My favorite posts ...

Our task for BBAW for today is to list some of our favorite posts. As I considered this, I realized that MOST of my favorites don't have to do with books ... maybe that's because books are what I usually write about and if I'm writing about something else, it's got to be pretty special! Anywho, here's my list - I hope you enjoy the posts!

A bit of family history and an amazing WWII connection is made. Now there is even MORE to this story, and I'll be posting about it sometime soon.
*** If you don't check out any of my other posts, PLEASE check out this one. It is near and dear to my heart. ***

Who doesn't love Disney?!

This is some of my favorite music right now, and we just got to see these guys in concert last week! I'll be posting pictures of kiddo with the band (hopefully) next week - he was SO excited to meet them!

My husband planned a fabulous anniversary weekend for me during which we took kiddo to his first concert.

Another crazy weekend ... this time I met another blogger and later had too much to drink.

Ok, this post IS about books - my childhood favorites!

Since this is about our favorite POSTS not necessarily our favorite books, I'm going to include to book reviews because they were great fun to put together. This one has lots of videos, this onehistorical photos, and this one has animals.
has lots of

Thanks for dropping by and checking out my favorites!

House and Home

Before going any farther, take just a minute to watch this book trailer (if you're in Google Reader you'll have to click over to my site I think). It starts with the first paragraph of the book, and boy! that last sentence of the excerpt will catch you.



Ok, so ... what did you think of that?

House and Home by Kathleen McCleary is not a book I would have picked up on my own* but I completely enjoyed it. Let me tell you why.

The main character, Ellen, has just separated from her husband of 18 years. In order to survive financially, she must sell her beloved house and downsize. She is NOT happy about this. My marriage is just fine, thank you. And my house is certainly not beloved. In fact, if you told me that I had to sell it tomorrow, I might even say Thank You.

Ellen is very organized - personally, financially, in her business, everywhere. Yeah, I'm SO.Not. organized.

House and Home is chick lit (good chick lit, but still chick lit). I don't read chick lit. But maybe I just won't admit that I like it because I'm "too smart" for it? Naw, I'd rather just say that this was a lovely book. Yeah, it's just that the book is really good, that's it. It's not me, it's the book!

Seriously though, I couldn't put this book down. I picked it up as a reprieve from the Salman Rushdie book I was slogging through (Midnight's Children, fyi) and found that I just COULD.NOT. put it down. I finished it in two days.

The characters in this book are so alive to me! I "get" them, I know people like them, they could live next door to me (oh please, could they?! They'd be better than some of the crazies in my neighborhood!). Like Ellen, my mom is a thrift store junkie. For me thrifting is torture.** For my mom and the rest of my extended family, it's therapy. My mom even had a room in an antique shop where she would sell her treasures, similar to Ellen's store.

McCleary is in the middle of a book blog tour this month and she's doing guest posts all over the place so you're bound to hear more about her (click here to check out some of her posts). But I get to share something that NO ONE ELSE can: I get to report on her panel at the Baltimore Book Festival on 9/26! Ok, so it's not an official report but she'll be at the same Book Fest where I'll be speaking (albiet on a different day - I'm set for 9/28) and I plan to attend her panel. Maybe I'll have a chance to meet her and get her to sign my book! I can just about guarantee that there will be pictures now that I have a lovely new camera.

~~~~~~~~

So, to summarize ...

• House and Home is a wonderful book - go read it!

• Come back for pictures of the author and notes on her panel (it will be some time after 9/28)!

• Check out more posts about this lovely book!
  
  
• And if you want a glimpse at what life is really like for a newly published author, go read this.
  

Get it?
Got it!
Good.

~~~~~~~~

*I read it because the editors of TLC Book Tours asked me to participate in on of their first book tours; since they are both wonderful blogging friends of mine, I agreed.

** For the record, I don't object to thrift stores nor to buying 2nd hand items. What I hate is the time and effort it takes to find things. Some people thrive on it. Me, I DIE from it.

Joshua Henkin - Author Phone Chat Available

A while back I (any many other bloggers) reviewed Matrimony, by Joshua Henkin. Here's a copy of an email he sent today to all the reviewers:

Hi, everyone. I wanted to let you know about a special offer Vintage is making for book groups. Sign up by midnight September 21 and Vintage will set up a phone chat for your book group with me to discuss MATRIMONY, my NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE novel, which has just come out in paperback. Normally, only five book groups are chosen among the entrants, but I have agreed to talk to all book groups that sign up.

Here's the link to do so. http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/read/chat.html

So if YOUR book club wants the opportunity to discuss a book with its author, here's your chance! Go sign up now, and be sure to let me know if you do.

Mistress of the Vatican - author talk

On Tuesday night I attended a talk by author Eleanor Herman at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. Ms. Herman was there to discuss her new book, Mistress of the Vatican.

I took copious notes (7 pages worth!) so I could tell you all about it. I also took pictures and even two videos! I'm posting all here for you to enjoy ... I'd love to hear what you think about it.

Here's what the Pratt's website says about the book:

For a decade in the 17th century, Olimpia Maidalchini, a woman born to a humble family, ran the Catholic church through her brother-in-law are reputed lover, Pope Innocent X. She made international policy, waged war, patronized Rome's greatest Baroque artists, and made herself rich with Vatican Gold.

Eleanor Herman is also the author of Sex with Kings and Sex with the Queen.

My notes on the talk are rough so please bear with me.

A bit about the time period:

• the Papal States were a kingdom with the Pope as monarch, and they dealt with the same issues that other monarchies of the time faced


• the 1600 were a time of plague, corruption, great wealth, and great poverty
  
  
• She explained the origins of the "conclave" of Cardinals who decide on the next Pope. The Cardinals often dragged out the decision over many months, and in this case the other rulers got fed up. They decided to lock the Cardinals in, with very little food, until they finally decided. After 5 weeks there was still no decision, so the roof of the building was removed to allow the weather in. Needless to say, a decision was reached shortly thereafter.*

Just before this first video begins, Ms. Herman explained that Olimpia Maidalchini (pronounced Ma-dal-kini) was the eldest of three daughters in her family. There was an older half brother as well. The son was favored by the father, and the girls were seen as a drain on the inheritance that would eventually go to the son.

Just after the video ends Ms. Herman went on to say that Olimpia became, at age 20, multi-millionaire widow (by today's monetary standards). Olimpia learned a valuable lesson from this; she learned how to get what she wanted despite being a woman.

Olimpia entered her second marriage as a wealthy woman, and chose to marry into a pedigreed family. Her new brother-in-law was a socially inept and indecisive judge. Through her influence and assistance, he became well-respected as was eventually made a Cardinal. (There's a LOT more to the story but I'm trying to be brief here.)

Eventually the brother-in-law became a candidate for the next pope. During the conclave it was common to pass messages to and from the Cardinals (unlike today, when it is completely secret). The second video discusses some of the correspondence between Olimpia and the Cardinals.

Sorry it cuts off abruptly at the end ... my camera battery was dying. The result of her efforts is that her brother-in-law was elected, and he became Pope Innocent X.

Olimpia did many good things during her life (and many not so good things too). Her good works included: money for undowried girls, official protection for Rome's prostitutes, and food, sheets, firewood, and other necessities for many convents. She also commissioned some wonderful art and architecture using the money she gained through her relationship (familial or sexual is up for debate) with Pope Innocent X.

This is just a small taste of what you'll find in this book. I have lots of other tidbits of info to share about Ms. Herman's research and more, but I'm going to save them for another post (hopefully sometime next week) as there is something else I want to mention here.

I brought my mom to this talk with me. We don't usually share the same opinions about what makes a great book but we do agree that historical books are usually good picks. In the car on the way home we got into a bit of a tiff about Ms. Herman's talk. Mom is a staunch Catholic and she felt that much of the talk was insulting and meant to demean or poke fun at the Church. I disagreed strongly with her. I felt that the history Ms. Herman spoke about is an unfortunate but true*** part of the Church's past, and that she wasn't poking fun in any way. Yes there was humor in her talk, but it was more to make the talk entertaining (rather than dry and boring). Mom agreed that Ms. Herman was a very good public speaker so at least we found THAT to agree on. At the very beginning of her talk, Ms. Herman stated emphatically that her book is not anti-Catholic or meant to attach the Church.**** Based on her talk, I agree with that statement. We'll see if that opinion changes once I read the book. Needless to say, Mom won't be reading this one.

* I can't say for sure the this is the truth, but my mom (a strong Catholic) was with me and she says that she remembers hearing this story before.

** I was raised Catholic but I attend a Protestant church now. I still know far more about Catholic history than I do about the development of the Protestant churches though.

*** Most of what she presented as fact is backed up by historical documents, and she was careful to point out when there were stories that couldn't be proven either way. So I'm not saying everything she presented was the truth, but much of it was well-documented.

**** She mentioned this in response to this act of vandalism at the library earlier this month.

Has anyone read this book yet? I'd love to check out your review if you have one. If you haven't read it, what do you think about it? Do events like the vandalism make you more or less likely to read a book?

BBAW - Wednesday's Giveaways and Blogging Tips

Today's BBAW activity is to answer two questions, so here we go ...

What is one thing you wish you knew about blogging when you started or what advice would you give a newbie blogger?

If you want comments, give comments! Visit other bloggers and make thoughtful comments on their posts ... in most cases they'll head over to your blog to say hi and check you out.

Oh, and make sure you have something posted that is interesting to other people (unless you are really just blogging for yourself which is perfectly fine too) ... if your visitors like what they read, they'll likely come back again.


What is your best blogging tip?

If you want to know how to do something, just ask! Sometimes I post a question directly on my blog, sometimes I ask it to a specific blogger in their comment section. Bloggers love to help! If you want to try something new, make changes to your blog, or just wonder how something is done, they are totally willing to give advice and instructions. That's how I got my blog to the place it is now.

As a side note, whenever I do get some good advice in response to a question, I tag it with "Blogger Tips". You can click on that link in my tags (in the right side bar) and check it out if you're interested.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And here are the contests I've heard about so far today. Click here and here for previously announced contests, and check back to this post throughout the day as I'll continue to update it.

My Friend Amy has contests going on here and here and I'm sure there will be more later!

Savvy Verse and Wit is giving away a 1-year subscription to Poetry magazine.

Enter to win an audio book of The Last Lecture at Book Club Classics.

The Book Smugglers have a fantasy/romance book up for grabs. They also have another contest going on, and the details are at the bottom of this post.

Bookish Ruth has all 4 books in the Sally Lockheart series by Phillip Pullman up for grabs today.

There are 10 signed copies of Spy Goddess: Live and Let Shop available at Book Club Girl.

Dewey says if you like Seinfeld then you'll like the book she's giving away.

You can get a copy of Guernica AND send money to a charity over at Fashionista Piranha.

Announcing Award Winners in two categories ...

Oh, this is so exciting - there's a red carpet and everything! And I get to announce the winners of two of my favorite Book Blogger Appreciation Week categories ...

Best Meme/Weekly Event

The finalists in this category were:
Booking Through Thursday
Book Blogger Appreciation Week
The Hidden Side of a Leaf 24 Hour Readathon
Tuesday Thingers
Weekly Geeks

And the award goes to ...

My Friend Amy for Book Blogger Appreciation Week

I think it's rather appropriate that the first award of the week goes to the blogger who put this whole thing together, don't you? Congratulations Amy! I hope all of you will head over to My Friend Amy and say congratulations.



Best Commenter/Commentator

The finalists in this category were:
Musings of a Bookish Kitty
OCD, vampires, and amusing rants, oh my!
Peeking Between the Pages
Rip My Bodice
Trish's Reading Nook

And the award goes to ...

Wait! There's a TIE!

And the awards go to ...

Musings of a Bookish Kitty

and

Rip My Bodice

Congratulations to you both! The thoughtful and consistent commenting provided by these two wonderful bloggers makes blogging much more fun for everyone. We all love getting comments, so head on over to both of these blogs and congratulate them with a shower of comments ... there's no better way to celebrate!



This is just the start of the awards presentations! Be sure to hop on over to the other presenter's sites to find out who else is being honored this week - you can check the schedule here. Congratulations to all the finalists!

BBAW - Tuesday's Contests

Here are the contests I've heard about today - keep checking back because I'll be adding more as I hear about them!

In Spring It Is The Dawn has a copy of Matrimony available

There are 5 copies of Free Food for Millionaires up for grabs at My Friend Amy. She also has Sisterchicks Go Brit! available here. And 5 copies of After the Fire here.

Blue Archipelago is giving away The Secret of Lost Things.

1morechapter is giving away Bookmooch or PaperbackSwap points.

Undiscovered Country is available at Novels Now.

Maw Books has lots of giveaways going on in conjunction with her Darfur Awareness Campaign this month. Check back often to see what she has available.

Book Club Girl has another lovely mousepad and a copy of Nothing is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn.

Get a chance to win a copy of Greasy Rider by commenting on going green over at Book Chatter.

Into romance? Ramblings on Romance has 6 books up for grabs, and they are not even published yet!

A Coney Island of the Mind is up for grabs at Savvy Verse and Wit.

Win an ebook of The Witch Tree at Candid Canine.

There are 5 books over 5 days and 5 ways to win at She Reads and Reads.


There were lots of contests announced yesterday too. Good luck!

I' m Getting Appreciated During BBAW ... and I love it!

The lovely and wonderful Chartroose of Bloody Hell! It's a Book Barrage! just gave me an award ...


I love the name of her blog ... it makes me smile every time I think of it. And this award is so lovely! Thanks Chartroose.

OCD, vampires, and amusing rants, oh my!

No, that's not what this post is about ... it's who I'm interviewing for Book Blogger Appreciation Week! The idea behind these interviews is that we can all get to know our fellow book bloggers a little better. And who wouldn't want to know more about OCD, vampires, and amusing rants, oh my!? Below are my questions and Anna's answers, and you can read MY answers to ANNA'S questions by clicking here.

Welcome Anna! Here's what I want to know about your blog, OCT, vampires, and amusing rants, oh my!

1. That title! How did you come up with it? What's the story?

Ha! The title was a fluke, actually. We were tooling around, trying to figure out what we were going to call our site, and eventually just put down the three things we figured would pop up most frequently. Most of the OCD happens behind the scenes, I think, but the vampires and rants are pretty regular features. Which reminds me, I'm not sure if I've properly ranted about vampires yet. I may have to fix that.

2. I see that there are two of you contributing to the site ... do you know each other IRL or did you meet online? Do you have rules about who posts what and when? Do you usually agree with each other's reviews or not?

Well, Sarah's from California and I [Anna] am decidedly Canadian, so we've never
actually met in person. We met online through a mutual friend and hit it off. We enable each others' obsessive behaviours, so hey, works for us. We don't always agree on absolutely everything, but we have similar enough tastes that neither of us have hated anything the other one loves yet. I'm kind of waiting for that to happen, it'll be interesting. It'll probably be me, I think I'm the picky one.

3. Do your IRL friends know about your blog? What do they think?

They do! I spread the word everywhere. I've always been the literary geek, so my friends have always come to me asking for recommendations or to borrow a book from my ever-growing library. I don't know if any of them follow the blog regularly, but they do check in from time to time, if only because it's easier to get my recommendations online where they can skip over my extra-long rants about the pros and cons of any given book. I think most of them think I'm nuts for taking on
something as time consuming as a book blog, but since they all thought I was nuts to begin with, it really hasn't changed anything.

4. Each of your reviews begins with a critique of the book's cover ... what is the WORST cover you've ever seen? Do you have a favorite cover?

Worst cover... well, romance covers are notoriously bad. Pictures of half-naked manflesh groping some chick in an ugly dress left over from the 1970s? Ugh. As for good covers, we actually did a short list of them by request. In general, I'm a sucker
for strong, monochromatic images with interesting lighting. *snobby accent* It is aaaaart!

5. You review a crazy variety of books over there! Your tags go from Romance and Erotica to Space Opera to Horror to Paranormal with stops all along the way. Is there anything you WON'T read? What is your absolute FAVORITE genre?

There isn't much I won't read, although not everything goes up for review there. We put an emphasis on genre fiction, so anything non-fiction or non-genre that I read doesn't get reviewed on the blog. I do try to avoid things involving child abuse, though, mostly because I know it'll bother me for days. But I mean, if I'm willing to read and review a novel written by Fabio, it either means I'll take a chance on anything or I completely lack the ability to say no.

Lately I've been on a serious urban fantasy kick. I love the gritty tone and the strong female characters that come out of that particular genre.

6. Inquiring minds want to know - what's the one thing you are most OCD about, the thing that drives everyone else batty?

Haha, I actually use my powers of OCD on the blog all the time.

"OH NO, it's been at least 25 hours since I last posted! My latest book review went up 4 days ago! Must update..." The one that really drives my husband nuts, though, is my obsession with keeping some order to my bookshelves. They're organized a lot like the bookstores, first by genre, then by author in alphabetical order, then by series in chronological order. So while it means I always know where everything is, nobody else is quite sure where to put things. "Is this one fantasy or horror...?"
"GAH! NO! That's book 3, it doesn't go after book 5!"

7. You have the most original (albeit creepy) rating system I've ever seen. Books are rated from 1 to 5 Pints of Blood, with 5 being the best. Are you sure you're both not REALLY vampires?

Well, I'm pale-skinned, nocturnal, and light-sensitive. You tell me!

8. On the subject of Romance Novels, complete this sentence: I'll always fall in love with a hero/heroine who _____________.

is self-aware and has a sense of humour. I love characters who can recognize their own strengths and weaknesses and remember to act accordingly. And nothing is sexier than someone who can make me laugh.

9. Since your read horror books, I'm guessing that NOTHING creeps you out, but I'll ask anyway: Have any of your commenters ever creeped you out with one of their comments?

Not yet, but good luck to anyone who wants to try! Hehe, I'm probably creepier than anyone actually reading the blog.

10. How do you choose what books to read? Do you get lots of ARCs? How big is your TBR pile/list?

I wouldn't say we get a lot of ARCs, but we have had a few, and those always get
priority. Um, new releases get higher priority than older books, and as a general rule I try to keep the reviews spread pretty evenly across the genres we cover. Number of sci-fi reviews dipping low? Time to check that section of the TBR list!

I also have a habit of "saving" books I'm really looking forward to and know I'll enjoy. Those get pulled out after I wind up reading something absolutely dreadful, or when I've had a really long stream of books that just made me go "meh." Every so often, you have to read something that fires you up and gets you excited about reading again, y'know?

11. Are you a book keeper, a book swapper, a book borrower, or something other species of reader?

I'm definitely a book keeper. It's mine, my precioussssss. If I think there's the slightest chance I'll want to re-read it, it goes on my bookshelf. Or, well, in that vicinity, since I'm out of shelf space again. Go figure. Books I really don't like get swapped on bookmooch.com.

12. What do you love about blogging? Hate?

I love the sense of community. Book blogs have a tendancy to gather intelligent, open-minded people who are up for friendly debate, which turns my crank like nothing else. I've met some really great people I'd never have met otherwise. As far as hate... this is going to sound funny, but I hate summarizing books. Trying to condense a four-hundred-page book into three paragraphs, keeping it coherent but trying not to give away plot points... it takes me forever, and I agonize over what details I can and can't stick in there. Oh coherency, the bane of bloggers everywhere!

13. What is a book you LOVE that you'd be embarrassed to be seen with?

It's pretty hard to embarrass me most of the time. I do carry around novels with shirtless Fabio on the cover, after all. I do have a habit of looking up older romance and fantasy novels where even the plot summary on the back sounds like the author must have been on crack. It's like watching the B-movies from the 60s; they're just unintentionally hilarious.

14. What author's book would you buy ASAP knowing nothing about it but who wrote it? What's so great about that author?

Oh man, buckle yourself in for some serious gushing. I would buy Tanya Huff's grocery list, I'm pretty sure. Actually, she said once that authors write about what they think is cool, and she likes strong women and witty repartée. Just so happens, those are my exact weaknesses. She's been one of my heroes for a long time, and I was fortunate enough to have met (read: stalked) her earlier this year. She's even more awesome in person (did not run away screaming even once) and I've pretty
much decided I want to be her when I grow up. The world could do with two, right?

15. If you were a Muppet, which one would you be?

Rizzo the rat. I'm short and have a wicked sense of sarcasm.

16. Give me one book I absolutely have to read, one book blog I have to visit, and one fashion trend I have to avoid at all costs.

Ah, and karma comes back to bite me. One of each, hmm. I'm going to cheat a little, since I know you're a fan of historicals I'll recommend Joanna Bourne's My Lord and Spymaster. Great book, interesting characters, complex plot, and just overall a lot of fun. Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has to be one of my favourite book blogs. They
just genuinely have so much fun with what they do, it's infectious. As for trends, this return to the 80s thing has to die, especially the potato sack tunics. They have no waist, and are not flattering on any body type, I don't care how "in" it is. Unless
you're inexplicably looking to add ten pounds to your frame, I honestly don't understand why people wear those things. Just say no!

Now wasn't that fun?! And guess what? Anna interviewed me at her blog today too! To find out what Muppet I would be (and lots of other strange things about me) go on over and check out her interview.

The Pages In Between

I'm thrilled to share this book with you during Book Blogger Appreciation Week because THIS is what book blogging is all about - finding fabulous books and sharing them with friends. You all ARE my friends, right? Even though we've never met? Yes, of course you are! So here is what I'm raving about today ...

The Pages In Between: A Holocaust Legacy of Two Families, One Home by Erin Einhorn

We've all read those amazing stories about children rescued from the Jewish Ghettos during World War II, right? But what we don't find out is what happened to them AFTER they were rescued? After the war ended? After life "went back to normal"? If you're like me, you never even really wondered about it. I mean, they made it through ALIVE ... what else could you ask for?

Erin's mother, Irena, was spirited out of a Polish ghetto at age 3. She lived in two foster homes before her father was able to come for her and take her to the US when she was 9 years old. Erin grew up knowing this but not much else about her mother's past; Irena wouldn't say more, only that she "was always loved".

As a young adult Erin decides to go to Poland and Sweden to find the two foster families who took young Irena in. But it isn't as simple as all that. Finding the first foster family and lands her smack-dab in the middle of a land dispute involving her grandfather's house.

I don't want to give anything away here, so I won't give you any more plot details. Suffice it to say that this is a fantastic book. It's an engrossing memoir that sheds light on subjects that I simply had no clue about. I've read lots of memoirs about the war itself, about the ghettos, about the survivors and the victims and the rescuers, but I've NEVER read what happened to the survivors - specifically the children - after the war ended. Or what happened to the foster families who had to give up these children after years of caring for and/or hiding them.

Wondering where the title comes from? I absolutely love this quote from early on in the book, where Erin learns something about her mother's childhood that doesn't fit with what she's always heard:

... hearing it that day for me was like picking up a book I'd read a hundred times and realizing there were pages stuck together, pages that, when pried apart, revealed an entirely new drama. The pages in between changed everything.

Can you imagine that? Think of your favorite book, and add something to it. What if you suddenly found out that Mr. Darcy had been married before, or that Jane only married him because she was rejected by her true love and had nowhere else to go ... Pride and Prejudice just wouldn't be the same book!

I couldn't put this book down! I carried it with me everywhere (which led to this problem). I highly recommend this one - in fact, it ranks as one of my all-time-favorite books this year. It's cliche to say, but "it reads like a novel".

I envy Erin for having the guts (and the ability) to search out her mother's past the way she did. She's the type of person I'd love to have over for dinner for the excellent conversation that is sure to follow.

This book was just released on Sept. 9, 2008. If you do read it, I'd love to hear your thoughts so please post a comment. And if you've reviewed it please post a link to your review so I can add it here.

Random Wonder enjoyed it, and had some experiences with family history research herself