bookworm's World
Books, Movies, and Chinese Food
Allison's Attic
S. Krishna's Books
Literarily
Booking Mama
Cheryl's Book Nook
Cindy's Love of Books
Books By TJ Baff
B&b Ex Libris
Marjolein Book BlogBookopolis
A Novel Menagerie
Wendi's Book Corner
The Book Czar
The Book Girl
A Circle of Books
Books In Every Room
A Blog of Books for You
Book Ahoy!
At Home with Books
Enroute to Life

and remember to:

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

	Tim Gallagher/Sioux City Journal

Title: Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
Author: Vicky Myron
Pages: 288
Yearly Count b: 88

Dewey was a little cat that had been placed in the night deposit book box at the Spencer Library in Iowa, on the coldest night of the year. This is a true story! The library staff nursed him back to health and he was forever grateful, his whole life he lived to please people because these people were the ones that saved him.

Vicky Myron writes about her adopted cat friend Dewey (short for Dewey Readmore Books).It is the story of one cat, not just any cat, but a cat who believed in he was there to change Spencer Iowa. This is the story of how he touched not just those in Spencer folks from around the world. He proved himself to not be just any cat, but a cat who deserved all the attention he received.

I enjoyed listening to this book from Hachette audiobooks, in the winter when I have tons of Christmas projects to finish I enjoy multi-tasking by listening to a book and knitting or sewing little gifts for my family at the same time. Dewey was a read cute for sure. However I would recommend to you only if you are even a little of an animal lover, but for sure if you hate them this book will be a little much. If you can't get enough of your pets and other people's furry friends, and think they are talking to you and asking you for things....this is for sure the book for you! It was great!


Check out his personal page on the library's website: Dewey Readmore Books
Or you can check him out on Facebook as well at Dewey's Facebook Page
How-a-bout a Dewey look-alike contest with prizes!? There is one! Dewey's look alikes

and remember to:

Honouring Dewey.

I made two buttons for you all, I know that is something you were asking for and I figured I could help with it. I made two so that you can choose which you like better. Hope you like.

Make sure you check out stephanie's amazing buttons for Dewey as well, then you'll have a selection to choose from. Hopefully everyone who wanted to honour Dewey with a button on their blog will find one that they really can embrace.

Feel free to use them on your sidebars!! I can send you the full sized image if you click on the email me button above and send me your address. If you are having any trouble at all using these let me know!

bloggie boundaries, help me out here.

I want you all to hear me out here. I know we have a community and we enjoy reading eachother's posts and blogs and personal stuff, but when is it too much? When is there too much involvement with really, strangers?

I just joined Twitter and yes, it is nice to know you all better, I love friendliness and community and us to have interest in each other, it is very sweet. We rally when someone is being tormented by an author, and when we get sad news about one of our fellow community members. But when does it get weird? When does it become a substitute for personal human contact?

I have heard it said that in this generation we are much more likely to feel we know complete strangers online better than we know our own neighbors! I know, I know we have the glorious common bond of books here between us right?? And you all are the most supportive group, but when is it too much?

I know we are most likely all super healthy individuals who have tons of time that we spend with real-life folks in our community and I know that the book blogging community that we love is a very positive one, so please understand that....I just wonder about our kids, our husbands, our families, when we leave work, get dinner, and read and blog and comment...are there time limit boundaries we set up so that we take a step back and can be in true reality without constantly checking our blog comments?

I have been thinking about this a lot lately, and I know that you can have too much of a good thing (take chocolate for example, or review copies if you wish!) I am trying to lay a balance, set up something for me that will work. Since joining Twitter I have felt more connected, but also more involved than I really should be. Not on an emotional level or anything like that, but it just takes so much time to give that much and my kids are little! I don't want to be short with them or annoyed because they are cutting into "my blogging time"!

What do you think? Have you set up boundaries so that your family will not be affected negatively because of the time commitment that this community can be? A certain number of hours? Two times a day? What are your limits? What is your advice?

Testimony

Photos courtesy of Hachette Book Group

Title: Testimony
Author: Anita Shreve
Pages: 320
Yearly Count b: 87

The story is a hard one to read, that of sexual acts between teens and a minor in a drunken state. It all seems to private to really write or read about in the detail to which Shreve goes. Silas, the main man, a quality kid, a basketball player and someone who has so much going for him ends up in a situation where he put himself yes, but why? The journey through Anita Shreve's Testimony brings out the voice of each person involved and to what capacity they are invested in the situation. Each character has an intensely strong voice, a voice of their own as if they really all are truly individuals not working together in the head of Anita Shreve onto the paper. I was carried away, by her story, her plot and the depth of her characters. I can honestly say that I had to be, if I weren't I would not have finished this book, I wouldn't have started it.

Several times I decided to stop reading, but like a drug it sucked me in. I can say that knowing the end and the point of the author, that I am content. Anita strives to describe the implications that one day can have on the lives of so many and to what extreme one act can affect the surrounding individuals. I agree, I also really had to consider the power of choice in reading Testimony.Each individual is given choices, and how they act on those choices will affect the people around them in a positive or negative way, Anita portrays that to an amazing perfection.

What really made me think after finishing this was how when the whole scandalous situation first arose I immediately judged those involved, and I have to believe Anita did that purposefully. I was angry at them all. As the book went on, the situation rehearsed from each different person and they described the impact it had had on them, I felt differently, not entirely, but a little. I have noticed that in real life too, I can hate someone, but if I try to get to know them, try to befriend them I soon realize why they are the way they are and I can't help but understanding them a little better. What I got from Shreve's book is really that we are all capable of going off the deep end, and that it is much easier than you'd expect , especially if you don't surround yourself by people who will push you up rather than push you down.

I have to tell you that after I am done with it I did really feel and still feel impacted by it, I was glued to the words as they were read, but still because of its sexual content I have a hard time giving it my full blessing. If you don't think you'll have any problem with that, GO FOR IT! It will be well worth it, but if you have a check about that sort of thing, I will tell you it does get a bit better after the first chapter, but still the entire book does revolve around that one act and therefore it is rehashed.

and remember to:

Have you read this? Comment your link to me :) I'll add you.

---

Dewey

Dewey was suffering and in pain and on Tuesday she passed away. She was an amazing blogger, I loved the weekly geeks, the read-a-thon and so many other things that she took ownership of and did with excellence.

It is impossible to find words that could soothe, or even create any understanding of how much Dewey meant to our community, and we knew only a little piece of her. I am praying for your family as you go through this grieving time, that you may find unfathomable peace and hope despite your loss.

Thanks Dewey for how much you blessed us in our lives, and how enriched you left us.

Roads To Quoz: An American Mosey

Title: Roads To Quoz: An American Mosey
Author:William Least Heat-Moon
Pages:582
Publisher:Little, Brown

Quoz (rhymes with "oz"): "Anything, anywhere, living or otherwise, connecting a human to existence and bringing an individual into the cosmos and integrating one with the immemorial, thereby making each life belong to creation, and so preventing the divorce of one from the all which brought it into being."

Working from the above definition, William Least Heat-Moon's latest book is a collection of writings about his search for quoz on several unique road trips around America. From the logging roads of north Maine to the Gulf of Mexico, Heat-Moon turns his knack for getting off the beaten path into an interesting and thought provoking string of loosely bound stories.

I have to make a confession here: two years ago I started reading Heat-Moon's most famous book, Blue Highways, and I stopped a fourth of the way into it. I wasn't prepared for his very unconventional prose style, which thrives on sticking its tongue out at brevity and clarity. Heat-Moon is not so concerned with making sure that you're able to follow him every step of the way, but instead enjoys weaving together long, intricate sentences full of word play and nuance.If you're unable to fully grasp the meaning of the the paragraph you just read, he trusts that you'll be able to rejoin him in the next.

Here's a sample sentence from Quoz that I think captures the idea. Heat-Moon is writing about driving into the Ouchita mountains in Arkansas: "In years past, I've always come into that planetary washboard athwart, and on two of those occasions I've had to stop along one of the twisting, transverse routes for a passenger to leave her breakfast along the roadsides for the possums, a consequence of transit not unlike sailing a short sea." Translation: his wife usually throws up when they drive the windy mountain roads.

While I was unprepared for Heat-Moon's style when I first picked up Blue Highways, I knew what was getting into when I started Qouz. As a consequence, I spent several pleasant evenings totally absorbed in the book - not just in the fantastic travel yarns, but in the smoky, rambling way that Heat-Moon tells them.

Most of the stories center on Heat-Moon's quest for interesting people and places in the less-visited areas of America. Some of them he purposefully tracks down - such as a woman who intentionally lives on $4.00 a day - and some of them he stumbles on by accident - such a muralist who has created a psychedelic museum in his home. All of them are worth reading about. A central theme of the book, also worth considering, is how we as Americans continue to adapt to our landscape - both successfully and unsuccessfully. Heat-Moons scorns a town built on top of ancient Native American burial mounds and celebrates a man who uses discarded grain bins to build a restaurant.

My only complaint with with Qouz has to do with Heat-Moon's apparent inability to see the world from other's point of a view. He is a writer with plenty of money travelling at his own leisure. This leaves him vast amounts of free time to critique the people and lifestyles that he encounters along the way. He seems to be a bit trapped in his own dreamy world, and anyone trying to work at a normal job for a living is hopelessly lost. One example: during an extended ride on a boat travelling the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, Heat-Moons notices the irritated faces of drivers along the bank who have to wait for a drawn bridge while his boat passes. He spends a paragraph reflecting how these people must be drained of life, unable to appreciate the beauty of a boat sailing gently through the water on its way to an unknown destination. The fact that these people are just trying to get home from work to their families doesn't seem to register with him.

Despite this one aspect, I found Qouz to be a very satisfying read, full of great stories from a great storyteller. Heat-Moon's unique writing style raises it well above the level of average travel literature.

and remember to:

Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe

Title: Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe
Author: Jennie Shortridge
Pages: 400
Yearly Count b: 86

Mira in her attempt to create a perfect life, alienates those around her when her only wish is that the family would actually be a unit, a bonded whole. Her daughter acts like she hates her and she soon finds out that her husband is just not feelin' the love either. Her world is shattered and in her attempt to cope she heads for Seattle, a land of coffee and rain sheds light on where she is at in her life.

Jennie Shortridge's writing is so down to earth, so beautiful and yet so captivating. The whole book I felt captivated by her characters and moved and stirred with them. I love the cover, coffee art is incredible. Take a look at one amazing cup of hot chocolate I got while at the Bipartisan Cafe...on stark, or something (in Portland). It is an amazing leaf! I wish I had been watching them, I had no idea to expect something so beautiful, and the flavour was just as good.

I loved that the book takes place in my neighborhood so to speak, in northern Oregon, Portland and Seattle. These are places I have been so many times and love. I enjoyed the weather descriptions of this area and the mood of the places, so accurate.

I found myself so interested in the plot that it was what I thought about. When you want your life to be perfect, those in it to be perfect, will all the people involved be able to hold up under the pressure? Will you? I am not entirely sure she craved perfection though. But she did feel a need to control her surroundings. I know I do that, I like to have things be the way I like them. I could really relate to Mira, in her thoughts, desires and her desire to have things under her control. And I think most people, if not everyone have that fear that if someone really knows you, I mean really knows you that they would run as fast as they could. I really enjoyed reading this, as I said the writing is spectacular for its relatability and personal feel, Jennie does an exceptional job with character development. And the plot, is really good....I guess you'll just have to find out! A must read for sure!



I am the last stop on the TLC Tour, Hope you enjoyed the journey with us :) Happy reading!

and remember to:

NaNo Complete.

I finished my novel, I WROTE A NOVEL. I can now say that and be happy. I don't know what I will do with it yet, don't know when or what will happen. Maybe I will try to edit the first draft, maybe I will never look at it again. I don't know right now what will happen at all.

PS now I can get back to reading all the books that have been piling up for me!!!

I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence

title: I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence
author: Amy Sedaris
pages: 304
yearly count b: 85

A hospitality book like nothing else I have seen, it is the funniest book I have read in ages, filled with so much stuff that each time you open it you'll swear that page wasn't there before. I Like You by Amy Sedaris will have you laughing and cringing at the same time. A cookbook, manner book, and how-to-entertain book that will put you over the top with laughter at the silly layouts, funny Amy and all the things she is capable of.

I Like you is a book glorifying all things tacky, outdated and ridiculous, but it is much more as well. The recipes, the photos and all the writing Amy does is amazing, she is one insanely talented comedian. Yes, Amy Sedaris is David Sedaris' sister, that is crazy to me that they both are so funny I wonder if their parents slipped a little something special in their water to make them funnier than the average person, much funnier.

I have to warn you if you think some things just shouldn't be discussed, much less discussed in a manners book, this is not your book. At times it is pretty vulgar and over the edge. That didn't really bother me, it was too funny for me to worry about if it was inappropriate, which it is. However consider yourself warned that if you take yourself too seriously, if you get offended and are squeamish: avoid this book and pick up something else. If you are not in those categories, give it a shot! Warning tough, it is insanely addictive.

I think many folks could enjoy this book, snatch it up and I dare you not to laugh your guts out reading it!

Want this book for yourself? The publisher has offered a copy to my luckiest commenter. Comment on this post for a chance to win. You have until the end of the 30th to enter. I do apologize, the publisher is sending these directly and will only ship to US addresses and no PO boxes.

and remember to:

twitter happy

Me too, MEEEE TOOO!! I JUST joined. So, I am on twitter, are you? Come find me if you are here I am.

If you are a twitter beginner or pro...tell me what is your favourite thing about it! I know that through it we can stalk people (haha!), but are there other things that I am missing out on?

Monique and the Mango Rains

title: Monique and the Mango Rains
Author: Kris Holloway
Pages: 240
yearly count b: 84


Kris Holloway, a volunteer for the peace corps develops an intimate friendship with her assigned host for her two-year stay in Mali. Her host is Monique, the midwife that successfully is birthing thousands of babies into the world. Monique is an amazing woman of strength, zest and endurance in a patriarchal society where she isn't even allowed to pick up her own pay check. Kris Holloway writes Monique and the Mango Rains in such a way that for it not to pull on your heart you'd have to be inhuman. She follows Monique and becomes her assistant for her time in Mali. Mali's numbers didn't look good, 1 in 12 woman died in childbirth then in the nation of Mali. Holloway learned the gift a midwife could bring into each woman's home, the gift of a child and the gift of health for the family.

Monique didn't just birth babies, she did all the prenatal check ups, she weighed the moms and babies and children to chart their health and let the moms know if they should take notice of sudden and severe weight loss, or other health issues. Monique teaches the mothers to make nutritious baby foods that will change the lives of the kids, and she teaches them about other health issues such as how to purify water and not get sick.

This testimony of Kris Holloway about her experiences in Mali is so impressive, so amazing and it is real the whole way through. Monique constantly gives of herself, even when she knows the outcome of the births will many times be unsuccessful, she works with the women of her village to promote how things can change. One thing that really stood out to me was her desire to get birth control for the women, it was a matter of health for the women since with each baby their chances were worse of not making it through the next. She planned and worked out ways to provide this birth control to the women of her community. Another is female circumcision, which I had heard about, but never in the detail that this book goes into. I was amazed to learn that in the day when Holloway was there it was a very common practice, and it was not done by doctors or midwives but by a selected female family member. Many horrors came from these women using no pain medication, no sterilized instruments, and cutting with whatever they had. The circumcision was performed to enhance the females ability to get pregnant and birth healthy children, however this was another ritual that had taken place for so long, and proved to actually do much damage and no good. Monique worked to inform the villagers of this.

What are my thoughts? I really, really, really was moved by this read. Kris Holloway does an excellent job with the writing, and it is an intriguing read. I love learning about different cultures, about their beliefs, old wifes tales, and their communities. I know that this was told from an outsiders perspective, because as much as Holloway did live there for two years, she still was an outsider, but her passion is so strong that it passes through the national boundaries. Monique is not only Holloway's hero, she is mine as well, what an amazing lady!! She did so much, gave so much and in return asked for nothing.

and remember to:

LIFE: The American Journey of Barack Obama

title: LIFE, The American Journey of Barack Obama
editor: Robert Sullivan
pages: 178
publisher: Little, Brown
yearly count b: 83

You can love him, or you can think that he is the anti-christ. This review will not be about political views, I will not debate if he is to bring peace to the universe, or if he is going to be the biggest fraud. This review is about his journey, about Barack as a man, from birth to date. Life, The American Journey of Barack Obama is about the boy who will grow up to live his dream, and to dump out his enthusiasm on America. He was born to an unlikely couple, who did not possess the freedom that we now have, he grew up in Honolulu, California and later Chicago, he attended Harvard. From Harvard on he knew the taste of victory and that politics were his pursuit in life.

His family is more than a part of Obama, he belongs to them as well. In the photos in LIFE, The American Journey of Barack Obama it is obvious that they have more than a superficial bond. They laugh, they dance, they cry and play together, his family is not just a family for presidential events, but in the home as well. I loved seeing the portrayal of him as a man at home with his wife and daughters. The shots of Obama crouched down kissing his kids on the lips, or sharing the joys of his wins. There is something that draws folks into him, and I can see it here. This book does an amazing job of presenting Barack Obama from so many different sides and yet in them all he is a man, a man with a dream.

No matter how you voted you cannot stay that Obama doesn't carry the world in his grasp and the hopes of the nation in his hand. Only time will tell what he can do with that. But what I already can tell you is that his victory, a minority in office, an African American as the future leader of our nation is an accomplishment of which we should all be in awe.

At the end of the book there is a section titled Aspects of Obama in which positive articles are written by different peoples from around the world. LIFE asked 12 thinkers and writers to take a look at the different aspects Obama and to tell the readers what they see. This is a really interesting section of the book, where different people get to speak up. All in all a good book for a Obama believer!!

I would recommend this book for the Obama enthusiast on your Christmas list! It is a beautiful book with full colour photos on almost every page. I loved looking at and reading it. Enjoy!

To all the Obama faithful out there: Do you want a copy? Because of the sweet hachette book group peeps I have an extra to give away. Comment below by the end of the 26th and you will be entered in for a copy of his read. (US and Canada only, no PO boxes...sorry).

and remember to:

am I too book greedy? lets talk.

Dear Reader,
Okay, so I am in the middle of NaNoWriMo and hoping to make it through 10,000 words in this last week, it really should work out fine, but what is a deadline without procrastination. Here is my procrastination for all of you to see. I have just received in the mail 7 books from a publisher.

That is exciting!! right? Is it exciting to get books in the mail?? It is right? Okay, it sure is...but what about being tooooo greedy. I know we all joke and say that you can never have too may books, that you can never have too much to read...but I am not sure if that it true all the way. I know it is true (at least for me) that I can never have enough books, but I think I can have way too many ARC's. I think I am pretty close to having that magical "too many" number on my shelves right now.

I am going to be honest with you and tell you how flooded I am: I have 45. Ahhhh, please don't judge me. I needed to be honest in order to create a setting that would breed honesty and vulnerability in you as well....yes I have 45 I admit that I have a problem.

At the same time every Monday I see these "mailbox Monday" posts where you all seemt to get at least 5 books a week from publishers!! How do you manage? Do you read them all? Do you skim? What is on your ARC shelves? Do you feel the pressure of books falling down on you? Do you dream at night of angry books chasing after you with big bloody teeth ready to bite your heels? I am dramatic, what can I say...but I am feeling a little over loaded.

What do you do to control the trigger happy mouse finger? do you rip it off?

Be honest, count your ARC pile, how many do you have(please make me feel better by saying way more than me!!!!)?? Does it slightly take the joy out of reading when you have piles? When you read one of the books that is not an ARC do you feel guilty?

Yes, I am the question gal...BUT I NEED ANSWERS!!! :)

sincerely,
books nipping closer