Marcus Ripps is an ordinary guy – he manages a toy factory in Van Nuys, his wife, Jan, runs a small boutique, his son is getting ready for his bar mitzvah. Then the factory moves to China, Marcus loses his job and suddenly the family is struggling to keep a roof over their heads. Enter Marcus’ estranged brother Julian –… Read more
From Boston Bibliophile: Today’s topic: Book-swapping. Do you do it? What site(s) do you use? How did you find out about them? What do you think of them? Do you use LT’s book-swapping column feature for information on what to swap? Do you participate in any of the LT communities that discuss bookswapping, like the Bookmooch group for example? Right… Read more
I have received some duplicate ARCs lately, so it’s time for a giveaway! First up… Stealing Athena, by Karen Essex This book has gotten great reviews on other blogs and I am really looking forward to reading it. Since I was fortunate enough to get 2 copies, I’d like to share one with a lucky reader (in the US or… Read more
This book starts with a fun premise: Emmett James’ life has revolved around the movies, so he tells his stories in the context of the movies. From his first family outings to the cinema for Jungle Book to his appearance in a soft-core porn film, he manages to tie his significant life experiences to the movies. (Not surprising for an… Read more
There’s a giveaway at She Is Too Fond of Books! You can enter to win a copy of The Genizah at the House of Shepher. I saw this book on LibraryThing but did not get a review copy, but all the reviews have been very good. Enter by July 31st for your chance to win. Read more
I have written before about my love of travel and adventure books. Often, these are more accurately about misadventure – an expedition gone wrong, a plane crash, a shipwreck. Some people live, some die. Why did Robert Falcon Scott lose every member of his expedition, while Edmund Shackleton brought all of his crewmembers – including a stowaway – home safely?… Read more
Anya Achtenberg calls The Stories of Devil-Girl a novella, but it reads more like a poem – a wild, surreal poem that occasionally bursts out in pain, in suffering so clearly described that it’s painful to read. The stories are not straightforward, but it is easy to pick out the threads – abuse (both physical and sexual), poverty, rape, prostitution… Read more
The mail carrier showed up today with 5 new books for me! I am going to have to quit my job and devote my life to my reading pile! The Stories of Devil-Girl by Anya Achtenberg (for Library Thing Early Reviewers)The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen KentTan Lines by J.J. Salem and best of all… Two copies of Stealing Athena by… Read more
From The Boston Bibliophile, here’s Tuesday’s question: Since we’re past the Fourth of July and the summer season has officially started, what are your plans for the summer? Vacations, trips? Trips that involve reading? Reading plans? If you’re going somewhere, do you do any reading to prepare? Do you read local literature as part of your trip? Have you thought… Read more
I have a lot of reading to do! I finished 5 books on my recent trip and I’m still not caught up – partly because three more ARCs came in while I was gone: American Wife, by Curtis SittenfeldOne More Year, by Sana KrasikovSurviving Ben’s Suicide, by C. Comfort Shields Read more