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Mailbox Monday #206

December 24, 2012 by

Mailbox Mondays (click the icon to check out the new blog) has gone on tour since Marcia at A Girl and Her Books, formerly The Printed Page passed the torch. This month’s host is Suko’s Notebook.

The meme allows bloggers to share what books they receive in the mail or through other means over the past week.

Just be warned that these posts can increase your TBR piles and wish lists.

Here’s what I received:

1.  The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen by Syrie James, a second copy from the publisher.

2. The Last Summer by Judith Kinghorn, a second copy from the publisher.

3. Alien vs. Predator by Michael Robbins, which I won from Necromancy Never Pays and her Trivial Pursuit for Bloggers.

What did you receive?

Filed Under: mailbox monday, meme Tagged With: , , , , ,

181st Virtual Poetry Circle

December 22, 2012 by

Welcome to the 181st Virtual Poetry Circle!

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

Also, sign up for the 2012 Fearless Poetry Reading Challenge because its simple; you only need to read 1 book of poetry. Please visit the stops on the 2012 National Poetry Month Blog Tour.

Today’s poem is from Stanley Kunitz:

An Old Cracked Tune

My name is Solomon Levi,
the desert is my home,
my mother's breast was thorny,
and father I had none.

The sands whispered, Be separate,
the stones taught me, Be hard.
I dance, for the joy of surviving,
on the edge of the road.

What do you think?

Filed Under: virtual poetry circle

Completed 2012 Challenges

December 21, 2012 by

I’ve completed my goal for the Ireland Reading Challenge (4 books), and even surpassed it by one; here’s a list of the books with links to the reviews:

The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey
A Long, Long Way by Sebastian Barry
The Cottage at Glass Beach by Heather Barbieri
The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock
The Realm of the Lost by Emma Eden Ramos

For the New Authors Reading Challenge, I chose to read 25 new to me authors, and I exceeded that goal, reading 87 and still counting.

These authors included fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.  You can click the link to see which ones I reviewed.

And finally, for my own two challenges, the Fearless Poetry Exploration Reading Challenge and the WWI Reading Challenge, I exceeded my goals there as well.  For the poetry challenge, I pledged to read more than I had read in a previous poetry challenge (in which I read 15) and I read 29 books.  There could be more!

For the WWI Reading Challenge, I pledged to read 4-10 books, and I read 14 books.  Please feel free to click the link to see which ones I reviewed.  I’m hoping to finish up one more in this challenge, but I’m swiftly running out of time.

This leaves me with one unfinished challenge, but I’ll leave you in suspense about that.  I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Please do let me know about your own reading goals in 2012 and how well you did.

Filed Under: challenges, Fearless Poetry Exploration Reading Challenge, Ireland Challenge, New Authors Challenge, WWI Reading Challenge 2012

The New Arcana by John Amen and Daniel Y. Harris

December 20, 2012 by

The New Arcana by John Amen and Daniel Y. Harris is highly experimental and mixes poetry with photos and art, and much more.  It is broken down into five sections, preceded by a list of dramatic personas in a couple of instances, which in fact set the stage for what comes next.  While experimental in form, there are traditional elements as well, including references to Greek myths and the journey of Odysseus.  Through this experimentation, readers must pay closer attention to the words, phrases, fonts, and other elements in the collection to discern meaning or the story.  This is a thinking reader’s book, but it’s also a book of pure lunacy and fun as the personas take over and yell at one another in a banter that just generates smirks and laughs.

“‘You really need to figure out what’s next for you, Sadie.
Math, theology, whatever. Why don’t you put out a book?’ (Jughead)
‘Well, Jug, the truth is, you’re my first book.
I’ve been editing you since we met.’ (Sadie)” (page 17)

In many ways, looking at the verse on the page and the conversation often resemble the complex nature of compositions made by musicians.  When looked at in pieces, these compositions can befuddle casual viewers, but when put together and played in conjunction, the music soars and fills the soul.  In this piece, there seem to be elements of Jazz, a musicality that leaps off the page in a mixture of elements that like the collaboration of Amen and Harris works well.  However, the improvisation can be overwrought in some instances.

“The patio party:  I’m tired of these spoiled suburbanites.
I prefer back-river ingenues and trailer-park bullies
brimming with rage and remorse,
perhaps a seance staged at twilight,
blood on a pool deck,
blood on the geraniums and forsythia;
the runaway’s bones, buried beneath the mad-blossoming magnolia,
suddenly singing to my neighbors.
I prefer a final showdown with the cops,
the proverbial shootout in the cul de sac —
everything at stake, all the time.” (page 35)

Many of these vignettes are about seizing the moment, stopping the procrastinating, and relishing the exuberance and exhilaration. There are moments about the aftermath of love affairs and tales about strange personalities. Arcana is a well used word here for indeed some of these verses and tales are mysterious and hard to understand, but these lines and mixtures of text and art require additional discernment on the part of the reader. However, readers also must keep in mind that not all of these vignettes are true or to be taken seriously — there is a bit of dry wit and sarcasm here in these pages.  The New Arcana by John Amen and Daniel Y. Harris is unique, confusing, fun, and even mysterious; well worth reading for a challenge, but definitely something that will take more than one read through.

About the Authors:

John Amen is the author of three collections of poetry: Christening the Dancer (Uccelli Press 2003), More of Me Disappears (Cross-Cultural Communications 2005), and At the Threshold of Alchemy (Presa 2009), and has released two folk/folk rock CDs, All I’ll Never Need and Ridiculous Empire (Cool Midget 2004, 2008). His poetry has appeared in various journals and anthologies, including, most recently, Rattle, The New York Quarterly, The International Poetry Review, Gargoyle, and Blood to Remember. He is also an artist, working primarily with acrylics on canvas. Amen travels widely giving readings, doing musical performances, and conducting workshops. He founded and continues to edit the award-winning literary bimonthly, The Pedestal Magazine.

Photo by Charles Weinberg

Daniel Y. Harris holds a Master of Arts in Divinity from The University of Chicago, where he specialized in the history and hermeneutics of religion and wrote his dissertation on The Zohar. He is the author of Hyperlinks of Anxiety (Cervena Barva Press, 2013), The New Arcana (with John Amen, New York Quarterly Books, 2012), Paul Celan and the Messiah’s Broken Levered Tongue: An Exponential Dyad (with Adam Shechter, Cervena Barva Press, 2010; picked by The Jewish Forward as one of the 5 most important Jewish poetry books of 2010) and Unio Mystica (Cross-Cultural Communications, 2009). He is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee.

For another perspective, check out Shiny Book Review.

This is the 29th book for my 2012 Fearless Poetry Exploration Reading Challenge.

Filed Under: challenges, Fearless Poetry Exploration Reading Challenge, poetry, Read in 2012, review copy, reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Carnival by Jason Bredle

December 19, 2012 by

Carnival by Jason Bredle is weird.  In many ways it is like a grotesque and surreal little carnival with the fun house mirrors and the bearded lady — though in this case, the mirror is held by the narrator and the bearded lady is really a werewolf inside the narrator.  There is a self-deprecation and a dream-like quality to these prose poems, but in some cases, it seems like the poems are too weird just for the sake of it.  At other times, the poems are comments on pop culture.

“There’s a carnival in my skull and it’s driving me crazy.”  (page 32, from “The Killing”)

Readers will be taken on a ride in this volume of poems as Bredle creates a mood.  From confusion to frustration, readers will be inside the mind of a crazy person.  But in many ways, the craziness is just a mask for the discontent with the culture that has sprung up around the narrator.  And while some of these poems will take several reads before the meaning becomes clear, there are some great moments and lines that make an immediate impression on the reader.  From “Hole in My Heart,” “It looks like I’ll be cuddling up in the warm, soft arms of depression/against this winter.”  These lines set the stage for the tumbling feeling of loss and the mindlessness that accompanies a broken heart where you walk in a fog for days afterward.

A running image throughout the poems is the narrator’s cat, seemingly always providing comfort or just as distraction from the moment.  Traditionally, cats have symbolized independence or superiority, but it is unclear whether the cat is merely a cat in these poems or a symbol of something greater.  In many ways, this is a collection that should be dipped into from time to time when someone is in need of a good laugh or a bit of just fun, but reading it cover-to-cover it can become a bit tedious.  The cover should establish the mood for any reader who picks it up.  It’s busy, full of life and action, and complete chaos.  Carnival by Jason Bredle is just that, a carnival of busyness and bedlam.

About the Poet:

Jason Bredle is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Carnival, from University of Akron Press. He lives in Chicago.

This is the 28th book for my 2012 Fearless Poetry Exploration Reading Challenge.

 

 

This is my 87th book for the New Authors Reading Challenge in 2012.

Filed Under: challenges, Fearless Poetry Exploration Reading Challenge, New Authors Challenge, poetry, Read in 2012, review copy, reviews Tagged With: , ,

Ripper by Stefan Petrucha

December 18, 2012 by

Ripper by Stefan Petrucha is not the gory thriller that many readers may expect, and rightly so, given that it is a young adult, historical fiction novel with a young main protagonist.  Carver Young is an orphan in New York City in the late 1800s, who is thrust into the care of an older Albert Hawking, a former Allan Pinkerton detective.  Carver is dragged into a fantastical world of secret agencies and cloak-and-dagger moments, all while the police are investigating some very real and grisly murders.  He’s joined by some rather eccentric characters, from his adoptive father, Hawking, and his home in the asylum, to Septimus Tudd, the current leader of the secret detective agency.

“Surrounded by unsettling sounds, Carver Young struggled to keep his hands still.  He had to focus.  Had to.  He could do this.  He wasn’t some infant, afraid of the dark.  If anything, he loved the dark.  But the cracks in the attic let the wind run wild.  Old papers fluttered like hesitant birds.  Musty clothes rustled as if touched by spirits.  And then the cleaver, wedged in the ceiling right above him, wobbled.”  (page 6)

Carver is a young man on the cusp of adulthood who has had little, if any, mild guidance in his life given his years at Ellis Orphanage.  When Hawking adopts him, he’s given the chance of a lifetime, to uncover the truth about his parents and to become a detective, with the help of some expert tutelage.  Petrucha’s prose and short chapters are built for mystery novels and suspense, but in some cases, the suspense build-up gets to be too much as it drags on a bit long with the “big reveal.”  Even younger readers could see the reveal coming a mile away in this one.  However, the real crux of the novel is not the reveal, so much as the journey Carver takes from childhood to adulthood and from inexperienced boy to amateur detective.

With help from his former orphanage friends and school crush Delia, Carver is able to overcome his fears and uncover the mysteries surrounding recent murders in New York City.  Petrucha does well to stick close to the true and well-known attributes of Teddy Roosevelt, who was once a police commissioner in the city, and the relatively well-known attributes of his eldest daughter, Alice.  There is intrigue, corruption, and a Hardy Boys-feel to this novel, with additional historical tidbits and extraordinary gadgets to provide a steam-punk atmosphere.

Ripper by Stefan Petrucha is a fast-paced, entertaining coming-of-age story with a detective story as a backdrop of sorts.  It’s about what it means to be a father, and how family can sometimes be a little less than ideal, and even disappointing.  However, it also about the inner perseverance one needs to overcome “the abyss” and still know what is right and true.

photo by Sarah Kinney

About the Author:

Born in the Bronx, Stefan Petrucha spent his formative years moving between the big city and the suburbs, both of which made him prefer escapism.

A fan of comic books, science fiction and horror since learning to read, in high school and college he added a love for all sorts of literary work, eventually learning that the very best fiction always brings you back to reality, so, really, there’s no way out.

An obsessive compulsion to create his own stories began at age ten and has since taken many forms, including novels, comics and video productions. At times, the need to pay the bills made him a tech writer, an educational writer, a public relations writer and an editor for trade journals, but fiction, in all its forms, has always been his passion. Every year he’s made a living at that, he counts a lucky one. Fortunately, there’ve been many.

This is my 86th book for the New Authors Reading Challenge in 2012.

 

What the Book Club Thought:

Most of the book club enjoyed Ripper for what it was, though two members would like to have seem more of the gross and grisly murders than were shown in the novel.  There is one moment in which Carver nearly vomits upon seeing a dead body, but there are not a lot of details revealed to the reader about the scene.  The big reveal didn’t seem to be much of a surprise to anyone in the book club, though one member expressed that he would have preferred if there had been two killers instead of one.

Some members were glad that the book didn’t delve too much into the gadgets of the underground detective agency, while one member likened the team of three kids (Carver, Delia, and Finn) to Harry Potter and his friends.  The shift from killing prostitutes in England to socialites in New York was something that the group thought had to do with the target audience of young adults.  However, our youngest member says that she’s read more gory books than this one.  One member also indicated that they noticed about 1/3 of the psychology of the Ripper was examined in this book, and could signal sequels to come.  Some suspect there could be two other books after this one, which is why the ending was so open-ended.

Overall, this was a good read for most of the group, though some indicated about 75 pages or so could have been edited out to make it shorter than 400+ pages.

Filed Under: borrowed copy, challenges, historical fiction, New Authors Challenge, Read in 2012, reviews, young adult fiction Tagged With: , ,

Mailbox Monday #205

December 17, 2012 by

Mailbox Mondays (click the icon to check out the new blog) has gone on tour since Marcia at A Girl and Her Books, formerly The Printed Page passed the torch. This month’s host is Suko’s Notebook.

The meme allows bloggers to share what books they receive in the mail or through other means over the past week.

Just be warned that these posts can increase your TBR piles and wish lists.

Here’s what I received:

1.  After the Rain by Karen White for review in January.

Freelance photographer Suzanne Paris has been on her own since she was fourteen—and she has no intention of settling down, especially not in a tiny town like Walton, Georgia. She’s here to hide out for a little while, not to form connections. Her survival depends on her ability to slip in and out of people’s lives, on never staying in one place for too long.

But no one in Walton plans on making things easy for Suzanne. For one thing, it’s a town where everyone knows everyone else—and they all seem intent on making Suzanne feel right at home. For another, Suzanne can’t help but feel drawn to this tight-knit community—or to the town’s mayor, Joe Warner, and his six kids. But Suzanne can’t afford to stick around, even if she’s finally found a place where she belongs. Because someone is looking for her—someone who won’t stop until her life is destroyed.

2. A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver, which came via SantaThing.

In A THOUSAND MORNINGS, Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has come to define her life’s work, transporting us to the marshland and coastline of her beloved home, Provincetown, Massachusetts. In these pages, Oliver shares the wonder of dawn, the grace of animals, and the transformative power of attention. Whether studying the leaves of a tree or mourning her adored dog, Percy, she is ever patient in her observations and open to the teachings contained in the smallest of moments.

3. The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie, which came via SantaThing.

The Enchantress of Florence is the story of a mysterious woman, a great beauty believed to possess the powers of enchantment and sorcery, attempting to command her own destiny in a man’s world. It is the story of two cities at the height of their powers–the hedonistic Mughal capital, in which the brilliant emperor Akbar the Great wrestles daily with questions of belief, desire, and the treachery of his sons, and the equally sensual city of Florence during the High Renaissance, where Niccolò Machiavelli takes a starring role as he learns, the hard way, about the true brutality of power. Profoundly moving and completely absorbing, The Enchantress of Florence is a dazzling book full of wonders by one of the world’s most important living writers.

4. The Ingredients of Love by Nicholas Barreau, unexpectedly from the publisher.

Cyrano de Bergerac meets Chocolat and Amélie in this intelligent, charming, and entertaining publishing sensation from Europe.
While in the midst of a breakup-induced depression, Aurélie Bredin, a beautiful Parisian restaurateur, discovers an astonishing novel in a quaint bookshop on the Ile Saint-Louis. Inexplicably, her restaurant and Aurélie herself are featured in its pages. After reading the whole book in one night, she realizes it has saved her life—and she wishes more than anything to meet its author. Aurélie’s attempts to contact the attractive but shy English author through his French publishers are blocked by the company’s gruff chief editor, André, who only with great reluctance forwards Aurélie’s enthusiastic letter. But Aurélie refuses to give up. One day, a response from the reclusive author actually lands in her mailbox, but the encounter that eventually takes place is completely different from what she had ever imagined. . . . Filled with books, recipes, and characters that leap off the page, The Ingredients of Love by Nicolas Barreau is a tribute to the City of Light.

5. Garden of Stones by Sophie Littlefield for review in February.

Lucy Takeda is just fourteen years old, living in Los Angeles, when the bombs rain down on Pearl Harbor. Within weeks, she and her mother, Miyako, are ripped from their home, rounded up—along with thousands of other innocent Japanese-Americans—and taken to the Manzanar prison camp.

Buffeted by blistering heat and choking dust, Lucy and Miyako must endure the harsh living conditions of the camp. Corruption and abuse creep into every corner of Manzanar, eventually ensnaring beautiful, vulnerable Miyako. Ruined and unwilling to surrender her daughter to the same fate, Miyako soon breaks. Her final act of desperation will stay with Lucy forever…and spur her to sins of her own.

6. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, which was from our book club gift exchange.

In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service, and human dignity–principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.

What did you receive?

Filed Under: mailbox monday, meme Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

180th Virtual Poetry Circle

December 15, 2012 by

Welcome to the 180th Virtual Poetry Circle!

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

Also, sign up for the 2012 Fearless Poetry Reading Challenge because its simple; you only need to read 1 book of poetry. Please visit the stops on the 2012 National Poetry Month Blog Tour.

Today’s poem is from Gerard Manley Hopkins:

The times are nightfall, look, their light grows less

The times are nightfall, look, their light grows less;  
The times are winter, watch, a world undone:  
They waste, they wither worse; they as they run  
Or bring more or more blazon man's distress.  
And I not help. Nor word now of success:       
All is from wreck, here, there, to rescue one—  
Work which to see scarce so much as begun  
Makes welcome death, does dear forgetfulness.  
  
Or what is else? There is your world within.  
There rid the dragons, root out there the sin.   
Your will is law in that small commonweal...

What do you think?

Filed Under: virtual poetry circle Tagged With:

2013 War Through the Generations Theme Announced

December 14, 2012 by

Everyone is signing up for their 2013 challenges already, but here’s another for you to consider.

washington button

Click on the icon for more details.

Filed Under: announcements Tagged With: ,

Ardor: Poems of Life by Janine Canan

December 13, 2012 by

Ardor: Poems of Life by Janine Canan is a hefty and heavy set of poems and essays about life, the destruction of the earth, and the destruction of the planet wrought by men.  Broken down into eight sections from communing with God, homage to the strength of women, the sadness that comes from a destroyed planet, and a general awaking to the wonders of the world and moving into a full experience of life.  The second section, “Tears for the World,” and section three, “Indestructible Woman,” offer a no-holds-barred perspective on destruction caused by humanity or the oppression of women by men in societies across the world even today.  In many ways, some of these poems mirror the most radical forms of Ecofeminism, in which women are the closest to the Earth and should resume their position as leaders and teach men to cooperate with nature rather than dominate it — though some even espoused the dominion of women over men.  There is even one poem dedicated to the late Mary Daly, one of the main philosophical thinkers of the movement.

From Woman Is Space:

“Woman is space
the wind
the grass
the river
the peacock complaining
to the river
the word emerging like the river
the woman stepping out of the river.

Woman
emerges
like a rising river” (page 89)

There are lines and images and moments here that will make some angry, while others will nod their heads at the truth of it.  There is the destruction of nuclear bombs created by men, there are the women who are subservient to men, and there is even more.

“Boot”:

“The air writhes.
The water gags.
The rocks slide.
The mountains sweat.
Plants cringe.
Trees crash.
Animals glare.
Women bleed.

Man has his boot on every inch of the world.
His conquest is nearly complete.” (page 64)

While these are hymns and elegies to the earth and women, there are other poems that are less “abrasive” than others, but still offer a sense of what the reader is trying to convey about the harm that has come to the planet and to women. The less declarative poems are the most powerful, offering imagery that recalls in the mind the beauty of nature and the wonders that are yet unexplored. These poems call on readers to regain their childlike wonder and stand in awe of the world around them, not to tear it asunder in the thirst for fulfillment.

From “A Divine Meal”:

“I like my disheveled plate with a well-licked fork
sprawling satisfied across it, a pause
between each dish for emptying my mind
and manifesting a new one.

Conversation too I enjoy, voices harmonically arranged,
And food, the kind that tastes good.
I love my senses sublime, and a good cook
is one of the million gods I worship.” (page 23)

From “The Joy”:

“Along the hills of your body
I rooted in the fragrant earth.

Stretching my blooming arms
I heaved with offerings.

I was a peach dripping gold
and you drank me.” (page 104)

Ardor: Poems of Life by Janine Canan mixes philosophy, history, poetic imagery, and declarative statements to create a collection of poems and essays that examine the state of the modern world without sugar coating anything.  There are moments that will get under readers’ skins and maybe cause them to stop reading in disagreement, but Canan’s poems should not be ignored given the degradation that continues to happen from the oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico to the oppression of women that continues today.  These are issues that cannot be ignored if the planet and humanity are to survive beyond just a few generations.

About the Poet:

JANINE CANAN’s first book of poems, Of Your Seed, was published in 1977, thanks in part to the National Endowment for the Arts. Since that time, the poet has authored 18 books of poetry, translations, essays and stories.

This is the 27th book for my 2012 Fearless Poetry Exploration Reading Challenge.

 

This is my 85th book for the New Authors Reading Challenge in 2012.

Filed Under: challenges, Fearless Poetry Exploration Reading Challenge, New Authors Challenge, poetry, Read in 2012, review copy, reviews Tagged With: , ,

Guest Post: Holiday Gift Ideas from Author Christine Rose

December 12, 2012 by

Thank you all for joining me today on my 2012 Blog Tour! This week, I’m giving away a $50 Gift Card to Amazon.com at Bitten by Books starting tomorrow, and I’m also giving away FREE BOOKS to ANYONE WHO WANTS ONE!

All week long, Dec 11-15, you can download Rowan of the Wood (Book 1) and Power of the Zephyr (Book 4) on your Kindle or Kindle App for FREE!!! THAT’s RIGHT!

Follow my blog tour for excerpts and podcasts from all of the Rowan books, and enter to win great giveaways! After the guest post on my Top 10 Gifts for Book Lovers, you can listen to Chapter 1 of Witch on the Water (Book 2) and read an excerpt from Fire of the Fey, Book 3.

Now, onto the guest post!

Whereas books seem to be a no-brainer when looking for the perfect gift for the book lover on your list, book and reading accessories could be very beneficial as well. Here are a few gifts suggestions for your favorite reader.

#10 Jasmine Book Stand

Before eReaders, the hardest thing for me to do (due to an old injury) was hold a book. The only way I could read comfortably, without back and shoulder pain to the point of distraction, was to read laying down. Then I’d fall asleep! A handy tool like this allows the reader to read hands free and still read physical books. The other great thing is the ability to multitask! While reading, you can also crochet, knit, wash dishes, or cook!

From the Amazon description:

  • Eye -Level Reading Provides Maximum Comfort
  • Promotes Proper Posture For Better Spinal Health
  • Large Size For Better Hold & Stability
  • Heavy Duty To Withstand Even The Bulkiest Books
  • Patented 2-Way Adjustment (Height & Degree)

#9 Knock Knock Personal Library Kit

Tired of loaning out your books and never getting them back? Can’t remember who you loaned them to? This Personal Library Kit will help your favorite reader keep track of their beloved books and ensure they get their babies back!

From the Amazon description

For a bibliophile, there’s no greater pleasure than sharing beloved books, but no crueler pain than losing them for good. Revive old-fashioned library circulation techniques for fun and book retention with Knock Knock’s Personal Library Kit. Old-fashioned library circulation techniques for fun and book retention! The kit’s self-adhesive pockets, checkout cards, date stamper, and keepsake box will have bibliophiles everywhere channeling their inner librarian. Box Personal Library Kit includes 20 self-adhesive pockets and checkout cards, date stamp, inkpad, and pencil. Look for the Personal Library Kit Refill.

#8 Invisible Book Shelf

This is the coolest thing EVER! I absolutely love this idea, and it’s totally going on my own Wish List! My husband and I have thousands of books collectively, and it’s always been a challenge to display them in an interesting way. This is brilliant.

The actual shelf is hidden in the back of the bottom book, so the books look like they’re floating on the wall!

PLUS, proceeds from the sale go to the Pratt Institute of Art & Design.


#7 6-Pocket Bedside Book Caddy

I wasted no time getting this baby on my Wish List! My bedside table has a tendency to breed books. There will be one, then two, then six. Plus my Kindle. Plus the remotes and crocheting and glasses and more. This handy bedside book caddy will help keep that tabletop clear of clutter while having everything you need within reach, yet out of the way. Perfect.

#6 Reading Glasses Lighted (LED)

I already got a pair of these for Yule this year. This must be the single-most brilliant invention EVER! When I first saw my mother using these, I set out on my search, but they’re difficult to find. Until now. Thank you Amazon!

So often the book light I’ve used is too bright and glares on the page or not bright enough. I’ve also had trouble keeping the thing on the book without it ruining the pages, and then you must readjust it whenever you turn the page. These glasses are perfect for reading physical books or your Kindle (unless, of course, you get the new and wondrous Kindle Paperwhite, below). I also use them for crocheting, as it focuses the light right on my work, so the light isn’t glaring in my eyes.

Hands down, this is the best gift for your favorite book-lover. They come in various magnification levels.

#5 Ex Libris Bookplates

I used to love these things when I was in college and fancied myself a classical scholar. I wanted every one of my books to have its very own elegant bookplate. Several of my books still have them. This is another great way to ensure you get your books returned to you!

One of the reviews state how some of the bookplates in this kit have quotes from Longfellow and C. S. Lewis, among others. They are not flimsy, but rather made on quality cardstock.

#4 Nap Massaging Bed Rest

I think I would read much, much more with this beauty. With a place for your book, coffee, remote, and even an overhead book light, I’d never get out of bed. On top of all that, there is a built-in massager! I’d read read read the entire day away, getting up only to refill my coffee.

WANT!!!

#3 Kindle Paper White

I’ve been a fan of the Kindle since it came out five years ago. I still use my Kindle 2 to read, and I’ve read more since getting an eReader than ever before. Being able to take several books with you, synch on several devices, read hands-free, adjust type size to your comfort, and the ability to download books on the fly, the Kindle is the way to go. Now with the Kindle Paperwhite, readers have the best of both worlds: the eInk technology that makes the screen look like you’re actually reading a paper book AND a thin layer of light that SHINES DOWN on the words rather than up into your eyes, like the all other lit digital eReaders and devices. By shining the light down, it’s like a built-in book light, not like reading on a computer screen where the light is shining into you eyes, stressing them and causing them to tire more easily.

#2 Amazon Prime

By gifting them Amazon Prime your favorite reader will never be without a book to read. Prime members can borrow thousands upon thousands of Kindle books for FREE for two weeks, plus they get thousands of streaming Amazon Videos for free as well as free two-day shipping. Well worth the $79/year, which comes out to less than your monthly Netflix subscription.

Get Amazon Prime, and you can read several of my books for FREE, including Rowan of the Wood, Power of the Zephyr, and Publishing & Marketing Realities for the Emerging Author. PLUS, you can read my alter-ego’s books Avalon Revisited and The Zombies of Mesmer for FREE, too!

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Whew! You’ve got some shopping to do!

But before that, for your listening and reading pleasure, please enjoy Chapter 1 of Witch on the Water, Book 2 via Podcast, followed by an excerpt from Book 3: Fire of the Fey.

WITCH ON THE WATER – CHAPTER 1 Podcast

Excerpt from Fire of the Fey:

“Um. Uncle Marlin?” Cullen began as he entered the library. He shuffled his feet along the dark hardwood floor, letting his eyes find patterns in the wood grain. He wasn’t sure how to put all this, so he took his time. It did all sound rather insane, but if anyone would understand, it would be Moody, as Uncle Moody was the embodiment of strange.

“Yes, my boy. What can I do for you?”

Moody was sitting in an easy chair with his feet up. He
certainly knew how to enjoy the good life! He had a book in one had and a drink in the other. Scotch on the rocks. His favorite. After all those years on the streets, he deserved it.

“Um,” Cullen stammered. He looked down as his feet again and traced his toes around a knot in the wood.

“Well,” Moody said, lowering his book. “Come, come now. Let’s have it. Better out than in, as they say.”

“Um,” Cullen said again. “I found something online. It’s really, really weird though, and I just dismissed it at first, but there have been several tweets about it and updates on Facebook, too.” Cullen paused. “Even Jack said so.” It was really rather crazy, but so was sharing your body with a wizard and having an Uncle older than the oldest redwood in Fortuna. It was all relative. Right?

Moody laid the open book on his belly to save his place and waited patiently. He took a sip of his scotch before folding his hands over his book.

“At first, I thought it might be Aidan. You know, the fires.”

“Yes,” Moody said expectantly.

“Not on purpose, of course,” Cullen added, “but she said something about the smoke in the woods during her last walk, and it made me even more suspicious.” Cullen paused again. It really wasn’t all that crazy, right? Plus Jack had said so, too.

Moody raised his eyebrows, probably wondering if he’d have to live another thousand years for Cullen to get to his point. He closed a bookmark in the book and set it on the table next to his drink, then sat up in his chair and leaned toward Cullen, giving him his undivided attention.

“Um,” Cullen said again. “I think it’s maybe a, um, a dragon.”

Cullen emotionally braced himself for Moody to laugh or scold him for wasting his time or something, but he didn’t do either. He just relaxed back in his easy chair and rubbed the whiskers on his chin.

“A dragon, huh?” he said to himself. “Possible, I suppose, but dragons have been extinct for centuries.” Moody’s brows furrowed as he thought deeper about it. “At least on this side of the barrier,” he added quietly. Although his eyes were fixed on Cullen, their focus went past him and straight into the past or perhaps into the Otherworld itself.

Now it was Cullen’s turn to wait. He looked around the sumptuous library with its floor-to-ceiling books. He really did love it here. It was like a dream come true. Summer vacation beckoned because he planned to hardly leave this library. He would sit and read all day, into the evening. Perhaps go for a walk in the woods at dusk, just as it was cooling down, and then come back to read until bedtime. He pictured himself going through book after book and reading this entire collection by the time school started up again in the fall. Perhaps even twice.

“Tell me more,” Moody said at last, pulling Cullen out of his daydream.

“Well, like I said, at first I thought it was just silliness. You know, gamers and the like doing online role playing and
whatnot. But then I started thinking about Rowan and you and Fiana and all the other strange things over the past few months, and I thought it might be possible. Then April and I went to visit this guy in the hospital. Jack. The police think he’s the arsonist, but Jack said that it was a dragon. That’s what burned him. The police, of course, think he’s crazy, but it could be true. Right? But now you say they’re extinct, so maybe he is crazy.”

“Extinct. Yes. In this reality anyway,” Moody said.

“That’s right!” Cullen exclaimed. “I saw a dragon when I was in the Otherworld with Rowan. Oh, he was so beautiful! Huge and wonderful, flying through the air!” Cullen’s eyes sparkled as he remembered the dragon and all the wondrous things he had seen in the Otherworld. If a dragon was here, perhaps fairies and centaurs were as well. Perhaps there really was magic around every corner if you just knew where to look.

It must’ve been the thoughts of the Otherworld that stirred Rowan awake. Things had been so quiet of late in there during the day, Cullen was getting used to hearing only his own thoughts again. Now that Rowan went out at night while Cullen slept, the wizard had taken to sleeping during the day, so Cullen had his mind mostly to himself again. They had found a way to coexist in relative peace. But now Rowan stirred.

“You speak of the Otherworld?” Rowan said inside Cullen’s head, pulling Cullen out of his Otherworld daydream.

Yes. I was remembering the dragon there, and Moody and I were just talking about all the fires in the forest. Have you seen anything while you were out? Cullen thought to Rowan.

“Talking to Rowan,” Cullen said aloud to Moody who had taken to staring at Cullen.

“Ah. Of course. I should know by now that’s what’s happening when you get so still and quiet like that. What does Rowan have to say about it?” Moody responded.

“Nothing yet,” Cullen answered, and then asked Rowan again, Have you seen anything?

“I have seen evidence of the fires. I have put out a few myself at night, but with all the rain, it is normally taken care of naturally. The forest is charred, mostly. No real damage done.”

“Tell that to Jack,” Cullen said, then relayed the rest to Moody, “He says that he’s seen charring and put out a few, but he didn’t mention a dragon.”

“Dragon!” Rowan said. “You think it might be a dragon?”

We were just discussing that, Cullen thought.

“He can hear me, yes?” Moody asked.

“Yes,” Rowan answered.

“Yes,” Cullen relayed.

“Green man, dragons did exist in your time, but they do not exist on this plane any more. The last known dragon of any species died centuries ago. If it is indeed a dragon causing the fires, I fear it might have come through our veil,” Moody said to Rowan via Cullen.

Cullen didn’t like being talked through too much as it made him feel as if he was just in the way.

“How could he come through the veil when it took all of yours and Rowan’s power just to open it?” Cullen asked. “We haven’t had any sabbats to weaken the veil since then.” He was determined to remain part of the conversation.

“Good question, Cullen,” Rowan said.

“Thanks,” Cullen said out loud.

“For what?” Moody asked.

“I was talking to Rowan,” he said, then repeated Rowan’s comment.

“Oh. That is a good question, Cullen,” Moody said.

“Thanks,” Cullen laughed at this comedy of errors. “Well, how could it have come through? Are they that powerful on their own?”

“Oh yes, my dear boy. Dragons are very magical creatures, but I can’t imagine that one would want to come through into this dimension,” Moody observed.

Rowan made a sound inside Cullen’s head indicating he agreed, but before Rowan could say anything else, Aidan came into the library.

Both Cullen and Moody turned to her as she entered, and she stiffened. “What’s up?” she asked.

“Talking about the fires,” Cullen answered feeling now that he no longer had to hide the subject from her.

“Look,” Aidan said all defensively. “I know you both think it’s me. I see the way you’ve been looking at me and tiptoeing around the subject, but it’s not me! I swear!”

“We believe you, girl,” Moody said. “Cullen thinks it might be a dragon. He says there have been sightings.”

“A dragon? Cool!” Aidan said, relaxing. She came over and sat on the arm of Moody’s easy chair. “Who has seen a dragon?”

“This guy in the hospital,” Cullen said. “I’ve also seen tweets about it and such.”

“You’re believing tweets?” Aidan ribbed him.

“What’s a tweet?” Moody asked.

“Honestly, Cullen,” Aidan continued. “Don’t you know that most people are crazy? I mean, even crazier than we are!”

“I know, but stranger things and all,” Cullen answered and tilted his head to indicate Moody, then pointed to his own head to remind her that he was possessed by a wizard. “Not to mention your own special ability.”

“You’ve got a point,” she said.

“What’s a tweet?” Moody repeated.

“It’s a social networking internet thing. I’ll explain later,” Aidan told him.

“It is our fault,” Rowan said. Again, the all-too-familiar sense of Rowan’s guilt and depression bore down on Cullen’s mind.

“He says it’s his fault,” Cullen said, suddenly feeling very tired. “Or, rather, our fault.”

“Of course!” Moody exclaimed. “We forced the veil open when it should not have been opened. It was not natural. It was not respectful of, well, anything natural and good. We did so for our own purposes.”

Now the guilt wasn’t coming just from Rowan. Cullen’s own feelings of responsibility welled up and made him a little
nauseous. “It’s because of me,” he said. “You did that because of me wanting Rowan out. Now look what has happened.”

“No, Cullen. Don’t blame yourself. There is no blame, just a situation we have to deal with. A dragon likely came through the veil because it didn’t close properly. Perhaps it’s still not closed! We must deal with this now!” Moody exclaimed.

“Are you sure it’s a dragon?” Aidan asked. “I mean, I understand stranger things and all that, but might there also be a more normal explanation, like a pyromaniac?”

“I suppose it is possible,” Moody admitted. “Let us see. Cullen, see that book over there? The one that kinda stands out on the top shelf? Yes, that’s the one,” Moody said as Cullen pointed to a large, golden tome. “Bring that to me, would you?”

The library featured a wooden ladder on a sliding track that enabled it to be moved along the shelves. Cullen grabbed it and maneuvered it over to the book in question. He scaled the
ladder and grabbed the large book. Rowan swelled in his mind the instant he touched the book. It was like he got ten times bigger just as Cullen touched the book.

“Woah,” Cullen said aloud.

“Yes,” Moody said. “Feel the magic? It is a very special book. Bring it here.”

“Rowan sure can feel it,” Cullen mumbled as he climbed down the ladder. As soon as he handed the book over to Marlin, the pressure in his head began to subside. “Where did you get that book?”

“I have my ways, dear boy. Yes! Magic and all that. So,” Moody said, “let us see what we can discover.”

Moody didn’t open the book but rather held it in one hand and held the other over it, suspended in the air a few inches above its cover. He closed his eyes and started muttering under his breath. First, the book started to glow, and then Moody started to glow! Aidan, who was still sitting on the arm of Moody’s easy chair, stood up rather quickly and moved away. Her arm burst into flame.

“Damn it,” she cursed, shaking her arm in the air, which just made the fire grow brighter.

Cullen felt as if he should’ve done something, but as usual, he didn’t. He just stood there watching through wide eyes.

“Relax. Concentrate,” Moody said to her without being distracted from his task or even opening his eyes. “Just concentrate. We’ve practiced this.”

Aidan scowled at him, but did as he asked. The fire climbed up her arm, but Cullen noticed that nothing was burning. It was as if the flame wasn’t even touching her, rather she had a halo around her, and the flame came from that. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the fire subsided. She was without a blister. Not even her clothes were singed.

Amazing. He’d seen it before, but only when she threw the fire, never on her.

Truly amazing.

“Okay,” said Moody, letting the book drop to the end table next to his chair. “That should do it.”

“Did you really read that without opening it?” asked Cullen.

“No indeed, my dear boy. It is not that kind of book. It is in fact merely an aid to perception.”

“Like what Mr. Ferguson is trying to do for April?” Aidan asked with interest.

“Similar, I suppose,” conceded Moody. “To be completely frank, I really don’t understand how his machines work. But it is similar to the runes I gave April, only much more powerful. With its aid, I have just determined that there is indeed a flaw in the veil nearby. I can only assume it’s where we forced a way through.”

“So then it probably is a dragon from the Otherworld,” Cullen declared.

“In all probability. The poor thing must be lost and frightened. We must effect a rescue. Summon our forces and call out a search party. Can you get Madeline and April to meet us in about an hour? Have April bring her runes.”

“April, maybe, but Maddy is still grounded.”

“Still? But it has been months!”

“I know,” Cullen said.

“We must do something about that. After all, we couldn’t have succeed on the island without her! No sir!”

“What can you do?” Cullen asked.

“I have my ways. That’s right!” Moody waved his hand in a circle. Cullen almost expected purple stars to trail behind like magical tracers, but there were no stars or purple anything. Moody put his thumbs through his suspenders and looked very pleased with himself.

“What did you do?”

“I think your friend’s mother has had a sudden change of heart.”

CMRBlogTour2012

Follow the rest of my 2012 Blog Tour via this link!

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About the Author:

Christine Rose is the award-winning author of the Rowan of the Wood YA fantasy series. Her Amazon.com bestselling book Publishing and Marketing Realities for the Emerging Author helps writers feel successful by educating them about the publishing industry and marketing their book.

Christine writes, blogs, and podcasts, not only on her own blog, but also under the pen name Olivia (O. M.) Grey. You can find out about this persona and her books at Caught in the Cogs.

She needs copious amounts of dark chocolate, frothy mochas, and loving attention.

Connect with Christine: email * twitter * facebook * fan page
Connect with Olivia: email * twitter * facebook * fan page

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House Inspections by Carsten René Nielsen, translated by David Keplinger

December 11, 2012 by

House Inspections by Carsten René Nielsen of Aarhus, Denmark, translated by David Keplinger, is a collection that the poet himself calls surrealist, but readers will find them poignant and truthful as well.  The collection includes not only the original prose poems in Danish, but also the English translations Keplinger did in collaboration with the poet.  David Keplinger introduces the collection with:  “It was in this place of natural beauty and order that we set to work on Nielsen’s poems of the neighborhood, rich in imagery of human interaction, comedies of errors, unanswerable questions, an Escherlike world of dark cellars, blind alleys, tenements and fitting rooms.” (page 7)  There is definitely a dark, blind alley in each of these poems — like “Fitting Room,” “Steps,” and “Wistfulness” — that the narrator leads readers to before springing the unexpected upon them.  In many ways, these surprise endings remind me of the one sentence endings of some Anita Shreve novels that change the entire story in a moment.

One stellar poem in the collection is “Reading,” in which the narrator calls attention to something amiss in the text, but does not reveal what it is.  By the end of the poem, it is clear that the one giving the reading does not mean what s/he says.  “the lips don’t move in full accord with what is actually said.”  (page 17)  While the thing that is amiss or the actual context of the situation remains a mystery, readers can easily connect with the realization that something that was thought to be true is not.  A running theme in many of these poems is the careful inspection or observation of the players or the scene to uncover what is “wrong” with the situation or what is unusual about it.  There is always someone watching or the feeling of being watched, like in “Theater.”

There also are a few poems that examine the passing of time and aging in such a unique way that readers may have to take a moment and revisit these poems to truly see the underlying meaning.  “Book” is an interesting look at what we look for in the books that we read — a reflection of ourselves — and how it puts us on edge that someone will turn the page on us.  There is that sense of fear in all of us that our lives are beyond our control or that the choices we’ve made are not appropriate.  In “Birthday,” life burns on its own and cannot be doused by minor events, and in many ways Nielsen is suggesting (without saying it) that life goes on even if events happen that are unplanned or even when they are planned.

Beyond the serious nature of some of these poems, House Inspections by Carsten René Nielsen also has a playful side in which shirts are turned into birds escaping from cages.  The collection tackles life’s biggest issues about mortality and enjoying the moments of life we have as we live them, not as they lie in the past.  Another collection that could be considered for the best of list.

About the Poet:

Carsten René Nielsen is a Danish poet. He has published nine books of poetry in Danish and received several fellowships from the Danish State Foundation for the Arts. Translations of his work have been published in The Paris Review, AGNI, Mid-American Review, The Mississippi Review, and in a collection of prose poems, The World Cut Out With Crooked Scissors (New Issues, 2007).

This is the 26th book for my 2012 Fearless Poetry Exploration Reading Challenge.

 

This is my 84th book for the New Authors Reading Challenge in 2012.

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