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2025 Bookish Books Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

My Progress:


27 / 30 books. 90% done!

2025 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

2025 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

My Progress:


43 / 50 books. 86% done!

2025 Literary Escapes Challenge

- Alabama (1)
- Alaska (2)
- Arizona (2)
- Arkansas (1)
- California (8)
- Colorado (3)
- Connecticut (1)
- Delaware (1)
- Florida (2)
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- Iowa (3)
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- Maine (4)
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- Washington, D.C.* (1)

International:
- Australia (4)
- Canada (3)
- England (16)
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- Japan (1)
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- Puerto Rico (1)
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My Progress:


51 / 51 states. 100% done!

2025 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

My Progress:


30 / 50 books. 60% done!

2025 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

2025 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

My Progress:


36 / 50 books. 72% done!

Booklist Queen's 2025 Reading Challenge

My Progress:


40 / 52 books. 77% done!

2025 52 Club Reading Challenge

My Progress:


41 / 52 books. 79% done!

2025 Build Your Library Reading Challenge

My Progress:


29 / 40 books. 73% done!

2025 Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge

My Progress:


37 / 51 cozies. 73% done!

2025 Medical Examiner Mystery Reading Challenge

2025 Mystery Marathon Reading Challenge

My Progress


26 / 26.2 miles. 99% done!

2025 Mount TBR Reading Challenge

My Progress


32 / 100 books. 32% done!

2025 Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge

My Progress:


68 / 109 books. 62% done!

2025 Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge

My Progress


56 / 62 books. 90% done!

Phase Out Your Seriesathon - My Progress


23 / 55 books. 42% done!

The 100 Most Common Last Names in the U.S. Reading Challenge

My Progress:


97 / 100 names. 97% done!

The Life Skills Reading Challenge

My Progress:


72 / 80 skills. 90% done!
Saturday, February 11, 2012

A Little More Magic, A Little Less Lecture Needed in Slavery Time Travel Story

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Lillie, a 13-year-old slave girl who's spent her whole life working at Greenfog Plantation in Beaufort County, South Carolina, knows she shouldn't even be dreaming of freedom. If the thought ever leaked out of her brain and across her lips, she could face serious punishment, even death. Entertaining such notions is as dangerous as handling an angry rattlesnake, but Lillie does it anyway. Freedom is an especially cruel dream for her, since she was supposed to have been liberated along with her mother and 6-year-old brother in exchange for her father's service with the Confederate Army. Only when her papa died, he had a large amount of money on his person, more than any slave could possibly have gained honestly. Not alive to defend himself, her father was branded a thief. His dishonorable discharge negated the promises made to him by his owner, keeping Lillie and her family trapped on the plantation.

Already devastated by the death of her father, Lillie is heartbroken when she learns her little brother, Plato, is to be sold. She can't stand the thought of him leaving and she knows her mother would—literally—not be able to live through another loss. Lillie has to think of a way to stop the slave buyers from taking Plato, but what can a small, powerless girl like her do? Maybe nothing, alone. With the help of some ancient magic, though, she might just be able to save her brother and a few other people, too. What Lillie doesn't realize is that messing with hoodoo of any kind can be dangerous and that traveling back in time might mean learning truths she's not ready to hear. Was Lillie's father really as virtuous as she believes him to be? And, if he was, can she clear his name in time to save Plato?

I've read a number of slavery stories, but I can't remember ever encountering one with a time travel element. Until I picked up Freedom Stone by Jeffrey Kluger, that is. I'm always interested in children's books on slavery and I was curious to see what the author—a writer and editor at Time Magazine, who wrote The Sibling Effect as well as other non-fiction books—might do with this kind of story, one so dissimilar from his usual fare. And, of course, I had to see how he used the magic of time travel to enhance its telling. My conclusion? I liked the book, but didn't love it. The omniscient point-of-view made the tale feel a little too distant, a little too lecture-y. I'm all for getting a good history lesson while I read, I just want it to be so well woven into the story that I forget I'm learning while being entertained. The ending also seemed too rushed to me, making Lillie's fight for her freedom feel too easy. All in all, though, I enjoyed the story.

Now that I know Kluger can tell stories that are intriguing and entertaining—whether fiction or non—I'll be keeping a close eye on him to see just what he's going to do next.

Grade: B-

If this were a movie, it would be rated: PG for mature subject matter and violence

To the FTC, with love: Another library fine find
Friday, February 10, 2012

Need A Little Life Inspiration? Have I Got the Book Giveaway For You!

You've probably noticed that I don't read a lot of inspirational-type books. I probably should scatter some enlightening reads in among my dark dystopians, but, yeah, that doesn't always happen. Still, I like the idea of reading these books, so when I was contacted about reviewing Enjoy Every Sandwich by Dr. Lee Lipsenthal, I readily agreed. I'm so behind with everything right now, though, that I haven't had a chance to read it yet. I will, it just hasn't happened yet.

No matter. Even if I'm a slacker, the book's publicist is offering two of my readers a chance to win a copy of this feel-good memoir. I'm not even going to make you answer a question to be entered—all you have to do is comment on this post. I'll draw the names of two winners on February 20. The giveaway is only open to readers in the U.S. Good luck!

As medical director of the famed Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Lee Lipsenthal helped thousands of patients struggling with disease to overcome their fears of pain and death and to embrace a more joyful way of living. In his own life, happily married and the proud father of two remarkable children, Lee was similarly committed to living his life fully and gratefully each day.

The power of those beliefs was tested in July 2009, when Lee was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. As Lee and his wife, Kathy, navigated his diagnosis, illness, and treatment, he discovered that he did not fear death, and that even as he was facing his own mortality, he felt more fully alive than ever before. In the bestselling tradition of Tuesdays with Morrie, told with humor and heart, and deeply inspiring, Enjoy Every Sandwich distills everything Lee learned about how we find meaning, purpose, and peace in our lives.

Thursday, February 09, 2012

Cruel, But Lovely, Tale of Contradictions Brings 1930s Shanghai to Life

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

As the second daughter in a traditional Chinese family, comparatively little is expected of 17-year-old Xiao Feng. Unlike her older sister, she will not be required to take lessons on how to speak, dress, dance and flirt. Feng needn't be beautiful or charming or impressive in any way—it is not she who will feel the pressure of marrying well to ensure the social standing of her family. Since the eyes of society really are not on her, Feng is free to dress like a peasant girl and spend her time roaming the gardens with her beloved grandfather.

When a cruel twist of fate turns the tables for Feng, she's forced into a marriage she doesn't want and for which she's wholly unprepared. Thrust into the secluded inner circle of the Sheng Family, Feng must learn to navigate this new world where tradition reigns alongside vicious squabbling, ambitious social climbing, and relentless, stifling boredom. Feng knows the only way to get her elders off her back is to bear the family an heir—a precious, sought-for son. As Feng struggles to please the Shengs, she must grapple with questions of duty, identity and how far a woman in her time and culture will go to find happiness.


It takes a gentle hand to produce a book like All the Flowers in Shanghai. A feminine hand, you might guess. But, you'd be wrong. The debut novel is the work of Duncan Jepson, a Eurasian filmmaker, who wrote the story as a way to explore the fierce, domineering role of a Chinese mother—the kind he might have had if his own hadn't immigrated to the U.K. in the 1950s. Through the eyes of Xiao Feng, the author brings the turmoil of 1930s Shanghai to vivid life, not by focusing on the revolution happening without, but by examining the brutal, tumultuous world within. Although Feng's is a life of emotional hardship, ruthless subjugation, and eternal bitterness, it's described with such care and sensitivity that it seems almost lovely. Even when it most certainly is not. Thus, Jepson seems to say, are the contradictions of China, of tradition, of life itself. This deep, absorbing plunge into one woman's journey through such an existence left me both breathless and heartsick. All the Flowers of Shanghai may not be the most uplifting of novels, but it's a sweeping tale that stays in the reader's heart and mind long after the story ends.

(Readalikes: Reminded me of Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden and The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan)


Grade: B


If this were a movie, it would be rated: PG-13 for violence and sexual content

To the FTC, with love: I received an ARC of All the Flowers of Shanghai from the generous folks at William Morrow (an imprint of Harper Collins) and TLC Book Tours. Thank you!

Things That Make Me Go Meh

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

As part of ELLE Magazine's Reader's Jury program, I was asked to review two parenting memoirs—Some Assembly Required by Anne Lamott (with her son, Sam) and Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood by Anne Enright—and choose which I liked best. A tough job, since the truth is, I didn't care much for either one of them. Is there something about women who become mothers for the first time in their late 30s that just makes them whiny and bitter? Or, is it because these ladies are both tell-it-like-it-is authors who express the things all mothers feel, but don't dare to say out loud? I'm not sure, but sheesh! I'm all for honest, funny takes on the old parenting game, but I prefer them to be light-hearted and uplifting, not gripe-y and depressing.

First published in 2004 (the version I read will be available April 2012), Making Babies actually compares better with Lamott's first memoir, Operating Instructions, which details Lamott's experience as a single, 35-year-old, first-time mother. Like Lamott, Enright is a writer who came to motherhood later in life. After 18 years of marriage, Enright found herself expecting at age 37, then again at 39. Having children, naturally, turned the life of the successful, independent novelist upside-down. Just as naturally, she decided to write about all of those ups and downs, publishing many of her thoughts as essays in European newspapers and magazines. Gathered together in Making Babies, they form an odd, random assortment of musings on babyhood and parenting.

At turns deep, sentimental and strange, the essays run the gamut from thought-provoking to hilarious to just plain old weird. Since there's no real, unifying point to the writings, I found the collection to be a bit too here, there and everywhere for my liking. Overall, I really didn't care for it, although I did find these gems within:

"I thought childbirth was a sort of journey that you could send dispatches home from, but of course it is not—it is home. Everywhere else now, is 'abroad'" (58).

"I can make babies, for heaven's sake, novels are a doddle" (60).

"Children are actually a form of brain-washing. They are a cult, a perfectly legal cult. Think about it. When you join a cult you are undernourished, you are denied sleep, you are forced to do repetitive and pointless tasks at random hours of the day and night, then you stare deep into your despotic leader's eyes, repeating meaningless phrases, or mantras, like Ooh da gorgeous. Yes, you are! Cult members, like parents, are overwhelmed by spiritual feelings and often burst into tears. Cult members, like parents, spout nonsense with a happy, blank look in their eyes. They know they're sort of mad, but they can't help it. They call it love" (148-49).

(Readalikes: Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott)

Grade: C

If this were a movie, it would be rated: R for strong language and sexual content

To the FTC, with love: I received an ARC of Making Babies from ELLE Magazine in exchange for a fair and honest review.

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