Here you will find the latest in book reviews, book news, critical essays, and most importantly- book giveaways.

Tirissa and the Necklace of Nulidor

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:26:00 -0400

I received a copy of this book courtesy of the author. This book is the first in a series.

Tirissa woke up one morning like she did any other morning. But this morning was different. She saw a very large bird cross the sky above her, and the next thing she knew everyone around her was different. Her entire family was suddenly compliant.

She went to her job as an apprentice with the town’s herb woman. Only to find that her employer has the same glazed over look that everyone else does. Even stranger still is a man, a messenger, from the king. He notices that Tirissa has not been affected by whatever spell has over come the town. He tries to get her alone to figure out what is going on, but she escapes and runs off into the woods. She decides to make her way to a more powerful healer in another town. On the way, she meets a troll named Oglo who recognizes the messenger for what he is, a Beak. This man can turn into a large bird. Oglo accompanies Tirissa to an herb woman that he knows and trusts. The woman tells her that a powerful wizard cast the spell and that Tirissa is the only one who can stop it. She gives Tirissa an ancient necklace to help her on her journey. The only person who can probably undo this spell is another powerful wizard. The old woman sends Tirissa and Oglo to find this powerful wizard.

            The pair have quite the adventure. It seems that the king is responsible for having the Beaks put a spell on everyone. He wants power. But the king does not realize is that in reality he is a victim in a much larger plot. Tirissa manages to save the day, but it comes at a cost. In the end, she finds out that she has a greater destiny.

            As is customary with books in a series, I will provide a reader’s guide.

Here are the things that we learn over the course of the book
1. The spell only affected full humans. Tirissa is part tree nymph. Trolls are considered fairy people.
2. The only way to counter the spell was to drink a certain type of herbal tea.
3. The last time the spell was cast was in Nulidor.
4. A second spell was cast that killed everyone
5. There are stones that aid in casting the spell, destroying the stone may help in the here and now, but the stone will reappear in 100 years and someone will cast the spell again.
6. Putting your mind to accomplish a task, really will accomplish the task
7. An old healing found out what happened at Nulidor. She collected the stones and hid them. She also created the necklace that Tirissa was given.
8. People who die do not go on right away. They may not realize that they are dead at first.

            Overall I liked the book. Tirissa and company got into a lot of sticky situations. They escaped mostly due to luck. I thought that the concept of reading peoples “light” was very interesting. This was a more typical fantasy story, in that it takes place in a medieval setting i.e. no technology. It is a little unusual that the protagonist is a girl and only half human. Don’t quote The Hobbit at me; Tolkien said that Hobbits are essentially human. It reminded me of Harry Potter in two ways: 1. you can separate soul from the body and 2. the bad guy was motivated my achieving immortality.

Oh, I posted my booking stats for this year. Reading 2010.

Friday Firsts 21

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:14:18 -0400

The first line can make or break a reader’s interest. Just how well did the author pull you in to the story with their first sentence? To participate in this weekly book meme is extremely easy.
1 Grab the book you are currently reading and open to the first page.
2 Write down the first sentence in the first paragraph.
3 Create a blog post with this information. (Make sure to include the title & author of the book you are using. Even an ISBN helps!)
4 Did this first sentence help draw you into the story? Why or why not?
5 Grab an image code:
The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni

Every single human being is a part of a grand universal plan.

This was quite the philosophical start of a book. But like most philosophy foisted upon children, it drives them nuts. This is what has been happening to Sebastian in this book. This book turned out to be a lot better than I thought it would. I’m almost finished with the book.

Oh, I posted my booking stats for this year. Reading 2010.

Creative Exercise: The Legend of Ravenoch Castle

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:15:18 -0400

Here is my second attempt at a creative writing exercise. I had fun with this one. Hopefully, it’s not too over the top. Add you link if you’d like to try your own writing exercise.

I could just make out the windows high in the castle wall.

In a few minutes we would arrive an Ravenoch. I was looking forward to this vacation having saved up my lunch money for years. The castle had such an interesting Gothic history behind it.

Ravenoch Castle had originally been built in 1357. It was the seat of power for the Black family. It was razed during the War of Roses when the last of the Blacks were supposedly killed. It was rebuilt during the reign of Edward IV and given to Dudley Moreland, the Earl of Childress. The day of the home's "consecration" if you will, a priest who arrived out of the mists cursed the place.

You see, the Black family had been pious Christians. They had good standing among all and were trusted by the royalty both Lancastrian and Yorkist. It has been rumored that Edmund Black knew something about the Moreland family. Geoffrey Moreland conspired to have the family destroyed during one of the many wars. Those in the Church never forgot this.

Back to the curse. The priest said that unless the Morelands righted their wrong, the family would die from madness. Before those gathered could restrain the priest, he vanished. At first the Earl was afraid. But true to human nature, the feeling passed quickly especially when none of the members of the family exhibited any signs of mental illness.

Over a few hundred years, however it became quite clear that something was not right with the family. Each successive Earl Childress became more peculiar than the last. A lot of that may have been due to the degree of sanguinity in the marriages during that say. Their peers wrote them off as eccentric. But finally something happened that people could not ignore.

The year was 1582. It was during the glorious reign of Good Queen Bess. Geoffrey Sidmouth was the current Earl Childress. From the reports I've read, the man was madder than a hatter. He had married Lady Dulcinea Vansittart in the summer of 1578 and withdrew from life at court. Years went by, none of the nobility heard from them. In summer of 1582, Elizabeth I summoned them to court. The messengers sent returned with a horrible tale. Ravenoch castle was empty and had been empty since the Earl's marriage. Those in the neighboring areas said that the servants had fled after some terrible event. When the messenger arrived at the castle, it smelled of death. The castle was searched. In the Earl's bedroom they found a bestial looking man chewing on a bone. The creature fled when discovered and ended up jumping off one of the ramparts. From the jewelry the man was wearing, the messenger determined that was the Earl. As for the bone--it was the thigh bone of the late Countess. Apparently the ghost of the Earl is quite frequently seen chasing the ghost of his wife through the castle.

I can hardly take that story seriously. It was clearly born in a tavern over copious amounts of good English ale. But hey, I'm an American. I jump at the chance to see any castle regardless of how it's owners died. There’s nothing wrong with a touch of paranormal either.

We have finally arrived at the front of the castle. I’m quite disappointed. The building looks quite well kept and homey. I was expecting something more creepy considering the fact that there is a cannibalistic ghost supposed running around. The building was roughly four football fields in length. It was the typical grey stone which was not taken over by ivy. There wasn’t a lot of architectural distinctiveness to the building. It was rather plain. I was sad because there wasn’t even. a moat surrounding the castle, which I suppose wasn’t that surprising given the building’s size. There was a nice gravel path leading to the front door. I really wished we could have made the approach to the castle in a horse drawn carriage rather than a lime green double decker bus bearing the legend “Smythe’s Castle Tours.” It seems so undignified. Particularly so when the older couple next to me are discussing whether they remembered to pack another pair of depends for the husband. Seriously, the things people think to discuss in public!

Finally we are off the bus. I was first in line to the door. Before I could knock the door was opened by a rather austere woman. In fact she looked like my conception of MacCready from the Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe. Oh, you know. I always imagined MacCready to be around 65 years of age, with iron hair set with rigid curls. She’d be wearing a smart grey tweed skirt and serviceable black shoes with black tortoise shell glasses. Yup, not a bit of sex appeal anywhere to be found.

Finis

Wishful Wednesday March 17, 2010

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:43:33 -0400

Hello everyone! Welcome to Wishful Wednesday.
1. Answer the question, “What books have you been wishing for/wanting to get lately?”
2. Grab the button to the right
3. Post a permalink to your answer in the comments.
4. Visit around.
5. Have fun!
HTML TAGS WILL NOT WORK. So just post the link. If you want it to be neat, post your link in the URL box next to your name or you can use McLinky!

The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles #1) by Rick Riordan

Since their mother's death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane.
One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a "research experiment" at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.
Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them —Set— has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe - a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.

Today’s essay is on Whether Sense and Sensibility is relevant today.

Tuesday Teaser 80

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:42:45 -0400

This is from Finding Purpose Beyond Our Pain by Paul Meier, MD and David I. Henderson, MD.

Loneliness deceivers us into thinking we are the only ones, no on else understands, and no one can help us. By getting caught up in these negative emotions, we fail to notice that the person sitting next to us is suffering from the exact same pain, that the opportunity for healing both wounds can be found by removing the scales from our own eyes and focusing on the loneliness needs of others.

Page 79.

The Hunt for the Eye of Ogin

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:35:15 -0400

I received this book courtesy of the author.

Elwood Pitch is having a rough time adjusting to his parent's move to a new town. So he often goes for walks in the woods to get away from it all. Well one day, he notices that the path ahead of him shimmers oddly. The next thing he knows he's somewhere else. A place where they don't speak English. The first person he meets is a young woman named Drallah Wehr. At first they can't communicate, but when Elwwod eats a piece of fruit Drallah gives him he blanks out and has the oddest dream. When he wakes up, he can speak the language of that world.

He's landed in a place called Winnitok. He has a mission. He must find that world's protector an immortal being named Granashon. Granashon protected Winnitok by placing some spell on the land. If anything evil tried to enter the spell caused the enemy a great deal of terror. For whatever reason the protection was wearing off.

Elwood has a dream that he must find an anxiety turtle shell caller the Eye of Ogin in order to find Granashon. So Elwood and Drallah leave the safety of Winnitok in order to track down the Eye to the Marsh of Migdowsh in which dwells the frog demon Ogtuk.

I really enjoyed this book. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. The author started out writing poetry. I could tell from the way the book was written in the first chapter. The description of Elwood's feelings was very lyrical. This world was very fascinating. I loved the creatures both good and evil. They were very unique. The history was well thought out. There wasn't a great deal of magic theory. That made me sad. I like magical theory. But I can see that dark days are coming for the hero. I think he's going to go all Anakin Skywalker. I thought it was very interesting that the author actually put a language barrier there. It was very realistic. If you read other fantasy like Farworld, then you see that the hero journeys to another world that oddly enough speaks English. Go figure. Definitely a good read!!

Making Toast

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:10:50 -0400

I received a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher.

This was a really sad memoir. The author’s daughter died from a very unusual heart condition. They way I understood it was that both arteries going to her heart entered on the same side and they were close together. Basically they both failed at the same time while Amy was exercising on the treadmill. One of the children found her.

So Roger and his wife, Ginger, became parents again to their grandchildren- Jessica, Sam, and James. They moved in with their son-in-law (who was a doctor) in order to give the kids normalcy in their lives. So the grandparents are trying to help their son-in-law and grandchildren deal with grief, while dealing with their own grief.

At times it is funny and sometimes sad. But it was definitely worth the read.

Friday Firsts 20

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:48:10 -0500

The first line can make or break a reader’s interest. Just how well did the author pull you in to the story with their first sentence? To participate in this weekly book meme is extremely easy.
1 Grab the book you are currently reading and open to the first page.
2 Write down the first sentence in the first paragraph.
3 Create a blog post with this information. (Make sure to include the title & author of the book you are using. Even an ISBN helps!)
4 Did this first sentence help draw you into the story? Why or why not?
5 Grab an image code:
Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi: Backlash by Aaron Allston
It was darkness surrounded by stars-one of them, the unlovely sun of Kessel, closer than the rest, but barely close enough to be a ball of illumination rather than a dot-and then it was occupied, suddenly inhabited by a space yacht of flowing, graceful lines and peeling paint.
This is quite a convoluted sentence, worthy of a classic in my opinion. And people don’t consider Star Wars to be good literature. Bah!

Star Wars Clone Wars Gambit Stealth

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:38:49 -0500

Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka participate in a costly battle with the Separists at Kothlis. General Grievous has developed some means of jamming ALL communications not just long range communication. So Republic forces had to fight blind. They win but the war effort is halted until the Republic can find away around the jamming.

Meanwhile Bail Organa discovers that the Separatists have taken over Lanteeb which is a world on the Outer Rim that has no strategic value. Ahsoka uncovers some research that reveals that the Separatists may be creating a bioweapon in this planet. So Obi-wan and Anakin are sent to investigate.

The pair discover that General Durd has enslaved a scientist to create the bioweapon. He is holding the lives of her family over her head. The book ends in the middle of action. The pair make contact with the scientist and she agrees to help them if they save her family. The pair are able to communicate this request to Yoda who largely succeeds in rescuing her family. Unfortunately the scientist doesn't realize this. She's shown the death of a friend and decides to do what is in her power to save the rest. So she betrays Obi-Wan and Anakin.

In this book we see the growing friendship between Bail and Obi-Wan. We see that Bail's suspicion of Palpatine is growing. We also see that the war is putting quite the emotional toll on the Jedi. To a certain extent the Jedi had lost their compassion and even ethics. We see Yoda tell Obi-Wan to lie in order to get the scientist to help.

Anakin is becoming increasingly angry with the things he is being asked to do. The scientist reminds him of his mother so he is determined to save her. Heavens knows how he will react when he realizes that she has betrayed them. His temper is becoming more of a problem in this book. He and Obi-Wan butt heads a lot.

We also discover that Obi-Wan has a close friendship with Jedi Master Taria Damsin. In fact they are so close that Obi-Wan slept in her chambers one night. No nothing happened. Damsin is dying. Kenobi knows and is grieved by it. This is the first time I recall seeing that Obi-Wan has more than platonic feelings for a female. It seems that Damsin returns these feelings.

I enjoyed this one. We are definitely seeing more character development. I am enjoying learning more about Bail Organa.

Creative Exercise: Shadows Quivered on the Wall

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:22:16 -0500

I’ve been a little bit bored with Booking Through Thursday. Not to mention, I need more practice on my creative writing. So I’ve been looking for writing prompts. Most likely I will be doing this on Thursday. The writing prompt is the bolding sentence. I made up the rest. As I get better, hopefully the post will be a longer. If you would like to participate too, I’ll add the McLinky. Write your own post using the prompt, come back and post you link. I’d love to have a look.

Shadows quivered on the wall as the candle flickered, then fizzled to nothing.

Alexa sat staring at the set dinner table. Ruined. The meal that she had worked so hard on for the past 7 hours was cold. The salad was wilting in its vinaigrette dressing. The lemon butter sauce sauce congealed around the salmon. It looked so odd, the little bits of emulsified oil mixed with the lemon juice.

Slowly Alexa stood. She sighed as she began clearing the dinner table.

"I can't believe he lost ," she said to the salad.

Her husband Daniel had been in his way home from court. He had been trying an environmental tort case. There was a mine located 150 miles away from their high rise downtown apartment. Run-off from the operation had polluted a nearby reservoir. Within the past 15 years a number of teens had developed brain tumors- terminal. This was a great case for Dan. It had huge verdict written all over it. Juries eat up cases when the victims are children. This win would have guaranteed Dan a partnership at the prestigious Boston firm Winthrop Golding, L.L.P. Even the world's worst attorney would have had to work to lose this case, and Dan was the best.

But somehow, he lost. So rather than celebrating their move to a much higher tax bracket and maybe that sumner house in the Hamptons, Alexa was cleaning the dishes and preparing herself for the tragedy to come.

The bad thing about being up and coming is the amount of money one has to spend to maintain appearances, Alexa mused. Dan and Alexa had overextended themselves. They figured with this case everything would be all right. Except it wasn't. From what Dan told her on the phone, he’d be lucky if he still had a job tomorrow. He had royally embarrassed the firm, and they had to save face.

Finis