Double-Stacked Bookshelves

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've got my eye on: Title:  Lucky Us Author:  Amy Bloom Publication Date:  July 29, 2014 Page Count:  256 Summary via Goodreads "My father's wife died. My mother said we should drive down to his place and see what might be in it for us." So begins this remarkable novel by Amy Bloom, whose critically acclaimed Away was called "a literary triumph" by The New York Times. Brilliantly written, deeply moving, fantastically funny, Lucky Us introduces us to Eva and Iris. Disappointed by their families, Iris, the hopeful star, and Eva, the sidekick, journey across 1940s America in search of fame and fortune. Iris's ambitions take them from small-town Ohio to an unexpected and sensuous Hollywood, across the America of Reinvention in a stolen station wagon, to the jazz clubs and golden ma...

I've figured out my guiding topic for the month!  I'm feeling very accomplished today.  This entire challenge will be focused on writers I truly enjoy or who have influence my readings/writings in some way.  I hope people will explore some of the authors/works I discuss throughout the month. For the letter B, I've got four stand out writers who have shaped my reading preferences:  Charles Baudelair, Jorge Luis Borges, Tadeusz Borowski, and Chris Bohjalian. Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) A French poet, essayist, art critic, and Poe translator, Baudelaire focused on the industrialization of Parisian society during the 19th century.  He believed that it was art's purpose to capture the fleeting experience of life in the urban landscape.  Perhaps his most famous work, Las Fleurs du mal ( The Flowers of Evil ), published in 1857, highlighted themes of sex, death, decomposition, decay, metamorphosis, melancholia, and various vices.  The volume was ...

I swore I wouldn't read this book.  Alas... Today's teaser comes from Seth Grahame-Smith's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter .  And now for your reading please: "Abe couldn't help but smile.  Here was a strange little man with a strange way of seeing things.  Only the second living man he'd ever met who knew the truth of vampires.  He drank to excess and spoke in an irritating, high-pitched voice.  It was hard not to like him" (126) Ah the overabundance of vampire novels lately...

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...

Excerpt from Jerome Charyn's Johnny One-Eye:  A Tale of the American Revolution : "They tied me to a pole, took paintbrushes out of their britches, dipped the brushes into the caldron, and started slabbering me with tar.  I was like a hog that had to be basted on a hot spit.  The tar went into my eyelashes, into my hair, into my armpits, into the webs of my fingers, into the fork between my legs, covered my member with a black well.  I hollered holy murder.  My body was an island of burning skin." (70) I've been trying to read this book for awhile.  One day I hope to finish it!  So far, I'm on page 74 of 479.  My bookmark's been in that spot for awhile...

Though I'm not a big fan of Sarah Palin, or her politics, I was mildly surprised and, at times, impressed with her book Going Rogue:  An American Life .  She does have a lot of good things to say about big government, the hands-off approach to governing, energy research, environmental issues, and life in general.  Though at times a bit preachy for my tastes (I disagree with some of her fundamental principles), but overall she explains herself well...golly's and all. It's hard to determine how truthful she is being in regards to everything she discusses.  I was impressed with a lot of what she's done for Alaska through her policies and certain laws.  I think the part that I was most leary about was her recollection of the presidential campaign and how she was treated by "Headquarters."    According to Palin, she was pretty much given a gag-order...keep your mouth shut and we'll feed you your lines.  I can see this being true.  I mean, s...

I've had Teresa Neumann's Bianca's Vineyard for a while now, thanks to my grandmother, but have been skipping over it to read other books.  I don't know why I did this because it was actually a great read.  Neumann is a local author who decided to write a novel about family history.  The majority of the novel is based on factual evidence and personal family interviews.  There is one portion, which I won't give away, that is only speculated at by Neumann, but what she does choose to speculate is a highly probably scenario. The book is written in a way that suggests it is being told to the reader, as well as Egisto's son and his wife, through flashbacks from Bianca in her 80's.  We know this because the font and boldness of these sections gives personal reflection from Bianca and foreshadows what she will eventually reveal.  She takes you back to the beginning of what changed the course for this family, mainly one brother of the Bertozzi family moving to A...