Double-Stacked Bookshelves

Teaser Tuesday:  Code Name Verity Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn @ A Daily Rhythm . Here are the rules: grab whatever you're reading, open to a random page, select no more than two sentence (NO SPOILERS), share the title and author, and GO! Here's today's teaser: "It had been used recently, blood still on the blade.  We stood tied together mutely, and I thought, They will make me watch.  They will kill her first and make me watch.  Then they will kill me." --page 195           Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein I am loving this book!  Happy reading!

Teaser Tuesday:  At the Water's Edge Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Jenn @ A Daily Rhythm . Here are the rules: grab whatever you're reading, open to a random page, select no more than two sentence (NO SPOILERS), share the title and author, and GO! Here's today's teaser: "Her wool coat floated, an absurd umbrella, first resisting and finally wicking water, puller her deeper.  She looked back at the landing, suddenly desperate.  If only she had a hat, she could throw is back onto the thorny gorse.  If she'd had anything that would float, maybe they'd think it was an accident and let her be buried with her daughter." --page 8           At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen I am so excited for this book and am rather enjoying it so far! Happy reading :)

Teaser Tuesdays:  In Paradise   Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB @ Should Be Reading . Here are the rules: grab whatever you're reading, open to a random page, select no more than two sentence (NO SPOILERS), share the title and author, and GO! Here's the teaser for this week: "The cold of winter afternoon falls quickly.  Toward twilight, as the witness bearers straggle back toward the town, a weak sun, smoggy red, sinks behind the cropped misshapen trees along the road.  A woman murmurs that a faint odor of burning flesh still lingers here a half century later, and someone else recalls her mother's account of a woman who had smelled her fate while approaching Oswiecim in the cattle cars." --page 61           ----- In Paradise by Peter Matthiessen A heavy teaser today...but they can't all be light and fluffy. Happy reading!

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine that allows bloggers to highlight releases they are eagerly awaiting. Here's what I'm looking forward to: Title:  The Fantastic Laboratory of Dr. Weigl:  How Two Brave Scientists Battled Typhus and Sabotaged the Nazis Author:  Arthur Allen Publication Date:  July 21, 2014 Page Count:  400 Summary via Goodreads Few diseases are more gruesome than typhus. Transmitted by body lice, it afflicts the dispossessed refugees, soldiers, and ghettoized peoples causing hallucinations, terrible headaches, boiling fever, and often death. The disease plagued the German army on the Eastern Front and left the Reich desperate for a vaccine. For this they turned to the brilliant and eccentric Polish zoologist Rudolf Weigl. In the 1920s, Weigl had created the first typhus vaccine using a method as bold as it was dangerous for its use of living human subjects. The astonishing success of We...

Happy Friday, fellow A-Zers!  I'm glad this week is over...it sure felt like it went on forever.  Anywho...today presents us the letter V and I'm bringing you:  Kurt Vonnegut! Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) An American writer, Vonnegut is known for his blend of satire, humor, and science fiction.  Very active in the American Civil Liberties Union and considered a critical pacifist intellectual, he was known for his believe in humanist ideals.  A soldier and POW during World War II, Kurt Vonnegut utilized his experiences to help shape his work.  An advocate for anti-authoritarianism, he incorporates much of himself into his work.  There is a deep cynicism and wild leaps of imagination that run rampant throughout.  He also utilizes the idea of determinism, perhaps best seen in Slaughterhouse Five .  In addition to his writing, Vonnegut became quite a popular artist and a political activist.  He's a wonderful writer, though many have...

I must admit that historical fiction is one of my favorite genres; especially when the time period is surrounding World War II.  Because of this, my J author is:  Pam Jenoff. Pam Jenoff  An American author, Pam Jenoff has spent much of her career working for the government in various support positions.  From being the Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army to working in the Foreign Service with the State Department where she was placed in Poland assisting on an Auschwitz restitution project, Jenoff has gained the background knowledge and experience necessary to make her novels believable for the time period in which they are set.  This ability has garnered her much recognition and best-seller status.  Her writing pulls you in and the novels are quick to read.  Check them out . *Recommendation:  The Kommandant's Girl and The Diplomat's Wife Who are some of your favorite J authors?

Sometimes a book comes along that has something special to it.  That spark or element that makes you fall in love with it and hope that it never ends.  Ruta Sepetys' Between Shades of Gray was one of those books for me.  I randomly picked this book up at Wal-Mart (it was cheap and sounded good) and I'm so glad that I did because I don't know if I'd have picked it up anywhere else...or even remembered that I read the back of it.  Gray follows the story of Lina and her family as they try to survive the terrible effects of WWII; including deportation, harrowing traveling experiences, Soviet labor camps, Siberia and the Arctic Cirlce, cruel winters, and even crueler captors.  What ensues is one girl's struggle to survive despite all odds.  Through all of this, she is able to take solace in her art; the one thing that her captors cannot take from her.  With her art, Lina is able to document the atrocities that befall her and her fellow capt...

I know I finished Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children quite a while ago, but I just haven't had the time (or inclination) to write a review, or any review for that matter.  So, instead of grading the ever growing pile of essays on my desk, I figured I'd at least get one review, this one, out of the way! Peregrine follows the adventures of Jacob and his search into his grandfather's past.  After the untimely death (murder?!) of his grandfather, Jacob sets off to discover who his grandfather really was.  This leads him to a small island off the coast of Great Britain.  While there, he discovers that the orphanage his grandfather lived in during the war had been partially destroyed in 1943.  However, he soon stumbles upon a vortex of sorts that takes him back to the island during WWII and the home his grandfather resided in with other "displaced" children.  This vortex allows Jacob, and those he encounters, to ...

Today's topic for Why I Love Wednesday is Favorite Heroes ...well, I'm taking this in a different way and declaring my love for the Anti-Hero.  Anti-Heroes are generally the underdog of the story or the "hero-in-hiding" and seeing them triumph in one way or another is always one of my favorite aspects in a story.  So, here's to the Anti-Heroes! My most loved anti-hero is, hands down, Severus Snape.  Many would argue that he is not worthy of being considered a hero, but I would beg to differ...heatedly.  He's loyal to a fault and completely constant in his treatment toward others.  These aspects alone garner him hero status in my book.  But if someone needs more convicing, simply look at how he sacrifices himself on countless occassions: with Draco, with Harry, with Dumbledore, and, ultimately, with his own life.  Here's your medal, Professor! Another hero who falls under the anti status would be Death from The Book Thief .  Death being consider...

It's Tuesday...and that means it's teaser time.  This week's excerpt comes from Nicole Krauss' The History of Love .  This book was the one I received to distribute as a book giver for World Book Night US , a great organization to promote literacy and a love of reading.  I thought it sounded like a wonderful story, so I picked up a copy for myself. "The moment had passed, the door between the lives we could have led and the lives we led had shut in our faces.  Or better to say, in my face.  Grammar of my life:  as a rule of thumb, wherever there appears to be a plural, correct for singular.  Should I ever let slip a royal We , put me out of my misery with a swift blow to the head" (86). This book sounds promising and I'm looking forward to reading it.  Hopefully it will be the light at the end of an otherwise dark and incredibly sad week...

Though I'm still reading Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , I have picked up a read to break the heftiness of it up.  Something that can be plowed through quickly and that I can easily read between spurts of Tattoo .  That book is Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys.  I found this, randomly, at Wal-Mart (I know, I know) on the cheap.  It sounded good, so I picked it up and here you go: "Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth?  That morning, my brother's was worth a pocket watch" (27). This looks like a pretty good read to me and it's been decent so far.  Fingers crossed that it continues to be so.  Happy Tuesday everyone!

I've been looking forward to reading Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children for awhile now and have finally picked it up.  So, without further ado, here is today's teaser: "Each one would be dead before his sixteenth birthday, killed by the monsters he had so narrowly escaped.  But these weren't the kind of monsters that had tentacles and rotting skin, the kind a seven-year-old might be able to wrap his mind around--they were monsters with human faces, in crisp uniforms, marching in lockstep, so banal you don't recognize them for what they are until it's too late" (17). I'm excited for this read, though I've read some very differing reviews on it.  We'll see.  Happy Tuesday everyone :)

Alexander McCall Smith's La's Orchestra Saves the World was a pretty decent read.  Although, for me, it does not stack up to some of his serials ( 44 Scotland Street , etc.), I rather enjoyed it. La's is set, for the majority, during the span of WWII in the countryside of Suffolk.  The story begins with La (Lavender) and her developing relationship with Richard Stone.  The two share a whirlwind of a romance that leads, rather quickly, to marriage.  Not even two years later La is alone.  She then moves from Cambridge to Suffolk county into an old farmhouse owned by her in-laws.  It is here that La's life gains new purpose and she becomes a more self-assured individual.  While working on the home-front to help the citizens of Britain during a time of war, she meets a Polish soldier, Feliks, who has been sent to work on a neighboring farm.  Naturally La develops feelings for Feliks, though he's so uptight and reserved that she has no idea where he...

I've heard so many good things about Pam Jenoff's The Diplomat's Wife and it's predecessor, The Kommandant's Girl , but I've never felt like reading either for some odd reason.  Both are set during my favorite time, WWII, and both are books that I would probably like.  Why wouldn't I want to read them?  Well, I finally remedied this conundrum, though probably backwards from how I should have done so.  I found a copy of The Diplomat's Wife for two dollars in a used bookstore some time back and picked it up (I mean, it was ONLY two dollars).  Now I can say that I'm really glad I did! Diplomat follows the trials and tribulations of Marta Nederman after the war has come to an end.  She's been rescued from the Dachau concentration camp by an American soldier, Paul Mattison, and placed in a DP hospital in Switzerland.  Though she doesn't know it at the time, this chance meeting with Paul will shape her life in ways she never could have imagin...

I found a copy of Pam Jenoff's The Diplomat's Wife for a measly two bucks at a secondhand store recently and have decided that I'm going to plunge into it!  Because of that, here's a teaser: "'Before we could escape, the Kommandant found Emma and discovered that she was Jewish.' I recount hiding in the shadows, watching the Kommandant confront Emma.  'I had hoped she might be able to somehow talk her way out of it.  He seemed to have genuine feelings for her so I thought he might understand.  But when he pulled out his gun, I had to do something.  I shot him.'" (112) Oh man...I love novels set during this time period.  Despite the horrific atrocities that occurred, for some reason it is my favorite point in history.  I'm excited for this read.

"A snowball to the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship." The Book Thief Most people have no idea who Liesel Meminger is, but those who have read Markus Zusak's The Book Thief   would probably rate her among one of the best characters in the book, if not most books.  For that reason alone, she is my Favorite Character . Liesel...how do I even describe her?!  She lives in a time and place that most of us would shudder at...Nazi Germany.  After her younger brother's death, her mother sends her to a small town in Germany in order to keep her safe.  She is fostered by Hans and Rosa Hubermann, who happen to live, fittingly, on Himmel Strasse (Heaven Street).  We come to see Liesel and how she interacts with her foster parents and the other citizens in the area.  She even becomes friends with a fist-fighting Jew who hides in her basement.  It is during her time in this town that Liesel develops, or hones, her knack of stealing...