Getting to know amused, bemused and confused

I haven't participated in BBAW this week simply because I haven't been blogging as regularly as I used to. That said, I knew I didn't want to miss out on Interview Day so I made sure to sign up. I love interviewing other bloggers and always enjoy this part of BBAW the most. So without further ado, allow me to introduce Lyndsey from amused, bemused and confused!




So, since your blog address is teadevotee.com, what is your favorite kind of tea?

English Breakfast. But at all times of day, not just breakfast.

Now that we've gotten that cleared up, give me three books that you recommend to just about everyone.

Ooooh. Just three?! The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood - I'm a huuuuuge Atwood fan. I'm very big into biographies (and am currently studying for an MA in Life Writing) and one of my favourites is The Mitford Sisters, by Mary S. Lovell. And a book I've read and loved recently is How To Be A Woman, by Caitlin Moran. Definitely get this, even if (especially if?) you are a man :)

How has becoming a mom (congrats on that by the way!) changed your reading? Are you making/finding time to read? Are you drawn to some books more than others? etc.

HAHAHAHA SO MUCH! Mostly because it's totally slowed down. But I've got an iPad now which means I've got my reading back on. Before I was just struggling with trying to hold book open and not drop it on the nugget's head. Now I can actually concentrate on the book. I need to find things which are easy to pick up and put down again - so I just re-read Emma, which was ideal. I am reading a lovely book called How Mothers Love, by Naomi Stadlen, which is based on what real women say about how they develop a relationship with their child. It's extremely gentle and reassuring.

Are there any not-to-be-missed bookish events in London? (Or, if you haven't attended any, which author do you wish would do an event near you?)

The events at Foyles are always worth checking out as are those at Daunt Books. Nicole Krauss was here earlier in the year and I wanted to go SO MUCH, but couldn't

I'm a huge fan of audiobooks. What are your thoughts on them? If you are a fan, do you have any narrators you particularly enjoy? If you are not a fan or haven't tried them much, why is that?

Argh, audiobooks, you are my nemesis! Well, not nemesis exactly, but I feel like we should get along better than we do. My ears are just not able to stop my multi-tasking brain from multi-tasking. If I start to listen, I almost immediately start to think about something else. That said, I do like them for the car - and Tina Fey saved my life earlier in the year when I was painting my house.

Is there a particular author that you love so much that you would read anything he/she wrote, including a grocery list?

Virginia Woolf. Erm, I may have read every single biography of her that exists in print. And some that are out of print. Her Writer's Diary is just extraordinary.

What books are you most excited to share with your daughter when she is 4? 10? 16? 25?

Ooooh, we've already started :) She's currently reading The Tiger Who Came To Tea with her Dad. Four - maybe Narnia? Seems young, but my five year old niece loves them (I think she may have a crush on Aslan). Ten - The Exiles, by Hilary McKay. My sisters and I laughed hysterically at this. There are four girls who are obsessed with reading and their Grandma tries to break them of the habit by making them entertain themselves, so they are forced to resort to things like fishing in a bucket. 16 - I hope she'll be into the classics by now - Jane Eyre, The Woman in White, and Jane Austen. And 25 - I hope she'll be sharing books with me by then, so I know what the cool kids are reading when I'm old :)

If you were a Muppet, who would you be?

Beaker. My voice is kind of high pitched and squeaky ;)

I hope you all enjoyed getting to know Lyndsey as much as I did. Her blog was new to me but it is now a part of my Google Reader!

BEA Book Review: 9/11: the world speaks

Excerpt from the back cover:

Almost two million people from across the United States and around the world have come through the museum galleries of the Tribute WTC Visitor Center since it opened in September 2006 across the street from the World Trade Center site. Many of these visitors have written their poignant reflections about the impact of September 11 on visitor cards collected in the Center's final gallery. To date, the Center has collected 200,000 cards written in 48 languages by people from 120 countries.

Why I Wanted This Book 

Back in 2001 my husband was a firefighter/paramedic in the Baltimore City Fire Department.  After the attacks in New York and DC (this was before we knew about PA) my husband wanted to drive directly to NYC and help out. I had to use all my energy to convince him to come back in the house - there was nothing he could have done to help because he had dislocated his shoulder and was on heavy pain medication while he waited for surgery to be scheduled. As the days wore on we found out that he knew several of the firefighters who were killed in New York, and also two people who were on the planes.  Today my husband is not the same person that he was on 9/10/11; the events on 9/11/01 changed him forever.  They changed me as well, but not in the same way. I was 5 months pregnant with Kiddo, and I grieved for the world that he would grow up in.

My husband and I watch the 9/11 programming every year, and we have DVDs of many of the memorials, newscasts, and movies related to it.  I want to visit the place where the World Trade Center once stood (my husband was there on the 6 month annivesary of the attacks) and see the Tribute Center across the street. This book features notes from the Tribute Center, and I think they are important to share with the world.


My Thoughts

This is a book that with both make you proud and make your heart hurt. The majority of the messages included are from people outside New York reflecting on how 9/11 affected them. Most of those are inspiring to read and made me optimistic about the future of the world.  Some of them expressed such compassion and love that it literally made me cry.  Other messages are from people who lost loved ones in the attacks and those broke my heart.  One particular message was from a child who was born two months after his father died in one of the towers. All I could think about was how that child could have been Kiddo.  Quite a few of the messages included drawings that expressed more than words could ever say.

My husband started reading this book but he didn't get too far - some of it was just too painful for him. I think he'll continue reading though, and I think it will be good for him.  I read some of the messages to Kiddo to help him understand the enormity of the tragedy - it isn't as real for him, and I think personal notes like this will help with that.


A Book from BEA

I wish I could remember which publicist at which BEA booth handed this book to me. I remember talking to a woman about several books at the booth and getting very excited when she showed me this one, but I can't remember anything other than that.  If anyone knows which booth this book came from please let me know - I'd love to thank the person who gave it to me.

Dueling Monsters is coming soon!

Dueling Monsters Round 3 is coming in October! Details will be announced on Sept. 17. Any guesses as to what we'll be reading this year? Hint: Check out the button below.

Mini Reviews: 4 books

I'm still behind on reviews so here are a few quick thoughts on some of my recent read/listens. For a summary of these books please click on the title.

The Bonesetter's Daughter, by Amy Tan - audiobook (11.9 hours) - narrated by Amy Tan and Chen Joan Tan - I enjoyed THE JOY LUCK CLUB year ago and haven't read anything by Tan since then. This was available for download from my library so I decided to give it a listen. And it was ok. Not great, but ok. Parts of the book were very moving and other parts were very intriguing, but the story as a whole didn't capture me. I think in part this was because I didn't identify with the relationship between the mother and daughter main characters.  Still, it was generally enjoyable to listen to, even if it won't stick with me long-term.

Heart of Lies, by M.L. Malcolm - 352 pages - I've had this book since BEA in 2010 - sad, right?! I met the author and really enjoyed chatting with her, so I was definitely looking forward to reading this. Unfortunately I didn't end up loving the book. The story is strongly based on the love between the two main characters, but I wasn't convinced of that love so the story didn't really work for me. I picked up the follow-up book, Heart of Deception, at BEA 2011 and I still plan to read it, but I'm not in any hurry to do so.

The Gunman's Rhapsody, by Robert Parker - audiobook (5.3 hours) - narrated by Ed Begley, Jr - This is a retelling of the Wyatt Earp story. Although it was well-written and I enjoyed listening to it, I can't say that it gave me any new insight into the story or the people involved.




The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, by Pat F. Garrett - audiobook (5.5 hours) - narrated by Daniel Luna - Alright, I have to admit that I didn't finish this one.  My husband and I started listening to it on a long drive and we made it about halfway through. Once we got home, we never got around to listening to the rest of it. It wasn't bad but it didn't really pull me in either, so I didn't feel like I was missing out on much by not finishing it.

Olga: A Daughter's Tale

Olga: A Daughter's Tale

by Marie-Therese Brown

266 pages

About the Book

All her life Marie's mother, Olga, has been secretive about her past. Marie doesn't even know the name of her father. So when Olga ends up in the hospital, Marie realizes that if she ever wants to know about her family history she will have to find out for herself. She begins researching, using what little facts she has, and ends up discovering her mother's family in Jamaica. Through fictionalized journal entries, letters, and actual news clippings, Marie tells the story of Olga's childhood (happy yet with little to live on), her family, and the trip to England to visit her (horrible and vindictive) aunt - a trip that was supposed to last just a few months (but turned into the rest of her life).

Why I Read It

I love researching my own family history and I'm intrigued with family history stories of all kinds. I received an email from the author describing her book and I knew I wanted to learn more about Olga's story.

My Thoughts 

First off, I like the cover, though that was not my first though upon seeing it.  After finishing the book however, I feel like it fits very well.

As for the story itself - Olga's life - well, that was fascinating.  I loved learning about how her (white) mother, Becky, came to Jamaica from England, and how she bucked society when she chose to marry a black Jamaican. Becky was an amazing woman and I enjoyed reading about her.  It was clear that she loved her children and wanted the best for them even though she couldn't always provide it.

Race and color issues loomed large in Olga's childhood. In Jamaica at that time, lighter skin meant better status in society. Olga's siblings varied in skin tone and this led to a variety of conflicts in the family and community. And of course there was also Becky's white family to contend with. Some of them accepted her marriage but most did not. I learned a lot about Jamaican society and class issues while reading this section.

Olga's story took a turn for the worse when her journey to England coincided with the start of World War II and she was unable to return home as planned. Olga was a resourceful young woman and I enjoyed reading how she made the best of the situation. Things might have turned out alright had it not been for the intervention of her vindictive aunt - and boy, what a creep this aunt was!

The format of the book really worked for me. By using fictionalized journal entries and letters Marie-Therese allowed the reader to get to know a variety of Olga's family members early on. And by following Olga through her life in England I came to understand why she wanted to keep her life hidden away from her daughter.

All that being said, I think this book could have done with some grammatical editing. It wasn't written in dialect, rather it was written the way some people speak - including misused words and phrases.   I don't know if it was the author trying to make certain letters and journal entries sound "authentic" but it was very distracting to me. If it was intentional, I think the book would have been better without it. If it was unintentional, then a good editor would fix it all up.

I'm so glad that Marie-Therese was able to put together her mother's life story and reunite with the family she never knew. I love reading family history tales, and I hope that I'm able to find more like this one!

My (Quick) Thoughts on Self-Publishing

I do accept self-published novels for review but only if I can read an excerpt of the book ahead of time. This helps me eliminate any books that haven't been edited or that are simply not well written.  I am not comfortable rejecting all self-published books because I think there are lot of amazing stories out there that are worth reading, even if they aren't perfect. That was certainly the case with this book, and I'm very glad I read it!

Fabulous Authors Coming to Baltimore!

I've been a bad blogger lately, and it's not that I don't have tons to write about ... I just need to sit down and WRITE!  Until then, check out this list of the fabulous authors who will be at the Baltimore Book Festival on Sept. 23-25.

I'm super excited to see Sherman Alexie! I've read one of his books and plan to read the other this year. And the author of THE NIGHT CIRCUS, Erin Morganstern, will be there! And Stephanie Dray, author of LILY OF THE NILE (I really liked that one). And Alma Katsu (THE TAKER), and Janet Mullaney (JANE OF THE DAMNED) and Laura Lippman, and many, many more! I am so excited about all this. :)

If you are planning to go to the festival please let me know - I'd love to meet up with you.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Matthew Norman, author of DOMESTIC VIOLETS will be there as well. And that there will be TWO panels on Steampunk - woohoo!

Faith

Faith

by Jennifer Haigh

audiobook: 10.6 hours

narrated by Therese Plummer

Why I Read It

I don't generally read books like this but after seeing all the fantastic reviews for it during the TLC Book Tour (and hearing that it was not a Catholic-bashing book*) I knew I had to give it a try.

About the Book

A Boston priest is accused of molesting a young boy and the fall-out in the community is huge. The priest's mother and sister family stand by him but his brother (father of two boys himself) wants nothing to do with him anymore.  Parishioners struggle to match this horrible accusation with the priest they've trusted for years while the media crucifies him in light of all the other scandals in the Catholic Church in recent years.

The story is told by the priest's sister as she tries to put together the chain of events that led to the accusation.

My Thoughts 

This is a fantastic book! I feel like these characters are people I know in real life. They are each unique and real enough to walk off the page. The story kept my attention from the start and I held my breath in anticipation as secrets were revealed in the latter half of the book.

Some of you know this already but my husband was molested by a teacher at a Christian school. It took years for him to tell anyone about it. When he finally did, the teacher was brought to trial and eventually convicted and sent to jail. School staff and students' families were split over the issue; some believed the kids (there ended up being more than just my husband) while others accused them of lying and stood by the teacher. It was a painful time for everyone involved. That anger and pain and confusion were all captured by Haigh in this book, and she did it in a very convincing way.

In retrospect I should have seen how the book would turn out but I was so engrossed in the story that I didn't think ahead and the ending took me by surprise.

As I said at the beginning of my review, it was a great, great book. I am very glad I broke out of my normal reading range and gave this one a chance.

* I was raised Catholic and although I now attend a non-denominational church I still have a great love for the Catholic Church.

American Gods

American Gods

by Neil Gaiman

audiobook: 19.65 hours

narrated by Dennis Boutsikaris, Daniel Oreskes,

Ron McLarty, Sarah Jones (a full cast production)

Why I Read It


Back when I reviewed Stardust I said that even though I enjoyed the book I wasn't really a Gaiman fan. I also said that I still wanted to give American Gods a shot because the idea of the book intrigued me. So when the 10th anniversary edition of AG was offered to me on audio for review I was quite pleased to give it a listen.

About the Book

Shadow is serving his last few days in jail when he gets the news that his wife was killed in a car accident. He is released a few days early and has to decide what to do with his life from here on out.  Having few other options, Shadow takes a job as a body guard/chauffeur by a mysterious man named Mr. Wednesday. During his travels with his new employer he meets an odd assortment of characters and comes to realize that these "people" are actually old world gods who are down on their luck because they don't have enough worshippers anymore. He is drawn into Mr. Wednesday's plot to gather the old world gods to fight for turf against the new gods of America - Media, Computers, etc. But things may not be exactly as they seem ...

Note on the 10th Anniversary Edition

This edition of the book includes all the sections that were originally edited. The book is now the way that Gaiman originally intended it to be.

My Thoughts 

Gaiman fans will probably want to throw tomatoes at me but I have to admit that I was more impressed with the IDEA of the book than with the book itself. I loved the way that Gaiman took America's obsessions with the latest and greatest thing and turned those obsessions into actual gods. I also loved how the old world gods (and their current jobs) were described. But that was about all that I really did like. I couldn't really get into the story and I often felt like I was missing something important. Maybe I just didn't get it?

On the other hand the actual audio production was great. I'm not generally a fan of full cast productions because I often can't recall which character belongs with which voice, but I didn't have that problem here. With only four narrators - and each of those having a unique voice - it was easy to follow the narration.

Your Thoughts 

Did you love this book? If so, what am I missing?! Are you a Gaiman fan? What makes you love him? Honestly most of his books sort of give me the creeps, and that's just from reading the summaries!

NPR's Top 100 Fantasy/SciFi Books

It's been a while since I've posted a list of any sort but I got a bit excited when I saw the one Ryan from Wordsmithonia posted. It was a list of the top 100 fantasy/scifi books as compiled by NPR.  There are some great books on there and a lot that I haven't heard of either!  Of course there are also a lot that I don't want to read either ...

Check out the list for yourself below. The ones in red are books I've read (27.5 books) and the ones in blue are ones that I've seen the movie/tv version but not actually read (7 books). Does this list make you want to add anything to your TBR list?

1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
3. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles by Frank Herbert
5. A Song of Ice and Fire Series by George R.R. Martin
6. 1984 by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
12. The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer by William Gibson
15. Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
16. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
21. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
22. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
23. The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King
24. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
25. The Stand by Stephen King
26. Snow Crash Neal Stephenson
27. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
28. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
29. The Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman
30. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
31. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
32. Watership Down by Richard Adams
33. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
35. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
36. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
38. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
39. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
40. The Amber Chronicles by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad by David Eddings
42. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld by Larry Niven
45. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
46. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once and Future King by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote in Gods Eye by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan the Barbarian Series by Robert E. Howard & Mark Schultz
69. The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way of the Kings by Brandon Sanderson
72. Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
73. The Legend of Drizzt Series by R. A. Salvatore
74. Old Man's War by Jon Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
76. Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book of the Fallen Series by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series by Iain Banks
84. The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series by Jim Butcher
87. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon
90. The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury (I've read some stories from this collection)
92. Sunshine by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
99. The Xanath Series by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis

Three Mini Reviews - vacation books

August has been a travel month in my house.  We drove 7 hours to North Carolina to take Kiddo to camp then 7 hours back home the next day.  At the end of camp we flew to North Carolina, drove an hour to pick up Kiddo, drove an hour back to the airport, then flew to Disney World in Florida. After a week we flew home again.  Needless to say, all that travel time gave me lots of opportunities to listen to audio books and to read.  Here are some quick thoughts on a few of those books.

Forever, by Maggie Stiefvater (400 pages) - This is the final book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series. I mentioned in my reviews of book one and book two that although I really like the author's twist on werewolf mythology I'm not really in love with the story itself; that continued for me in book three. The relationship between Grace and Sam just doesn't move me. Isabel is still my favorite character (she's nothing like me but I feel like I really understand her) and Cole yet again adds some excitement and intensity to the story. And even though I didn't love it I still felt like it was a good end to the series, so I'm not disappointed in it either.

Drums of Autumn, by Diana Gabaldon (44.75 hours, narrated by Davina Porter) - This is book four in the Outlander series and continues the story of Jamie and Claire, but with a twist. I'm looking forward to continuing the series soon. *** MINOR SPOILER ALERT FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE SERIES *** I didn't think I'd like the story as much once it moved to pre-revolution America but I actually really enjoyed the setting and the new characters. I also liked the way Briana's and Roger's relationship developed - I figured they'd end up in the past somehow but I wasn't sure how or why. I'm definitely excited to see what happens next for all of them! (And as a side note, much of the story takes place in the Cape Fear River area so imagine my delight as we drove through North Carolina and saw signs for the Cape Fear River!)

Other Kingdoms, by Richard Matheson (8.5 hours, narrated by Bronson Pinchot)- Hubby and I needed a book to listen to on one of our drives without Kiddo and this was available for download from our library. It is the story of a young American man named Alex who survives WWI and goes to live in a small village in England. While there he discovers that the forest in inhabited by The Little People, and that they may not be as friendly as he has always heard. We wanted to listen to the book because it is by the same guy who wrote I AM LEGEND, and we figured that was a good enough recommendation. Sadly it was not. The first half of the book was great! The story is told by Alex at age 82. He's spent his life writing cheesy horror stories and now he wants to share the truth about what happened to him at age 18 in England. The writing is fun to read - Alex continually comments on his sentence structure or word choice, critiquing himself as if he were editing one of his horror tales. This made the storytelling aspect of the book very entertaining.  Unfortunately the plot became rather predictable and boring and really didn't keep our attention once we hit the midway point. I finished it on my own once we got back home and told Hubby he didn't miss much. (Oh, one quick note about the narrator. He did a very convincing New York accent - appropriate for Alex - but I wasn't a huge fan; that accent drove me a bit batty! I don't know why, since my mother and lots of relatives talk that way, but for some reason it really got to me.)

I've read a few more books but they were sent to me for review and I always give review books their own posts. They should be coming up in a few days, if I can make time to write them!