Book Embargo

So, read Breaking Dawn this weekend! Stephenie Meyer really knows how to draw you in. Everyone was amazed at how fast I read that book, but I could NOT put it down.

Out of the four Twilights, I would not say this is my favorite… and I did not like the name choices in it (if you have read it, you understand), BUT I did like the story. There were twists and turns I could not and did not even GUESS or think about.

My problem. Where was the violence? People have been saying that there was excessive violence… but except for one gory scene (which was violent, but not in the same way the end of Eclipse was violent), yeah… not a lot. At the end especially I was expecting more violence, and was a little surprised the way it turned out.

Unlike some others, I did REALLY like this book. I thought that the ending was sweet, the little things that happened, the big things that happened, Bella’s discoveries about herself and I loved the side-tracking and preparation she made. No where NEAR enough Alice though.

That is actually my only problem with the Meyer books. The plot lines get so exciting that you don’t get to kick back and hang out with the Cullens, or with Jake and Seth and Leah. Yeah I know BELLA gets to, but I want to TOO! So that is my opinion of Breaking Dawn.

I loved it, it was a great story, and if you want to be psycho mean, please stay away! But if you haven’t read this story YET (and you should of course), eventual comments may have spoilers. The discovery is as much fun as the destination.

Tags: bella cullen, bella swan, Book, breaking dawn, cullen, eclipse, edward cullen, hardcover, hybrids, jacob black, meyer, new moon, release, shape shifters, stephenie meyer, stepheniemeyer.com, twilight, vampire, werewolves

So a funny thing happened on Stephenie Meyer day….

Like I said, we had our little table with Bloody drinks and Bloody snacks… well in true vampire fashion (though I know not Meyer’s type of vampire), we had a bat!

Yes indeed, a bat. Now I was a little surprised since I was not expecting to pick up the table cloth and see a scared little batty! Eventually we did get it outside (though it shuffled back in on its own and then hid for a few minutes before flying around and then flying out the open door we held for it), but in the meantime, a bat gave the SEAL OF APPROVAL to our Stephenie Meyer day festivities. That is all you can ask for

Tags: bat, breaking dawn, brown bat, eclipse, little brown bat, new moon, stephenie meyer, twilight, twilight series

I don’t want you to think that I missed out on the Breaking Dawn extravaganza! I made t-shirts for my coworkers as well as 3 for random people on our reserve list. I brought in hawaiian punch, and put it in a beautiful Venetian Cut Glass pitcher. I also made Red Velvet cupcakes, blood red. So there was a little blood theme. It was really fun. Everyone who came in to get their book was so excited. We had people waiting at the door, it was great fun.

Link to EW with the first chapter: here.

Here are the quotes from the website, all from the book.

1.Alice: “I’ll play you for it. Rock, paper, scissors.”
Edward: “Why don’t you just tell me who wins?”
Alice: “I do. Excellent.”
2. Bella: “Oh, Mike! How will I go on?”
3. Tanya: “Ah, Edward. I’ve missed you.”
4. Emmett: “Oooo, scary.”
5. Bella: “Jasper? What do vampires do for bachelor parties? You’re not taking him to a strip club, are you?”
6. Charlie: “Bells, we’re up to bat.”
7. Edward: “You’re awfully small to be so hugely irritating.”
8. Bella: “Why am I covered in feathers?”
9. Alice: “No one will dare to call you plain when I’m through with you.”
Bella: “Only because they’re afraid you’ll suck their blood.”
10. Edward: “Oops.”
11. Renee: “Alice wouldn’t let us do anything else. Every time we tried, she all but ripped our throats out.”
12. Edward: “Do you want me to sing to you? I’ll sing all night if it will keep the bad dreams away.”
13. Rosalie: “Over my pile of ashes.”
14. Edward: “You look so guilty—like you’ve committed a crime.”
15. Sam: “This is not something our treaty anticipated. This is a danger to every human in the area.”
16. Rosalie: “I’d like to beat you dead.”
17. Jasper: “I can’t understand. I can’t bear this.”
18. Seth: “You’ll hurt her. Let her go.”
19. Carlisle: “I’ve seen vampire venom work miracles, but there are conditions that even venom cannot overcome.”
20. Jacob: “I’ll kill you myself! I’ll do it now!”
21. Bella: “Should I be afraid?”
Edward: “Terrified.”

Some more great photos are at Vball Lover’s Flickr.com page. Definitely check it out. Lots of great stuff!

I still have not read it yet. I’m going on vacation this weekend. So I will have had to wait an ENTIRE WEEK to start it. EEK! So NO spoilers, well… no spoilers ever, that’s just rude, but definitely not until I’ve read it.

Also, going to listen to the Host in the car. Gotta love Stephenie Meyer.

PS. Don’t forget the movie is coming out December 12th. EEK!!!!

Tags: breaking dawn, eclipse, host, meyer, new moon, stephenie meyer, the host, twilight, twilight saga, twilight series

This is a marvelous year. It is the 100th anniversary of Anne of Green Gables, by LM Montgomery. It is a magical book, and there is an entire series. In 1985, Anne of Green Gables was a highly acclaimed made for television by the CBC. Directed by Kevin Sullivan it starred Megan Follows as Anne. Simply phenomenal.

She has her own, Wikipedia page. For those of you not familiar with Anne, here is the plot summary from the Wikipage:

Marilla Cuthbert and Matthew Cuthbert, middle-aged siblings who live together at Green Gables, a farm in Avonlea, on Prince Edward Island, decide to adopt a boy from an orphan asylum in Nova Scotia as a helper on their farm. Through a series of mishaps, what ends up under their roof is a precocious girl of eleven named Anne Shirley. Anne is bright and quick, eager to please but dissatisfied with her name, her pale countenance dotted with freckles, and with her long braids of red hair. Being a child of imagination, however, Anne takes much joy in life, and adapts quickly, thriving in the environment of Prince Edward Island.

There is an amazing discussion on the importance of Anne Shirley, which great extras in the comments, Here at Jezebel.com

Additionally, in honor of this magical year, there was a prequel written by Budge Wilson. Before Green Gables. More here at the official website.

A must-read for generations of book lovers…

Before Green Gables is the story of Anne Shirley’s life before her arrival at Green Gables—a heartwarming tale of a precocious child whose lively imagination and relentless spirit help her to overcome difficult circumstances and of a young girl’s ability to love, learn, and above all, dream.

Check out Anne if you havent, and then read Wilson’s new, Before Green Gables. Anne Shirley is a girl that everyone should know!

Tags: 100th anniversary, anne, anne shirley, before green gables, budge wilson, canada, cuthberts, green gables, lm montgomery, lucy maud montgomery, montgomery, PEI, prince edward island, wilson

Everyone has issues with fruit flies at this time of year. I know we do at my house. I found a great way to get rid of them, without harsh chemicals, from my friend Sara. It is very simple, and only uses items that you would already have in your house (or can easily get at your local market).

To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it halfway with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Thats it! And it really works! We emptied our glass today which had bunches of dead flies in it and we only started it on Wednesday. So if you have a fruit fly problem, give this natural treatment a go!

Tags: apple cider vinegar, beingsara.com, bugs, flies, fruit flies, natural bug killer

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle that EVERYONE has been raving about, really is worth it. David Wroblewski has written an AMAZING debut novel. It is the story of a boy and his family, and the dogs that they raise, and it is so much more than that.

Some one-two liners about how amazing it is:

A CLASSIC IN THE MAKING… The scope of this book, its psychological insight and lyrical mastery, make it one of the best novels of the year, and a perfect, comforting joy of a book for summer. — O Magazine, July 2008

The most enchanting debut novel of the summer… this is a great, big, mesmerizing read, audaciously envisioned as classic Americana…. Pick up this book and expect to feel very, very reluctant to put it down. — Janet Maslin, New York Times

Nothing quite compares to my experience of reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. This debut…. is one of the most stunning, elegant books I have ever read…. what can deservedly be called a great American novel. — Lisa Jennifer Selzman, Houston Chronicle

I am completely smitten…. The most hauntingly impressive debut I’ve read all year…. Edgar might be silent, but his story will echo with readers for a long time. — Yvonne Zipp, Christian Science Monitor

It’s the must-read of the summer… — People Magazine

The Great American Novel is something like a unicorn – rare and wonderful…. Yet every few years or so, we trip across some semblance of one…. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle… [will] leave you crying for more…. — Elle Magazine, June 2008

Grand and unforgettable. — Ron Charles, Washington Post Book World (cover review)

The best book I’ve read in a long time. It is a class apart—a 570-page literary novel that has as much emotional punch as anything I have ever read. — Michael Fraser, Publishers Weekly “Galley Talk”

And Sawtelle’s first and biggest supporter is Stephen King. He has done a great review:

“I flat-out loved The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Dog-lovers in particular will be riveted by this story, because the canine world has never been explored with such imagination or emotional resonance. Yet in the end, this isn’t a novel about dogs or heartland America — although it is a deeply American work of literature. It’s a novel about the human heart, and the mysteries that live there, understood but impossible to articulate. Yet in the person of Edgar Sawtelle, a mute boy who takes three of his dogs on a brave and dangerous odyssey, Wroblewski does articulate them, and splendidly. I closed the book with that regret readers feel only after experiencing the best stories: It’s over, you think, and I won’t read another one this good for a long, long time.
In truth, there has never been a book quite like The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I thought of Hamlet when I was reading it (of course… and in this version, Ophelia turns out to be a dog named Almondine), and Watership Down, and The Night of the Hunter, and The Life of Pi — but halfway through, I put all comparisons aside and let it just be itself.
I’m pretty sure this book is going to be a bestseller, but unlike some, it deserves to be. It’s also going to be the subject of a great many reading groups, and when the members take up Edgar, I think they will be apt to stick to the book and forget the neighborhood gossip.
Wonderful, mysterious, long and satisfying: readers who pick up this novel are going to enter a richer world. I envy them the trip. I don’t reread many books, because life is too short. I will be rereading this one.”

— Stephen King, author of Duma Key

Here is the NY Times article
Another review from the Chicago Tribune
Another from the International Herald, which is part of the Global NYT

And the creme-de-la-creme… The New Yorker…

I might just name my next dog Almondine, because if my dog is anything like her… I would count myself blessed. You only have to read to like this book. You don’t have to love dogs or Minnesota. Just give it a try, completely worth it.

Tags: breeding, david wroblewski, debut novel, dogs, edgar sawtelle, fiction, hardcover, new yorker, nytimes, sawtelle, stephen king, summer pick, wroblewski

I just finished Tethered by Amy MacKinnon. It was phenomenal. Truly phenomenal. I took an extra break so I could read more. I did not even log into my WiiFit because I was reading. Beautiful and heart-wrenching, and yeah, go read it right now!

The book description from the Random House webpage:

Clara Marsh is an undertaker who doesn’t believe in God. She spends her solitary life among the dead, preparing their last baths and bidding them farewell with a bouquet from her own garden. Her carefully structured life shifts when she discovers a neglected little girl, Trecie, playing in the funeral parlor, desperate for a friend.

It changes even more when Detective Mike Sullivan starts questioning her again about a body she prepared three years ago, an unidentified girl found murdered in a nearby strip of woods. Unclaimed by family, the community christened her Precious Doe. When Clara and Mike learn Trecie may be involved with the same people who killed Precious Doe, Clara must choose between the stead-fast existence of loneliness and the perils of binding one’s life to another.
About the Author

AMY MacKINNON is a former congressional aide whose commentaries have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, the Boston Globe, the Seattle Times, and on National Public Radio and This American Life. This is her first novel.

Available August 12th 2008 in Hardcover, and it will definitely be on my staff pick shelf. Worth the money to buy in hardcover. Definitely worth it

Tags: amy mackinnon, Book, child abuse, fiction, hardcover, mackinnon, mortuary, random house, tethered, under taker

One of the reasons I like to read fiction is because at the end, the characters can be happy. The goal of course is for the author to make it believable, but still, I want HAPPY people…

I just finished reading Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins. It was beautiful. It takes place in India in the 1970’s. Here is the jacket blurb on it…

When her father loses his job and leaves India to look for work in America, Asha Gupta, her older sister, Reet, and their mother must wait with Baba’s brother and his family, as well as their grandmother, in Calcutta. Uncle is welcoming, but in a country steeped in tradition, the three women must abide by his decisions. Asha knows this is temporary — just until Baba sends for them. But with scant savings and time passing, the tension builds: Ma, prone to spells of sadness, finds it hard to submit to her mother- and sister-in-law; Reet’s beauty attracts unwanted marriage proposals; and Asha’s promise to take care of Ma and Reet leads to impulsive behavior. What follows is a firestorm of rebuke — and secrets revealed! Asha’s only solace is her rooftop hideaway, where she pours her heart out in her diary, and where she begins a clandestine friendship with Jay Sen, the boy next door. Asha can hardly believe that she, and not Reet, is the object of Jay’s attention. Then news arrives about Baba . . . and Asha must make a choice that will change their lives forever.

It was a beautiful book.. (haven’t I said that already?) But it really was. The family dynamics, with the father gone to America, the mother and two sisters left to live with relatives. The money problems, the Indian culture, it was all so beautifull7 written and described.

However, it was not a romance novel where everyone lives happily every after in their perfect world. It was a novel of family honor and respect, doing what is right even though it may kill you inside.

It was beautiful and worth it, but have tissues ready at the end!

Look for it on the shelf of your local independent bookshop in January of 2009. I also wanted to include this bio of Mitali, from her website, because it will definitely show you how this woman knows her stuff about different cultures!

Mitali Bose Perkins was born in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. Her name means “friendly” in Bangla, which she tried to live up to because the Bose family moved so often – they lived in India, Ghana, Cameroon, London, New York City, and Mexico City before settling in the San Francisco Bay Area when she was in middle school. Mitali studied political science at Stanford University and public policy at U.C. Berkeley, surviving academia thanks to a steady diet of kids’ books from public libraries and bookstores, and went on to teach middle school, high school, and college students. She lived in India, Bangladesh, Thailand, and California with her husband and twin sons before the Perkins family moved to Newton, Massachusetts, where they live now.

Tags: calcutta, fiction, india, mitali perkins, novel, secret keeper, secrets, young adult

So this December, JK Rowling and Amazon.com will offer up to sale The Tales of Beedle the Bard, in standard and collector’s editions.

This is a picture from the special edition that Amazon purchased at auction. Beautiful isn’t it?

Here is the link to the Collector’s edition page.. And oh.. it is pretty…

The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Collector’s Edition
Offered Exclusively by Amazon (Available in Limited Quantities)
In December 2007, J.K. Rowling unveiled The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a very special book of five fairy tales illustrated by the bard herself, embellished with silver ornaments and mounted moonstones. Amazon was fortunate to come into possession of one of the original copies, and it was our privilege to share images and reviews of this incredible artifact. Now J.K. Rowling is giving millions of Harry Potter fans worldwide cause for celebration with a new edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard (available December 4, 2008) and Amazon is thrilled to exclusively offer a luxuriously packaged Collector’s Edition designed to evoke the spirit of the handcrafted original.

Tucked in its own case disguised as a wizarding textbook found in the Hogwarts library, the Collector’s Edition includes an exclusive reproduction of J.K. Rowling’s handwritten introduction, as well as 10 additional illustrations not found in the Standard Edition or the original. Opening the case reveals a velvet bag embroidered with J.K. Rowling’s signature, in which sits the piece de resistance: your very own copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, complete with metal skull, corners, and clasp; replica gemstones; and emerald ribbon.

Offering the trademark wit and imagination familiar to Rowling’s legions of readers–as well as Aesop’s wisdom and the occasional darkness of the Brothers Grimm–each of these five tales reveals a lesson befitting children and parents alike: the strength gained with a trusted friendship, the redemptive power of love, and the true magic that exists in the hearts of all of us. Rowling’s new introduction also comments on the personal lessons she has taken from the Tales, noting that the characters in Beedle’s collection “take their fates into their own hands, rather than taking a prolonged nap or waiting for someone to return a lost shoe,” and “that magic causes as much trouble as it cures.”

But the true jewel of this new edition is the enlightening and comprehensive commentary (including extensive footnotes!) by Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, who brings his unique wizard’s-eye perspective to the collection. Discovered “among the many papers which Dumbledore left in his will to the Hogwarts Archives,” the venerable wizard’s ruminations on the Tales allow today’s readers to place them in the context of 16th century Muggle society, even allowing that “Beedle was somewhat out of step with his times in preaching a message of brotherly love for Muggles” during the era of witch hunts that would eventually drive the wizarding community into self-imposed exile. In fact, versions of the same stories told in wizarding households would shock many for their uncharitable treatment of their Muggle characters.

Professor Dumbledore also includes fascinating historical backstory, including tidbits such as the history and pursuit of magic wands, a brief comment on the Dark Arts and its practitioners, and the struggles with censorship that eventually led “a certain Beatrix Bloxam” to cleanse the Tales of “much of the darker themes that she found distasteful,” forever altering the meaning of the stories for their Muggle audience. Dumbledore also allows us a glimpse of his personal relationship to the Tales, remarking that it was through “Babbity Rabbity and Her Cackling Stump” that “many of us [wizards] first discovered that magic could not bring back the dead.”

Both a wise and delightful addition to the Harry Potter canon, this new translation of The Tales of Beedle the Bard is all that fans could hope for and more–and an essential volume for the libraries of Muggles, wizards, and witches, both young and old.

Net proceeds from this Collector’s Edition and the Standard Edition support of the Children’s High Level Group, a charity co-founded in 2005 by J K Rowling and Emma Nicholson MEP to make life better for vulnerable children. (The Children’s High Level Group is a charity registered in England and Wales under registered charity number 1112575.)

Collector’s Edition Product Features:
• All five fairy tales from the original The Tales of Beedle the Bard
• Outer case disguised as a wizarding textbook from the Hogwarts library
• Exclusive reproduction of J.K. Rowling’s handwritten introduction
• 10 new illustrations by J.K. Rowling not included in the Standard Edition or the original handcrafted edition
• Velvet bag embroidered with J.K. Rowling’s signature
• Metal skull, corners, and clasp
• Replica gemstones
• Emerald ribbon

This is the standard edition cover.

So in preparation for December 4th of 2008, start saving your clams now! Though if the $100 price is too steep for you, know that the standard edition will be about $13. A bit more reasonable.

Tags: amazon.com, bard, beedle, beedle the bard, Book, collector's edition, harry potter, JK Rowling, rowling, special edition

The NEA put out an interesting article about the reading habits of today. It varies through all age groups, though from what I could find is limited to the United States. Foreign readers will probably not be surprised by the downward trend in… everything, because even though we are part of the developed world, if there is a list, the US is at the bottom of it. Unless the top is the worst, then we are there.

Regardless, this is a really interesting article about the trends that we are seeing. There are some nice graphs and charts if you don’t want to read thoroughly. Enjoy!

PDF available here

Tags: books, nea, pdf, reading, trends