Don't judge a book by its cover

I admit, the cover of a book determines for me whether or not I pick it up and read more about it before buying it. There are some covers that can make me NEVER pick up a book. This is one of those covers. It has a hint of Harlequinn romanciness, mixed in with a bit of gothic and some sci fi. Very confusing to the eye in my opinion. I think I read a synopsis on Goodreads.com that made me want to give it a try:

Amelia Peabody, that indomitable product of the Victorian age, embarks on her debut Egyptian adventure armed with unshakable self-confidence, a journal to record her thoughts, and, of course, a sturdy umbrella. On her way to Cairo, Amelia rescues young Evelyn Barton-Forbes, who has been abandoned by her scoundrel lover. Together the two women sail up the Nile to an archeological site run by the Emerson brothers -- the irascible but dashing Radcliffe and the amiable Walter. Soon their little party is increased by one -- one mummy, that is, and a singularly lively example of the species. Strange visitations, suspicious accidents, and a botched kidnapping convince Amelia that there is a plot afoot to harm Evelyn. Now Amelia finds herself up against an unknown enemy -- and perilous forces that threaten to make her first Egyptian trip also her last.


As I reread this, I don't know what it was about the description - in fact I think it was one of the reviews that clinched it for me. The way one person described Amelia just made me want to give it a try and I'm so glad I did! Amelia Peabody is spunky, feminist, logical, and someone that I want for a best friend. It is a mystery and I'll admit, the story itself is a teeny bit on the lame side - Mummies and such somewhat reminiscent of a Nancy Drew mystery. Elizabeth Peters captured my attention however, with her characters and the dialogue. I knew I would read another of her books when Amelia said the word "ratiocination". There was a "ratiocination room" in our math department in college and seeing that word always makes me think of that room, bringing back fond memories.

It was a quick read overall, (262 pages) but it did go a little slow during the last third of the book. I would recommend it if you are a fan of strong female characters and if you enjoy witty dialogue over the details of the mystery. I especially liked the ending of this book. Here is one detective who does not exhibit all those dysfunctional characteristics I spoke of in an earlier post!

Case Histories

Tana French fans take note: If you have read all three of her books and are looking for a similar type story, check out Kate Atkinson's Case Histories. It is a mystery. It is set in Great Britain. It has a dysfunctional, but lovable main character.

An excerpt from Goodreads:

Case one: A little girl goes missing in the night. 

Case two: A beautiful young office worker falls victim to a maniac's apparently random attack. 

Case three: A new mother finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making - with a very needy baby and a very demanding husband - until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.

Thirty years after the first incident, as private investigator Jackson Brodie begins investigating all three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge . . .


I really enjoyed this. I liked the intersection of the different cases and how the author teased out the endings. Jackson Brodie is not quite as dysfunctional as some other detectives, but he has his fair share. What, do ALL detectives have to have major issues to be good at that job?? At any rate, I look forward to reading more from this author. It is customary for me to find an author and then read the shit out of him/her, but I'm going to vary from the norm and pick something else and let the other Kate Atkinson's on my shelf wait a bit. Not because I'm not interested, but because I want to spread out the enjoyment. I've got a lot of reading time coming up this summer...

American Wife

What an interesting story. This book has been sitting on my to-read shelf for quite some time. I bought it before Border's closed and was happy that I finally got around to reading it. What makes it so interesting to me, is what I discovered about it as I was reading it. A quote on the back cover says, "What a remarkable (and brave) thing: a compassionate, illuminating, and beautifully rendered portrait of a fictional Republican first lady with a life and husband very much like our actual Republican first lady's. Curtis Sittenfeld has written a novel as impressive as it is improbable." - Kurt Andersen. I did not know which first lady they were referring to, and I assumed it would be obvious as I read it so I didn't do any research beforehand. The book is divided into four parts: by her home addresses. The first being her childhood home, the second an apartment she lived in during her twenties, the third where she lived with her husband and daughter, and the last 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It wasn't until I was well into the third part that I finally caved and looked up which first lady it was referring to and I almost wish I hadn't as it would have become obvious by the time I reached the fourth part. Was I surprised? Hell yes! And from that point on in the book, the main characters suddenly had an identity crisis in my mind. Warring between the images my mind had already assigned to them, and what I know to be true about their real-life counterparts. I struggled with the rest of the book for that very reason, but I wouldn't say that is a bad thing. I definitely did do some research before I finished it, wanting to know if certain parts were true and I was surprised by how much was confirmed in Wikipedia.

I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the last half. Overall I found interesting the idea of taking a biography and making it into a novel. In a biography I don't think you are as free to fill in the gaps with the characters internal motivations and desires as freely as a novel. On a scale of 1 to 10 I think I would give it an 8. I don't think I would have read a book about this particular first lady if I had known who it was about from the beginning, but I'm glad I did.

Time Lottery

I have a couple of things reading related to report. First of all, my new Kobo eReader arrived yesterday. Ahhhh.... so comforting to have an eReader again. I plugged it in to get it charged up and anxiously awaited to load some new books to read. Once it was fully charged, I started it up and noticed that it did not have the pre-loaded classics that it advertised. Grrr.... so disappointing. That was one of the reasons I chose the WiFi model instead of the touch model. I sent the company an email, it will be interesting to see how they respond. Regardless, I am pretty happy with my choice as I did not want to spend the extra money on a fancier model and then have to upgrade all my accessories as well. For now, it will work and perhaps I will upgrade again in the future and this model will get handed down to someone else.

While waiting for my reader to arrive, I scanned my bookshelves for things I had picked up at the second hand bookstore. The Time Lottery was the big winner. I was surprised because as I started reading it, I realized this was a Christian book. I normally do not read this genre as I'm not what I would call a practicing Christian. I will save my thoughts on religion for a whole nother post! I almost stopped reading it a couple of times, and had my eReader arrived sooner, I might have given up before finishing. Some might say that it was FATE that I read it! It was ok. The story is about a lottery that allowed three people to win a trip to their past to change something they wished they had done differently. Of course, all three met God and that helped them become better versions of themselves. I did not get turned off the story as I normally would when God is used as the solution to life's problems, mainly because of how the story was written. The author did a nice job of using God and Jesus' message to help the characters make different choices. Instead of just having them accept Jesus in their life and magically things are better. That makes a lot more sense to me. Overall, I can't say it was a great book, but it was thought provoking and if I take anything away from it, it's that I want to investigate more into what was Jesus' message - not whether or not he was born of a virgin, not whether or not he actually rose, not whether or not I'm going to heaven when I die. But what exactly did He advocate? What were his words and advice for how to live and have a stronger connection with God? That is what interests me.

Death of an eReader

My dad received his eReader last week and I think he likes it. He seemed a little reluctant to go techno, and I can't blame him. I made the adjustment by thinking of my eReader as my "100 classics for $99". I didn't buy it to replace my books, but I thought it was a thrifty way to purchase 100 more because the Kobo came preloaded with 100 classics. His came pre-loaded with a lot, since I hooked him up with a bunch. At any rate, I think the final straw that got him was a little reading light I had purchased that attaches to the top of the reader so he can read out on his porch at night. I'm pretty sure that after he gets used to playing with it he will come to love it as well. 

My Kobo did not fare so well on vacation. On day #2 while at the beach a tragic and stupid accident occurred. We had set up a small sun shelter for the hot afternoon sun, and as it was rather windy off the gulf, the anchor pins kept pulling out of the sand. In my haste, I decided to use my eReader (which was in my hand at the time) to push down on the stake. Even though it was in a leather case, I must have pushed on the screen side and busted some of the ink cells in the screen. When I opened it back up there it was a mess of black lines across the screen and I could barely read a thing. That's what I deserve for not taking the time to put a shoe on and simply step on the damn stake! I was SO mad, mainly because I had to go through the rest of vacation without all my books. Grrr.... My dad was gracious enough to let me finish the book I was reading on his eReader, but I mourned my loss the rest of the trip. The next question is, what do I buy to replace it?

Good question!! I didn't want to spend a lot of money to upgrade to something better. I realized that what I had suited my purposes just fine. I don't download or shop for books using WiFi while on the unit. I wanted it to be able to hold a lot of books, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on new accessories. After reading many, many reviews and watching several videos demonstrating different readers, I narrowed down my choices to the Kobo Touch, or the same Kobo WiFi unit I destroyed. One of the main features I wanted to have, was the ability to view and navigate through my library and the Kobo WiFi was the only I saw that you could jump to the letter T without having to scroll or search through everything that was loaded. I was still a little interested in seeing how the Nook felt, so I went to Best Buy to see the units they have on display. What a disappointment. First of all, out of the three the only one that had a battery charge was the Kobo WiFi unit. The one I was already very familiar with. When I decided I'd go ahead and  pick up the WiFi to take home with me, I saw there weren't any on the shelf, and it was available for purchase online only. Grrr!! So I just ordered another one of the same unit I had from the Kobo website and hopefully it will get here before the end of next week. I did check on eBay and they had a couple of refurbished ones for $50, but after shipping/handling I figured I'd spend the extra $20 and get a brand new one with no shipping costs.

One thing I discovered during my research I found very interesting is that the Kobo is made in Canada, and is one of the only eReaders that can be used internationally when purchasing books wirelessly. Now, I put enough books on my dad's Kindle to last him PLENTY, but he is taking a trip overseas and now I see that he won't be able to purchase a book while there and upload it to his reader. Oops... sorry Dad! We'll see how savvy he gets with the technology before I break that news to him!

I am anxiously awaiting my UPS man this week!

Here is a good eReader website if you are looking to purchase and want reviews and information:

http://www.the-ebook-reader.com/

Coulda skipped this

I just finished read Skipping a Beat by Sarah Pekkanen. It wasn't horrible. It wasn't great. It was definitely different than what I have been reading. I might characterize this as a fluffy, sitting-by-pool, quick read. I will admit that I shed a tear or two towards the end. So I guess that says something. Here's the synopsis by Goodreads.com:

Julia and Michael meet in high school in their small, poverty-stricken West Virginia hometown. Both products of difficult childhoods -- Julia’s father is a compulsive gambler and Michael’s mother abandoned his family when he was a young boy – they find a sense of safety and mutual understanding in each other. Shortly after graduation they flee West Virginia to start afresh. Now thirty-somethings, they are living a rarified life in their multi-million-dollar,Washington D.C. home. From the outside it all looks perfect – Julia has become a highly sought-after party planner, while Michael has launched a wildly successful flavored water company that he sold for $70 million. 
But one day Michael stands up at the head of the table in his company's boardroom -- then silently crashes to the floor. More than four minutes later, a portable defibrillator manages to jump-start his heart. Yet what happened to Michael during those lost minutes forever changes him. Money is meaningless to him now - and he wants to give it all away to charity. A prenuptial agreement that Julia insisted upon back when Michael's company was still struggling means she has no claim to his fortune, and now she must decide: should she walk away from the man she once adored, but who truthfully became a stranger to her long before his near-death experience - or should she give in to her husband's pleas for a second chance and a promise of a poorer but happier life?


I guess I found the dialogue a little inconsistent. Sometimes I felt like she went very in-depth with the conversation and it sounded real. At other times, it was just on the lame side. I liked the fact that they highlighted what Michael's personality was like in parts throughout the narrative. You found out bits and pieces of why Julie grew apart from him as it went. At times, it made me sad when I connected it to parts of my own life and relationships. Like I said, it was such a stretch from the genres I have been reading that it felt strange. It was the perfect type of book to "cleanse my palate" which was my goal. So, given that I will give this book a 7 out 10.

The last of Thursday Next

I just finished Thursday Next: First Among Sequels, but I can tell you that by the way this ended, I'm sure there is another coming eventually. This Next novel was not my favorite. I'm not sure if it's because I stopped and read the Hunger Games trilogy before continuing. Possible. But it just seemed a little too scattered and random. There were definitely some parts that I enjoyed - seeing Friday as a teenager and meeting his sister Tuesday, a brainiac who has a hand in helping solve the time travel problem. A new character I adored was Isambard Kingdom Bunuel, an engineer in the BookWorld. His speech and word choices (a mashup of words rather) was what endeared me to him. Take a looklisten:

"Posttruthful, but it makes nonsense. It's potentious new books we should be cashsquandering on, not the stalnovelwarts who will be read no matter what. Besides, the costcash of the extra conduits is verlittle compared to the amount of custard needed to fillup all."

Overall, I think I'm just simply ready to move on to a different series. I have thoroughly enjoyed Thursday Next and she still ranks pretty high as far as female detectives go, and I would recommend her books in a heartbeat. And I have met my goal of finishing the series before heading off on vacation. Yay!

I've started reading Skipping a Beat by Sarah Pekkanen. I'm not sure it's what I'm looking for to quench that literary thirst, but maybe I just need to cleanse the palate before moving on to something new. At any rate, I will give it a try knowing that I have plenty more to choose from if it just doesn't do it for me!

Happy Reading to all!