A Note From An Old Acquaintance - A Blog Tour Review

A Note From An Old Acquaintance - Bill Walker (blog tour from Pump up your book.com)

Product Details

• Pub. Date: June 2009
• Publisher: iUniverse, Incorporated
• Format: Paperback, 360pp

• ISBN-13: 9781440133336
• ISBN: 1440133336

Synopsis:

Brian Weller is a haunted man. It's been two years since the tragic accident that left his three-year-old son dead and his wife in an irreversible coma. A popular author of mega-selling thrillers, Brian's life has reached a crossroads: his new book is stalled, his wife's prognosis is dire, and he teeters on the brink of despair.

Everything changes the morning an e-mail arrives from Boston artist Joanna Richman. Her heartfelt note brings back all the poignant memories: the night their eyes met, the fiery passion of their short-lived affair, and the agonizing moment he was forced to leave Joanna forever. Now, fifteen years later, the guilt and anger threaten to overwhelm him. Vowing to make things right, Brian arranges a book-signing tour that will take him back to Boston. He is eager to see Joanna again, but remains unsure where their reunion will lead. One thing is certain: the forces that tore their love asunder willstop at nothing to keep them apart.

Filled with tender romance and taut suspense, A Note from an Old Acquaintance is an unforgettable story about fate, honor, and the power of true love.

My Thoughts:

I loved this book!! It grabbed a hold of me from the beginning and never let go. I fell in love with Brian and Joanna's story of how the met, what tore them apart, and how they met again. I hungrily read through 80% of this book in one sitting. Once I started reading, I just couldn't stop. I wanted to know how it ended and I wasn't let down.

Such a fantastic story!

The characters were well written and believable. I found myself feeling a wide range of emotions while reading this. Anger, passion, love, awe at the characters obvious talents, sadness, loss and many more. This was a heartfelt read that had me tearing up and smiling at the same time in more than one spot. I think a book that does that to you, it well worth the read and I will be recommending this book to anyone who asks.

A to Z Wednesday

Welcome to A-Z Wednesday!!
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~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments
If you've already reviewed this book you can add it also.
Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment.
(We all love comments, don't we?)
Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEKS LETTER IS: H

My "H" book is:

Heart Shaped Box - Joe Hill

Synopsis

Sooner or later, the dead catch up . . .

Judas Coyne was a collector. The bizarre, the uncanny, the grotesque. A cookbook for cannibals. A used hangman’s noose. A snuff film. Many of these objects were gifts from the black-clad fans who made his metal band a legend and made him rich.

But not all. When his personal assistant told him there was a ghost for sale on the Internet, Jude knew he had to have it for his private collection, didn’t think twice. He should have. Jude has spent a lifetime evading ghosts -- of an abusive father, of the bandmates he betrayed, of Anna, the suicidal girl he loved and abandoned. But this spirit is different. This one means to chase him to the edge of sanity.

His new acquisition -- delivered to his doorstep in a black heart-shaped box -- is the restless soul of Anna’s vengeful stepdaddy. Craddock McDermott swore he would settle with Jude for ruining his daughter’s life. Soon, everywhere Jude turns, Craddock is there: behind the bedroom door; in Jude’s restored vintage Mustang; outside his window; on his widescreen TV. Waiting -- with a gleaming razor blade on a chain dangling from one bony hand.

If ever there was a case of caveat emptor, this is it . . .

I've heard such great things about this author. This book has been waiting ever so patiently on my shelves. One of these days I will get it read.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading and it asks us to...

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here's my teaser this week:

Clarissa was proud of her garden. It was becoming what she had envisioned the first time she stepped onto the property: her own private Eden, genteel and spilling over with rosebuds, jasmine, pendulous wisteria.

How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly - Connie May Fowler pg. 3

This is next up in my reading list and it looks really good.

Mailbox Monday & What Are You Reading

This is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. Join the fun and post what you got in your mailbox last week!

I got just a few books this week.









The Map of True Places - Brunonia Barry (pusblisher/shelf awareness)















Beautiful Dead - Eden Maguire (bought)
















Inside Out - Maria V. Snyder (bought)
















It's Monday! What are you reading this week? Hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through A World of Books. This is a meme to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read, and the books to be finished this week.

Books I finished last week:
A Note From An Old Acquaintance - Bill Walker
The Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova (Audiobook)

Currently Reading:

Size Eight in a Size Zero World - Meredith Cagen
The Adoration of Jenna Fox - Mary E. Pearson (Audiobook)




Books to Finish this Week:
Size Eight in A Size Zero World - Meredith Cagen
Hopefully The Adoration of Jenna Fox also.

Weekend Roundup

So it feels like I've been unplugged all weekend and for the most part, I have. I was looking at my reader this morning and I haven't sat down and gone through blog post in two days. A sure sign that your weekend has been packed filled with stuff, mostly I just wasn't home to sit and read. I didn't even pick up a book this weekend. So what did I do? Oddly enough, I just mostly hung out with friends.

We went to camp for a couple hours on Saturday to pay our yearly fees and put the tarp back over our carport frame. We expected that to take awhile but thanks to our buddy for lending us an 8 foot ladder, it took us 20 min. We came home and got our tent trailer put back down and tucked away so we can move it up to camp next month. I always open it in spring and clean it out before we take it anywhere.

Last night was UFC fight night, so we all gathered at our friends for a night of fights and chatting. I had a great time. Played a little Rockband to end the night. Today we have to get some groceries and then I think I am home for the day for an afternoon of playing blog catch up and gaming with my hubby.

The picture above is the view from the Space Needle's observation deck at 520 feet high. I loved the snow capped mountain range in the picture.

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend and I hope you're upcoming week is great as well.

Swan Thieves Audiobook - A Review

Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova (review from Hachette) Audiobook

Product Details

• Pub. Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Format: Compact Disc

• ISBN-13: 9781600247453
• ISBN: 1600247458
• Edition Description: Unabridged

Synopsis

Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe has a perfectly ordered life--solitary, perhaps, but full of devotion to his profession and the painting hobby he loves. This order is destroyed when renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient. In response, Marlowe finds himself going beyond his own legal and ethical boundaries to understand the secret that torments this genius, a journey that will lead him into the lives of the women closest to Robert Oliver and toward a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism.

Ranging from American museums to the coast of Normandy, from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth, from young love to last love, THE SWAN THIEVES is a story of obsession, the losses of history, and the power of art to preserve human hope.

My Thoughts:

There's something to be said when you hear an audiobook with great narrator's. When you're listening to a book, the narrator's have such an important role. They can either kill or bring the book to life. The narrator's of this book were nothing short of extraordinary. Treat, Anne, Erin, Sarah and John, were amazing in the parts they had to play.

I loved hearing about all the art and the art processes. It made me want to go to Paris even more than I wanted to, and see all the museums full of art. To wander the halls and feel the history deep within.

The characters were fascinating. I found myself wanting to know how Robert ticked, how he had fallen into such a pit of mental instability. Andrew is an interesting sort of doctor, who at first went beyond his duty to help Robert, but in time found himself just as drawn into Roberts life. I think figuring out why Robert attacked the painting, became more of a necessity for even him.

The french sections of this book were amazing. I loved these interludes of letters from Beatrice to Olivier. I felt myself being drawn back into time into a world so very different from ours. Their story was fascinating and I found it interesting how all the characters in the book fell along similar paths in their lifetimes.

This is not the sort of story where you fall right in and follow the story to the final explosive outcome. This book slowly wraps itself around you like vines and immerses you completely into the story. I found myself completely involved in the book. I would even go so far as to say it's a mystery of sorts but not in the standard of terms. There were a few confusing moments but that's to be expected when you're trying to unravel a story of this magnitude.

If your the sort of reader who has the patience to sit back and slowly work your way through a book, I would highly recommend this audiobook.

The River Kings' Road - Blog Tour March 25, 2010

The River Kings' Road - Liane Merciel (Pocketbooks for Blog Tour)

Product Details (via Amazon)

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (March 9, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439159114
• ISBN-13: 978-1439159118

Product Description (via Amazon)

A thrilling new voice in fantasy makes an unforgettable debut with this "intriguingly twisted tale of treachery and magic" (New York Times bestselling author L. E. Modesitt, Jr.). Liane Merciel’s The River Kings’ Road takes us to a world of bitter enmity between kingdoms, divided loyalties between comrades, and an insidious magic that destroys everything it touches. . . .

The wounded maidservant thrust the knotted blankets at him; instinctively, Brys stepped forward and caught the bundle before it fell. Then he glimpsed what lay inside and nearly dropped it himself.

There was a baby in the blankets. A baby with a tear-swollen face red and round as a midsummer plum. A baby he knew, even without seeing the lacquered medallion tucked into the swaddling—a medallion far too heavy, on a chain far too cold for an infant who had not yet seen a year.

A fragile period of peace between the eternally warring kingdoms of Oakharn and Langmyr is shattered when a surprise massacre fueled by bloodmagic ravages the Langmyrne border village of Willowfield, killing its inhabitants—including a visiting Oakharne lord and his family—and leaving behind a scene so grisly that even the carrion eaters avoid its desecrated earth. But the dead lord’s infant heir has survived the carnage—a discovery that entwines the destinies of Brys Tarnell, a mercenary who rescues the helpless and ailing babe, and who enlists a Langmyr peasant, a young mother herself, to nourish and nurture the child of her enemies as they travel a dark, perilous road . . . Odosse, the peasant woman whose only weapons are wit, courage, and her fierce maternal love—and who risks everything she holds dear to protect her new charge . . . Sir Kelland, a divinely blessed Knight of the Sun, called upon to unmask the architects behind the slaughter and avert war between ancestral enemies . . . Bitharn, Kelland’s companion on his journey, who conceals her lifelong love for the Knight behind her flawless archery skills—and whose feelings may ultimately be Kelland’s undoing . . . and Leferic, an Oakharne Lord’s bitter youngest son, whose dark ambitions fuel the most horrific acts of violence. As one infant’s life hangs in the balance, so too does the fate of thousands, while deep in the forest, a Maimed Witch practices an evil bloodmagic that could doom them all. . . .

My Thoughts:

I read Fantasy novels about 3 or 4 times a year. Usually because their worlds are so full of life that I can't delve into too many. I've got to say, I am so glad I picked this one! By page two, I was hooked!

Fantasy books usually take me a bit to read because their background it epic in nature. Lots of places, people, battles, magic etc. This book had all that and yet instead of taking days, I devoured it. I literally read the majority of it in one day. I just had to know it ended.

The storyline is interesting. A race to save the infant son and heir of a dead lord. On the run from people and forces trying to stop them and finish the job they started. Who wouldn't enjoy this story? I really enjoyed the characters, even the ones I loathed. All the characters were very well developed.

My only gripe and it's a small one, is there was no map to refer too. Fantasy worlds are usually so vast and lands are rich in detail. There are kingdoms, villages, rivers, bridges, mountains, etc. I find it helpful to have a map to refer too as I follow the characters on their journey, especially if their journey takes them to many different places as this book did.

So other than my one little gripe, this was a fantastic debut from Liane and I look forward to reading the next in the series.

Author's Website: Liane Merciel

Other Participating Blogs:

Pam’s Private Reflections: http://hip2bhomeschooling.blogspot.com/
Book Junkie: http://myfoolishwisdom.blogspot.com/
Cheryl’s Book Nook: http://cherylsbooknook.blogspot.com/
Steph the Bookworm: http://www.stephthebookworm.blogspot.com/
Readaholic: http://bridget3420.blogspot.com/
The Bibliophilic Book Blog: http://www.bibliophilicbookblog.com/
I Heart Book Gossip: http://juniperrbreeeze.blogspot.com/
Jeanne's Ramblings: http://www.jeannesramblings.com
My Book Addiction and More: http://mybookaddictionandmore.wordpress.com/
Brizmus Blogs Books: http://brizmusblogsbooks.blogspot.com/
Taking Time For Mommy: http://takingtimeformommy.blogspot.com/
Thoughts In Progress: http://www.masoncanyon.blogspot.com/
Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer: http://ramblingsofacoffeeaddictedwrter.blogspot.com/
Books And Things: http://melissawatercolor.blogspot.com/
She Reads: http://mandyfish-reads.blogspot.com/
Blog Business World: http://www.blogbusinessworld.blogspot.com
Carol’s Notebook: http://carolsnotebook.wordpress.com/
Crazy Books & Reviews: http://www.lindsayphotobook.blogspot.com/
Books Gardens & Dogs: http://maryinhb.blogspot.com/
Just One More Paragraph: http://tweezlereads.blogspot.com/
Rundpinne: http://www.rundpinne.blogspot.com/
Drey’s Library: http://dreyslibrary.blogspot.com/
My Life In Not So Many Words: http://www.ziarias.blogspot.com/
Geek Girl Reviews: http://www.geekgirlreviews.com/
Starting Fresh: http://startingfresh-gaby317.blogspot.com/
Poisoned Rationality: http://lastexilewords.blogspot.com
Temple Library Reviews: http://templelibraryreviews.blogspot.com/
The Wayfaring Writer: http://moonsanity.blogspot.com/
Booksie’s Blog: http://booksiesblog.blogspot.com/
See Michelle Read: http://seemichelleread.blogspot.com/
Genre Reviews: http://genrereviews.blogspot.com/
My Book Views: http://my-book-views.blogspot.com/
Wendy’s Minding Spot: http://mindingspot.blogspot.com/
Book Tumbling: http://booktumbling.com/
Literarily Speaking: http://literarilyspeaking1.blogspot.com/
Books R Us: http://www.booksrusonline.com/
Brenda Loves Books: http://brendalovesbooks.blogspot.com/
Lucky Rosie’s: http://www.luckyrosiescreations.blogspot.com/
You Wanna Know What I Think? : http://www.kballard87.blogspot.com/

Worst Case Winners!!

And the winners are:


Dr Bill Smith(declined new winner is Misusedinnocence)
Sharon (email received)
Marc (email received)

Congratulations to all the winners! Emails will go out to you soon and you have 72 hours to get back to me with mailing information.

All information has been submitted to Hachette 3/25/2010

A to Z Wednesday

Welcome to A-Z Wednesday!!
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~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments
If you've already reviewed this book you can add it also.
Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment.
(We all love comments, don't we?)
Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEKS LETTER IS: G

My "G" book is:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Marry Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Product Details

• Pub. Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Format: Paperback, 304pp
• Sales Rank: 210

• ISBN-13: 9780385341004
• ISBN: 0385341008

Synopsis

“ I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

I just purchased this and can't wait to make time to read it. I've heard such amazing things about it.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading and it asks us to...

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here's my teaser this week:

He stared at the subject line of the last one, frowning.

A Note From An Old Acquaintance...

Odd. A part of him wanted to delete it, feeling it was just another spammer with a crafty come on. But another, deeper part of him knew it wasn't.

A Note From An Old Acquaintance - Bill Walker pg 14

Mailbox Monday & What Are You Reading

This is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. Join the fun and post what you got in your mailbox last week!

I will broke this week and I went and bought a few books at my local used bookstore. What can I say, bookstores relax me and after a stressful afternoon, I broke and went lol.







Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen (bought. Unfortunately it's abridged. I had no idea these existed so when I saw it, I thought okay going to give Austen a try and grabbed it. It wasn't until I got home and saw the abridged on the back. Who knows maybe it will be the best choice for the struggling Austen reader.)












Persuasion - Jane Austen (bought. I also grabbed this one. I just recently watched the Masterpiece Classic and loved it, so thought I'd give it a try also)














A Certain Slant of Light - Laura Whitcomb (bought)
















The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (bought)















Arcadia Falls - Carol Goodman (Library Thing Early Reviewers)
















How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly - Connie May Flower (Hachette for Blog Tour)

















It's Monday! What are you reading this week? Hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through A World of Books. This is a meme to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read, and the books to be finished this week.

Books I finished last week:
The River King's Road - Liane Merciel
The Poacher's Son - Paul Doiron

Currently Reading:

A Note From An Old Acquaintance - Bill Walker
The Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova (Audiobook)



Books to Finish this Week:
The Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova (Audiobook)
A Note From An Old Acquaintance - Bill Walker

The Poacher's Son - A Review

The Poacher's Son - Paul Doiron (B&N First Look Book Club)

Product Details (from B&N)

• Pub. Date: May 11, 2010
• Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur
• Format: Hardcover, 336pp

• Series: Mike Bowditch Mysteries Series
• ISBN-13: 9780312558468
• ISBN: 0312558465

Synopsis (from B&N)

Set in the wilds of Maine, this is an explosive tale of an estranged son thrust into the hunt for a murderous fugitive—-his own father.

Game warden Mike Bowditch returns home one evening to find an alarming voice from the past on his answering machine: his father, Jack, a hard-drinking womanizer who makes his living poaching illegal game. An even more frightening call comes the next morning from the police: They are searching for the man who killed a beloved local cop the night before—-and his father is their prime suspect. Jack has escaped from police custody, and only Mike believes that his tormented father might not be guilty.

Now, alienated from the woman he loves, shunned by colleagues who have no sympathy for the suspected cop killer, Mike must come to terms with his haunted past. He knows firsthand Jack’s brutality, but is the man capable of murder? Desperate and alone, Mike strikes up an uneasy alliance with a retired warden pilot, and together the two men journey deep into the Maine wilderness in search of a runaway fugitive. There they meet a beautiful woman who claims to be Jack’s mistress but who seems to be guarding a more dangerous secret. The only way for Mike to save his father now is to find the real killer—-which could mean putting everyone he loves in the line of fire.

The Poacher’s Son is a sterling debut of literary suspense. Taut and engrossing, it represents the first in a series featuring Mike Bowditch.

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this book! I love a good mystery and this didn't disappoint.

What I enjoyed most were the characters. The main character, Mike, is not perfect, in fact he's pretty flawed. I love a character who isn't perfect and shiny. All of the characters were very well written. The Setting was amazing. Makes me want to travel to Maine and go camping.

This is a who did it style of mystery and without giving any spoilers, I was very surprised by the outcome.

All and all a very good start to a series and I look forward to reading the next in line.

Black Hills Audiobook Winners!!

And the winners are:

Brooke from the Bluestocking guide (email received)
Terri (email received)
Deb (email received)

Congratulations to all the winners! Emails will go out to you soon and you have 72 hours to get back to me with mailing information.

All information has been submitted 3/18/2010

A to Z Wednesday

Welcome to A-Z Wednesday!!
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~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments
If you've already reviewed this book you can add it also.
Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment.
(We all love comments, don't we?)
Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEKS LETTER IS: F

My "F" book is:

Friday Night Bites - Chloe Neill

Synopsis

The story of a young heiress's initiation into the dark society of the Chicagoland Vampires continues...

Ten months after vampires revealed their existence to the mortals of Chicago, they're enjoying a celebrity status usually reserved for the Hollywood elite. But should people learn about the Raves-mass feeding parties where vampires round up humans like cattle-the citizens will start sharpening their stakes.

So now it's up to the new vampire Merit to reconnect with her upper class family and act as liaison between humans and bloodsuckers, and keep the more unsavory aspects of the vampire lifestyle out of the media. But someone doesn't want peace between them-someone with an ancient grudge...

I've read the first in the series and loved it! This is on my TBR shelves and I hope to get to it soon. I have no doubt it will be as good as the first.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading and it asks us to...

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here's my teaser this week:

They stood to either side of the doors, hidden from the view of those inside but plain to any other eyes. Yet none of the villagers had called a warning.

Ambush.

The River King's Road - Liane Merciel pg. 2

Mailbox Monday & What Are You Reading

This is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. Join the fun and post what you got in your mailbox last week!

A few books came my way this week:









Worst Case - James Patterson, Michael Ledwidge Audiobook (Hachette for review)














Cardboard A Woman Left for Dead - Fiona Place (Author for review)
















Gone - Michael Grant (PBS)
















The River King's Road - Liane Merciel (Pocketbooks Book Tour)















Flirting With Forever - Gwyn Cready (Publisher for review)

















It's Monday! What are you reading this week? Hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through A World of Books. This is a meme to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read, and the books to be finished this week.

Books I finished last week:
The Surrendered - Chang-Rae Lee (Review)

Currently Reading:

The Poacher's Son - Paul Doiron
The River King's Road - Liane Merciel
The Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova (Audiobook)



Books to Finish this Week:
The Poacher's Son - Paul Doiron
The River King's Road - Liane Merciel

Weekend Roundup

I didn't get a Weekend Roundup done last weekend because we were out of town in Washington visiting family. We had a fantastic time and on our way home stopped off in Seattle and did a couple tourist things. We took the kids up on the Space Needle, well I took the kids, my hubby wanted his feet kept on the ground. After that we went across the way and wandered into the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum. The building itself is a work of art but the stuff inside is fascinating.

The picture above is of Mt St Helens. The weather going up was clear and beautiful and I got a couple decent shots as we drove by. I'll be posting some pictures of our trip over the next few weeks. One of these days we'll actually take a up trip up to the mountain. We've been by and at the base (Ape Caves), but never up to the observatory itself.

This past week was a pretty standard week for me. Not much went on.

Last night we did go out to a friends house for a bit and then we all went out to dinner and a movie. We always enjoy spending time with great friends on the weekend.

Today my plan is to just stay at home, relax, and prepare for the week to come.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and here are some positive thoughts for a great week to come.

The Surrendered - A Review

The Surrendered - Chang-Rae Lee (Publisher for review)

Product Details (from B&N)

• Pub. Date: March 2010
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
• Format: Hardcover, 480pp
• Sales Rank: 293

• ISBN-13: 9781594489761
• ISBN: 1594489769

Synopsis (from B&N)

The bestselling, award-winning writer of Native Speaker, A Gesture Life, and Aloft returns with his biggest, most ambitious novel yet: a spellbinding story of how love and war echo through an entire lifetime.

With his three critically acclaimed novels, Chang-rae Lee has established himself as one of the most talented writers of contemporary literary fiction. Now, with The Surrendered, Lee has created a book that amplifies everything we've seen in his previous works, and reads like nothing else. It is a brilliant, haunting, heartbreaking story about how love and war inalterably change the lives of those they touch.

June Han was only a girl when the Korean War left her orphaned; Hector Brennan was a young GI who fled the petty tragedies of his small town to serve his country. When the war ended, their lives collided at a Korean orphanage where they vied for the attentions of Sylvie Tanner, the beautiful yet deeply damaged missionary wife whose elusive love seemed to transform everything. Thirty years later and on the other side of the world, June and Hector are reunited in a plot that will force them to come to terms with the mysterious secrets of their past, and the shocking acts of love and violence that bind them together.

As Lee unfurls the stunning story of June, Hector, and Sylvie, he weaves a profound meditation on the nature of heroism and sacrifice, the power of love, and the possibilities for mercy, salvation, and surrendering oneself to another. Combining the complex themes of identity and belonging of Native Speaker and A Gesture Life with the broad range, energy, and pure storytelling gifts of Aloft,Chang-rae Lee has delivered his most ambitious, exciting, and unforgettable work yet. It is a mesmeriz­ing novel, elegantly suspenseful and deeply affecting.

My Thoughts:

Let me start off by saying this was a beautifully written story spanning decades. The main character tells us the story of her life from the war in Korea to current times in the States and abroad. The book was rich in detail and full of life. Some parts of the book were so well described, I found myself visualizing the scenes. Mr. Lee is certainly a very gifted writer.

With that said while I enjoyed the book, I have to admit it took me forever to read. Going back and forth between time frames, I found distracting. I would find myself finally settling into a portion of the story, and then it would move on to something else stopping me in my tracks and I would have to start over and get settled again. I am glad I chugged along and kept reading because it was a heartfelt read.

If you don't mind time hopping, I would recommend this to anyone who loves a good story.