RIP VII

Woohoo!!! I've been thinking all week about Carl's upcoming RIP VII or R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril VII.  They aren't so much as challenges anymore as experiences.  I love this time of year - even more so since I've moved back to Las Vegas and summer just hangs on and on.  Even though it's still usually 100+ degrees here,  I can still grab a creepy  book and an (iced) cup of chai and escape.

But today it was gloriously raining and Carl just posted his annual RIP VII post. What are we ever going to do if he decides to stop, I have no clue.  This is my FIFTH year joining in on Carl's creepy autumn experience.  I so love picking out my stack of to-reads for the experience.  The first year I was very much into the classics. This year I have three ARCs and I am going to join along in one of the Read-a-longs that are fairly new to the experience. Here's my fun Instagram photo:

Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo
The Dark Unwinding - Sharon Cameron
The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters
Advent - James Treadwell

I'm so excited about these choices.  I've already delved into the awesome Sharon Cameron story, The Dark Unwinding.  Think Jane Eyre --- and steampunk and romance -- so awesome.  Here's the non-ARC cover from Sharon Cameron's website:

I am so excited to hear that Andi and Heather of The Estella Society are doing a RIP Read-a-long for Sarah Water's novel The Little Strangers. I recently picked up the hard cover copy at a library book sale.  I've got a whole collection of her novels now and hate to say that I've not read them....yet. Can't wait to dig in!

I'm sure as the next few months progress I'll be sneaking in more choices.  But starting with these four I can say that I am doing

Peril the First:

Read four books, any length, that you feel fit (the very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature.

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Remember, you don't have to have a blog or anything to join in the fun of Carl's RIP experience.  Just sit back, grab a creepy book, story, movie, or whatever strikes your fancy and have fun!

Head over to the review site to check out what everyone's doing throughout the next few months. 

My past RIP posts:

RIP III

RIP IV

RIP V

RIP VI

South of Superior - Ellen Airgood

Title: South of Superior
Author: Ellen Airgood
Paperback: 370 pages (ARC)
Publisher: Riverhead Books/Penguin
Published date: June 2011
FTC: Received review copy from publisher


I'm not sure why I sat on this book for a whole year.  For some reason I never got around to it last summer and it just seemed liked it needed to be read in the summer.  Just look at that cover.  Covers can be deceiving though because while this is a great summer book, it could also be the perfect book to snuggle up to a fire with some warm cocoa.    And, for some reason, I kept thinking that the book should take place in the South -- even though it almost blatantly states the actual location, Lake Superior, Michigan.

Back of the book:

When Madeline Stone walks away from her Chicago life and moves five hundred miles north to the coast of Lake Superior, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, she isn't prepared for how much her life will change.  Charged with caring for an aging family friend, Madeline finds herself in the middle of beautiful nowhere with Gladys and Arbutus, two octogenarian sisters -- one sharp and stubborn, the other sweeter than sunshine. As she is drawn into the dramas of the small, tight-knit town, Madeline learns that it's a place where times are tough and debts run deep, but where friendship, community, and compassion run deeper.

A debut novel full of heart, South of Superior shows that there is a deep reward in caring for others, that one who is poor in pocket can be rich in many other ways, and that happiness often comes from the smallest gestures.

My thoughts:

What a beautiful and moving novel.  This is one of those books that's all about the characters and how they change and evolve throughout the story.  Madeline was a pretty great central character because while she had her flaws and made her mistakes, I kept seeing how she was struggling to do good and be happy and so I kept just rooting for her.  There are all sorts of side characters that just fill out the story and make it beautiful.  Gladys, who is so rough around the edges that she's completely believable; Arbutus, who just makes you smile as you read about her; Mary Feather, the eccentric elderly lady who lives on the outskirts of town and knows how to eek out a living out of nothing; Greyson, the adorable little boy who has a single mom he almost has to look after; and so many other characters.

I think Ellen Airgood captured the rawness and roughness of a small town -- how people struggle to make ends meet, how everyone knows everyone's business, and how when times get tough, people still watch out for each other.  This is the type of book that makes you slow down and just enjoy the pace of the book.  I fell in love with the entire town and wow, for a girl who's never had the urge to visit the Great Lakes area...I really now want to go.  I want to see this beautiful ocean of a lake that Ellen Airgood describes -- check out her website for a few awesome photos.  She's also got some other fun extras on her website like old photos which were her inspiration for Madeline's family, pictures of her inspiration for Gladys' and Arbutus' homes, and even Mary Feather's truck. I love when authors do stuff like that.

Also Reviewed By:

Kelly's [Former] France Blog

The School of Essential Ingredients - Erica Bauermeister

Title: The School of Essential Ingredients
Author: Erica Bauermeister
Published date: 2009
Publisher: Putnam
Hardcover: 240 pages
FTC: I won this from the author


Way too long ago I won this book from Erica Bauermeister.  I think I won it from her cool website but I can't really recall. I do know that the giveaway asked about family recipes or something and I mentioned how my husband turned me on to pasta sauce with jerk seasoning. Even now when I'm out of jerk, I'll do all the italian seasoning stuff and throw in some cinnamon.  Just because.

I remembered when this book came out and EVERYONE loved it.  I kept meaning to read it because it really isn't a long book but for some reason never got around to it. I even acquired her second book Joy for Beginners which has gotten raves too.  Recently I really needed a good comfort book and so this is the one I went to.  O my gosh. How perfect was for me at this precise moment. Why oh why haven't I read it before?

The back of the book:

Once a month on Monday night, eight students gather in Lillian's restaurant for a cooking class. Among them is Claire, a young woman coming to terms with her new identity as a mother; Tom, a lawyer whose life has been overturned by loss; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer adapting to life in America; and Carl and Helen, a long-married couple whose union contains surprises the rest of the class would never suspect.

The students have come to learn the art behind Lillian's soulful dishes, but it soon becomes clear that each seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen. One by one they are transformed by the aromas, flavors, and textures of what they create, including a white-on-white cake that prompts wistful reflections on the sweet fragility of love, and a garlic and red sauce that seems to spark one romance but end another. Over time, the paths of the students mingle and intertwine, and the essence of Lillian's cooking expands beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of their lives, with results that are often unexpected, and always delicious.

My thoughts:

O how I needed to read this book right now in my life.  I love that the characters each had their own chapter which corresponded to a cook night.   The first character we delved into was Claire, the mom of two young children who is learning how to cope with this new dimension of her life. How I totally understood her.  As a stay-at-home mom, I am pretty much in charge of grocery shopping and feeding the family to help us stay within our budget.  I am learning so much lately of how to chop an onion quickly and well, what meals are my go-to meals, how to make sure my husband has food to take for lunch, how to have desserts once in a while, and how to enjoy this new aspect of my life.  I am starting to look at cooking as not another chore in my to-do list but as something I can enjoy.  And seriously, I don't know of a better smell than onion, garlic and thyme simmering.  Mmm.

Erica Bauermeister's writing is beautiful and so wrapped me up in the flavors, textures and all of the senses of cooking.  Of all the characters though, Lillian herself was my favorite. The book starts off by telling her back-story of how she got into cooking as a little girl.  My heart broke for this little girl who wanted to cook for her mother to help her mother get over her grief.  Later, as Lillian gives her cooking classes, she becomes more than a teacher or chef, but also a councilor and knows just what each person in the class needs.  Each person gets a recipe that becomes a balm to the wounds in their life.

How I enjoyed this book.  I kept wanting to write down all the "recipes" but it's so funny that in this book there really are no recipes as Lillian never uses them.  I unfortunately NEED them so I was so happy to find the recipes listed on Erica Bauermeister's website.  Go there now.

Extras:

I'm going to include this awesome autograph Erica Bauermeister did for me.  At the time I received the book I was living in New York and she had just returned from a visit there as well.  How incredibly awesome is this?

Also:

I'll admit the cover of my copy isn't my favorite.  Kind of boring with the pears.  And I don't even remember there being any recipes with pears in the book. Hmm.  But I've found some other beautiful covers.

From Erica's website -- I love love this cover:

From Goodreads - the paperback with an alternate title:

Recent reads

I've been quite behind in writing up my book reviews and I was going to write up one now, but I felt a bit like blabbing about things in general.

I've been noticing a weird trend in my reading.  A lot of my ARC requests or books that I've been into lately have been quite historical fiction revolving around really tough periods in history - WWII gulags, the Armenian genocide, Nigerian refugees, etc.  Before I got my library/information degree, I got my BA in history so in general I'm fascinated with historical events.

My husband asked me the other day, so why are you reading about the Armenian genocide? And I had to ponder that question.  Basically it's because we have to remember.  We have to remember that things like that happened, still happen today, and will happen again.  And usually people came up with really good excuses for slaughtering a ton of people.

While we may feel far removed here in the United States from things that are going on in, say, Syria or Libya, we have to just look at the shootings here in movie theaters or places of worship to realize that people don't just have an "us verses them" mentality in foreign countries but it's horribly alive here in the States.

So while some of my book reviews might be on terribly sad subjects, it's been incredibly interesting and enlightening.  That said, when I'm going through these types of books I have to pair them with light "bubble bath" books.

Do you read any historical fiction, memoirs, or other types of books that deal with hard subjects? If so, what kinds of books and why?

A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin

Title: A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire: Book one)
Author: George R. R. Martin
Paperback: 807 pages
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published date: 1996/2011
FTC: given as a gift from a friend


Years and years ago one of my friends kept telling me I should read this book from the series A Song of Ice and Fire.  While not sci-fi/fantasy fantatics, I remember reading Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness with her for a high school lit class and we both loved it.  A few years later I was more into Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series because of my dad, so I kind of forgot about her recommendation. Silly me.  I'm writing here and now that I should have listened to her.

Fast forward to a few months ago and a couple of my other friends decided we should all read A Game of Thrones, see if we liked it, and watch the show.  We devoured the book.  I can not wait to read the whole series.  The show is amazing too.

The back of the book:

In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the North of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom's protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

My thoughts:

What an amazingly well-written and awesome story George RR Martin has created.  I have a special place in my heart for Robert Jordan's series, but really, I think so far George RR Martin has it beat.

If you're not a huge sci-fi/fantasy fan - well, this may be the book for you.  "What?" You say!

It's not an in-your-face fantasy book -- it read a lot more like historical fiction but with direwolves, whitewalker zombie things, and extinct dragons.  A warning: there is a lot of violence, death, and the kids in the book are a lot younger than they are portrayed as in the HBO show.

Still not convinced that you might enjoy this book?  Well, one of the friends I was reading it with absolutely devoured it and is hooked.  While perusing books, she is more drawn to beach reads and Nicholas Sparks books.  And SHE loved it.

I found it interesting to hear her thoughts as she read it.  I'm used to chunky fantasy books so I was used to the jumps in perspective - each chapter is told by a different character which gives you a broader spectrum in the story and time flies by a lot faster.  I knew to look to the back of the book first to see the character list - so so helpful.  There are a lot of characters as the story takes place on an island (think Great Britain) and each area is ruled by a House with a Lord/Lady and the whole kingdom is ruled by one king.  So looking to the back of the book to get some characters straight is a must.

I also love being able to compare the book to the show. We waited until we finished the book to start watching the first season, but I already had Sean Bean in mind as Lord Stark.  Beautiful casting.  One thing to note with the show: I can't imagine watching it and not reading the books. I'd be lost on a lot of things had I not read the book.

Have you read the books, watched the show, or steered clear of it all?  Why or why not?

Also Reviewed By:

Katie's Book Blog Part 1, Part 2
The New  Dork Review of Books
Coffee and a Book Chick
Ticket to Anywhere
Where Troubles Melt Like Lemon Drops
A Little Bookish

And for fun:

A Game of Thrones Muppets!

The Thread - Victoria Hislop

Title: The Thread
Author: Victoria Hislop
Paperback: 390 pages (ARC version)
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Published date: July 10, 2012
FTC: Received to review for TLC Book Tours


When I heard TLC Book Tours was promoting Victoria Hislop's new book The Thread, I was excited to be able to join in.  A few years ago I had read and reviewed her novel The Return and really enjoyed the history and story. I've been meaning to read her first book The Island which I've heard is pretty amazing too.  I LOVED The Thread. I am now an official Victoria Hislop fan.  This is exactly how I love my historical fiction.

Back of the book:

Thessaloniki, Greece, 1917: As Dimitri Komninos is born, a fire sweeps through the thriving multicultural city where Christians, Jews, and Muslims live side by side. It is the first of many catastrophic events that will forever change this place and its people. Five years later, as the Turkish army pushes west through Asia Minor, young Katerina loses her mother in the crowd of refugees clambering for boats to Greece. Landing in Thessaloniki’s harbor, she is at the mercy of strangers in an unknown city. For the next eighty years, the lives of Dimitri and Katerina will be entwined with each other and—through Nazi occupation, civil war, persecution, and economic collapse—with the story of their homeland.


Thessaloniki, Greece, 2007: A young Anglo-Greek hears his grandparents’ remarkable story for the first time and understands he has a decision to make. For decades, Dimitri and Katerina have looked after the treasures of those who have been forced from their beloved city. Should he become their new custodian? Should he stay or should he go?

My thoughts:


I love historical fiction that sweeps me through the generations and makes me learn all about a country and city that I don't have much knowledge of.  The story starts out with Dimitri and Katerina Komninos telling their college-age grandson their history and why they won't ever leave Thessaloniki.  Then I was swept right into the city of Thessaloniki.  It's 1917 and WWI is raging across the continents.  Thessaloniki literally catches on fire and burns.  A few years later and across the Aegean Sea, the city of Smyrna is caught in the chaos and is burning too. Because of war, the Greeks are being expelled from Asia Minor and Muslims are being expelled from Greece.  Katerina is from Smyrna and loses her mother in the crowd.

From those gripping first scenes I was hooked.  It's Dimitri and Katerina's story and I fell in love with them both, but it's also the story of everyone living around them - family, friends, and Thessaloniki.  If you want a quick love story then this is not the book for you. Katerina is just about to turn the corner of adulthood, become an acclaimed embroiderer (get it, The Thread?) and just reacquaint herself with her childhood friend at about page 150.  But this is what I love about this book - it's more about the city of Thessaloniki itself as the characters live through the city's epic moments durning the 20th century.

If you love historical fiction and armchair traveling, it doesn't get much better than The Thread. Beautiful.

Victoria’s Tour Stops

Tuesday, July 10th: Unabridged Chick

Wednesday, July 11th: Bibliosue

Monday, July 16th: A Library of My Own

Wednesday, July 18th: BookNAround

Thursday, July 19th: A Bookish Affair

Friday, July 20th: The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

Tuesday, July 24th: Mom in Love with Fiction

Monday, July 30th: Drey’s Library

Tuesday, July 31st: Books in the Burbs

Wednesday, August 1st: My Bookshelf

Thursday, August 2nd: JulzReads

TBD: Twisting the Lens

State of Wonder - Ann Patchett

Title: State of Wonder
Author: Ann Patchett
Paperback: 353 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published date: May 2012 (Hardcover 2011)
FTC: Received for review for TLC Book Tours


Ann Patchett is up there on my list of favorite authors.  I absolutely devoured and cried over Bel Canto.  I reviewed her novel Run a few years ago and I can still remember the characters as if I saw it as a movie. You can always count on Ann Patchett's books as being beautifully written. They do not disappoint.

I haven't finished State of Wonder yet.  (I finished!) I have family in town and it's just been busy.  But.  I can already tell that this is Ann Patchett's best novel yet.  It's going to be my favorite novel of hers as well.  Wow.

This is the type of book that you want to stay up all night reading.  You want to shirk off all responsibilities and just read State of Wonder all the time -- over dinner, while waiting at doctor's office, getting up early before your child wakes up.  It's that good.

I will be adding to my review in the next few days as I finish up the book.  In the meantime, here is the synopsis:

The back of the book:

In a narrative replete with poison arrows, devouring snakes, scientific miracles, and spiritual transformations, State of Wonder presents a world of stunning surprise and danger, rich in emotional resonance and moral complexity.

As Dr. Marina Singh embarks upon an uncertain odyssey into the insect-infected Amazon, she will be forced to surrender herself to the lush but forbidding world that awaits within the jungle.  Charged with finding her former mentor Dr. Annick Swenson, a researcher who has disappeared while working on a valuable new drug, she will have to confront her own memories of tragedy and sacrifice as she journeys into the unforgiving heart of darkness. Stirring and luminous, State of Wonder is a world unto itself, where unlikely beauty stands beside unimaginable loss beneath the rain forest's jeweled canopy.

UPDATE! 
My thoughts:

I finally was able to have some me time and finish this beautiful book. Sigh.  I love delving into books like these and meeting wonderful characters and armchair traveling to exotic places.

While I wanted to read this book because of the Amazonian location, I ended up loving this book because of the characters.  Dr. Swenson is an epic antagonistic character.

"Just the thought of Dr. Swenson gave Marina the sensation of a cold hand groping for her heart." p. 10

"A tiny woman made tinier by distance fixes one hundred people to their seats with a a voice that never troubles itself to be raised, and because they are all afraid of her and because they are afraid of missing anything she might say, they stay as long as she chooses to keep them." p. 11

Awesome right?  So this is the formidable seventy-something year-old lady Marina is sent to find deep in the Amazonian jungle.

Ann Patchett has a way with most of her novels at really making me feel emotionally connected to the story and the characters.  At the beginning of State of Wonder, Marina's co-worker, Anders, had previously been sent to find out the status of Dr. Swenson's study in the Amazon when they get the news of his death.  Marina is sucked into telling the wife and mother of three boys that her husband will not be coming back.

Marina is then tasked with the job of traveling in Ander's footsteps - heading from Minnesota to Manaus and the jungle of the Amazon.  I loved her description of the almost claustrophobic feeling of the jungle, the humidity, the bugs, the side effects of taking the malaria pills.

"She felt the plant life pressing against the edges of the water, straining towards them, every root and tendril reaching..." p. 183

But the real reason I love and read Patchett's books are the characters.  The Bovenders: the beautiful blonde couple who are set up in Manaus by Dr Swenson to deflect anyone who comes looking for the doctor.  Easter: the deaf native boy Dr Swenson's team practically adopts.  Milton: the loyal cab driver and all-around helper.  I even came to love Anders, who we get to know by his constant letters to his wife and his devotion to helping Easter write and communicate.

Does Ann Patchett deliberately pull heart-strings in her novels? Absolutely. Do I mind? Not at all.

The paperback version:

The jungle surrounds the cover and back and even wraps around into the flaps.  It's beautifully made and really conveys the claustrophobic feeling Marina and Anders felt:

TLC TOUR STOPS

Tuesday, May 8th: Unabridged Chick

Wednesday, May 9th: Take Me Away

Monday, May 14th: Proud Book Nerd

Tuesday, May 15th: Tiramisu Mom

Wednesday, May 16th: Jo-Jo Loves to Read!

Friday, May 18th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Monday, May 21st: The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

Tuesday, May 22nd: Lit and Life

Wednesday, May 23rd: Shall Write

Thursday, May 24th: Kritters Ramblings

Wednesday, May 30th: A Bookish Affair

Thursday, May 31st: Paperback Princess

Thursday, June 7th: Dolce Bellezza

Monday, June 11th: Tina’s Book Reviews

Tuesday, June 12th: Amused By Books

Thursday, June 14th: missris

Friday, June 15th: Book Him Danno!

Monday, June 18th: A Library of My Own

Friday, June 22nd: My Bookshelf

Tuesday, June 19th: The Scarlet Letter

Wednesday, June 27th: Man of La Book