Library Loot - March 10 to 16

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and me that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

I feel a bit like a cheat posting library loot for this week - not because I didn't pick up any loot, but because I already have 7 items waiting to be picked up! We won't talk about the fact that I don't really have enough room on my card to actually check them out, but it will work itself out I am sure!

Here's what I did pick up:

Master: An Erotic Novel of the Count of Monte Cristo by Colette Gale: It always surprises me when I find an erotic romance at the library. I don't know why. This is a pseudonym used by author Colleen Gleason who is the author of the Gardella Vampire Chronicles

The Knife of Letting Go by Patrick Ness: I have heard such good things about this book, but then I read a bad review, and I thought, well, time to see for myself how it is!

Sabriel by Garth Nix: (Reloot) Now that I have finished reading all of the Keys to the Kingdom books by this author it is time to move onto some of his other books!

South Pacific and Micronesia (Lonely Planet Guide): I had borrowed a Lonely Planet Guide to the Cook Islands a few weeks ago, but I thought I should at least consider some of the other Pacific Islands for a holiday destination.

Mort by Terry Pratchett - The next read for the Terry Pratchett challenge, and the first featuring Death as the main character. I can't remember if I have read this one before or not, but I think I have.

Divided in Death by J D Robb - The next book in the excellent In Death series.

The Sharing Knife: Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold - the fourth and final book (as far as I know) in the Sharing Knife series.


What loot did you get this week? Leave your link in Mr Linky so we can check out all your lovely loot!

Teaser Tuesday - Tempted by P C and Kristin Cast

I am glad to know that I am very nearly caught up on the House of Night series. Of course, there is a new book due out in the next month or so, so I won't be caught up for very long, but I can't do a lot about that really!

My teaser comes from page 183 of Tempted, which is the sixth book in the series. Zoey is once again preparing to save the world whilst juggling the numerous boys in her life.

I wished I could turn back time and make the past two months disappear so I could go back to worrying about Aphrodite being a mean girl and Erik being an untouchable hottie.

I wanted to go back to a time when I didn't know anything about Kalona or A-ya or death and destruction.

Teaser Tuesday is host by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!

Alphabet in Historical Fiction: G is for Gulland

It is time for the next entry in the Alphabet in Historical Fiction challenge that is being run over at Historical Tapestry. This time I am focusing on Sandra Gulland's most recent novel Mistress of the Sun. Luckily for me, this novel also counts for several other challenges I am participating in including the French Historical Challenge: Oh-La-La!, and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Here is the blurb:

The author of the internationally acclaimed Josephine Bonaparte trilogy returns with another irresistible historical novel, this one based on the life of Louise de la Vallière, who, against all odds, became one of the most mysterious consorts of France's Louis XIV, the charismatic Sun King.

Set against the magnificent decadence of the seventeenth-century French court, Mistress of the Sun begins when an eccentric young Louise falls in love with a wild white stallion and uses ancient magic to tame him. This one desperate action of her youth shadows her throughout her life, changing it in ways she could never imagine.

Unmarriageable, and too poor to join a convent, Louise enters the court of the Sun King, where the king is captivated by her. As their love unfolds, Louise bears Louis four children, is made a duchess, and reigns unrivaled as his official mistress until dangerous intrigue threatens her position at court and in Louis's heart.

A riveting love story with a captivating mystery at its heart, Mistress of the Sun illuminates both the power of true and perfect love and the rash actions we take to capture and tame it.

Just under three years ago I started reading Sandra Gulland's excellent Josephine B trilogy, and I was a bit surprised that there were no other books out by this author. Then came news about the upcoming release of Mistress of the Sun, and I was excited, and then I had to wait for what seemed an age before the books came on to the library catalogue.  The first time I borrowed this book it was June 2008, but I had to return it unread, and then the same thing happened, and then again, and again, and, well you get the picture.

It's not that I didn't want to read the book, because I clearly did seeing as I kept on borrowing it, but other books just kept on getting in the way. So, was it worth the time it took to read? I would say that it was for the most part, but I am a little bit guarded with that affirmation, simply because for me, it never quite reached the same dizzy heights that were achieved whilst reading the aforementioned Josephine B trilogy.

The story opens with a young girl called Louise de la Valliere who lives in genteel poverty in country France, far away from the royal courts in Paris. She has an uncanny skill with animals, particularly after she uses some old style magic, which would be much frowned upon by her pious mother and by anyone else who knew about it, to tame a wild stallion. When her father dies, she is sent to a convent to continue her education, knowing that she is pretty much unmarriageable, and too poor to become a nun. As a result of family connections following her mother's remarriage, she instead finds herself attached to a royal household as a maid, finally becoming an attendant to Henrietta, sister in law of the young King Louis XIV, who is remembered through history as the Sun King, and sister of one of my favourite kings of England to read about, Charles II.

The first part of the novel was quite plodding for me, but once I got through the first hundred of so pages of establishing Louise's background and how she came to be at court, the novel picks up. When Louise catches the attention of the young king, it is only a matter of time before she becomes his mistress, firstly in secret and later more openly. Being the king's mistress brings great joy, but also trials, but Louise manages to keep his attention over an extended period of time, even if she does have to share him, until that is, she feels that she must choose between Louis and her eternal salvation.

Along the way, I was reacquainted with many of the names from history that I have read about in other novels - Athenais de Montespan who I first got to know in the delicious Angelique by Sergeanne Golon, Henrietta who I most recently read about in Susan Holloway Scott's The French Mistress - and also some of the places. For example, at one point Louis takes Louise to a hunting lodge that he owns just outside Paris. Now we know that hunting lodge as Versailles, the building that Louis extensively remodeled and made into the centre of his glittering court. Whilst this isn't a book about the remodeling process, it was interesting to read snippets about it, and about the celebrations that were held when it was opened.

As I mentioned before, I did find the opening parts of this novel quite slow, but its strength definitely lay within the portrayal of the relationship between Louis and Louise, the secrecy with which they met whilst falling in love, the opposition of both Louis' wife and mother, and other members of the court, the jostling for position, the tragedies and the loss that they shared, and the betrayal as Louise realises that she is no longer his only mistress.

Whilst the ending was perhaps not the one that I would have hoped for I recognise that the poetic license of a historical novelist is quite often restricted as a result of needing to comply with the actual events of history! I do wish that the horse storyline had not been reintroduced as it was, but that is a small criticism in the overall scheme of things.

I am glad that I finally got around to reading this novel, and definitely intend to keep on reading more in relation to the life of the Sun King and his contemporaries like Charles II.

I ended up giving this book a rating of 4/5. Now I need to start thinking about what I might post about for the letter H!

TSS: Reading on the train

This week my (unofficial) Sunday Salon post was inspired by a post that Stefanie from So Many Books did last week about taking a peek at what other commuters are reading. I also used to read a blog called Seen Reading which looked at what other people were reading although Julie also makes up stories about the people who are reading the book as well!

What I decided to do this week was to keep a list of the books that I saw other people reading near me on the train, and then pick one book each day to talk about for whatever reason it appealed to me! Some days I have titles, other days just the author name, depending on how much I could ascertain from the book without really, really freaking out the other people on the train!

Monday

Patricia Cornwell

Joe Donnelly (from the cover I would have picked this as some kind of thriller but apparently Joe Donnelly is a fantasy writer. I don't recall having heard of him before)

The Bible

The Mascot: Unraveling The Mystery Of My Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood by Mark Kurzem

The book that most interested me on Monday was The Mascot, which I don't recall hearing about before. I find the WWII completely fascinating, and just reading the blurb makes me want to read it! I've requested this one from the library already.

'A powerful book . . . revealing his father's remarkable and horrific story' Sunday TelegraphOne summer's day in 1997, Mark Kurzem returned home to find his father on his doorstep. Alex Kurzem had travelled halfway round the world to reveal a long-kept secret, and now wanted his son's help to piece together his past and his identity.As a five-year-old during the Second World War, Alex Kurzem had watched from a tree as his entire village, including his family, were murdered by a German-led execution squad. He scavenged in the forests of Russia for several months before falling into the hands of a Latvian SS company. After one soldier discovered this young boy was actually Jewish, Alex was made to promise never to reveal his true identity - to forget his old life, his family, and even his name. The young boy became the company's mascot and part of the Nazi propaganda machine responsible for killing his own people.After the war Alex was adopted and his new family made a home in Australia, far from the sites of wartime atrocities. But after fifty years of holding onto this childhood secret, Alex needed to discover and share the astonishing truth about his past.

 

Tuesday

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (for a while there the Twilight books were in the hands of many commuters!)

Scott McGough

Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larssen

Himalaya by Michael Palin

If There Be Thorns by Virginia Andrews

Lyndon B Johnson: Portrait of a President by Robert Dallek  (the chapter was called After the Fall which seems to be from this book!)

I used to love watching Michael Palin's travel documentaries, but I have never read any of his books! In fact I used to read a lot of travelogues, but I don't think I have read one for years!

Having risen to the challenge of seas, poles, dhows and deserts, the highest mountains in the world were a natural target for Michael Palin. In a journey rarely, if ever, attempted before, in 6 months of hard travelling Palin takes on the full length of the Himalaya including the Khyber Pass, the hidden valleys of the Hindu Kush, ancient cities like Peshawar and Lahore, the mighty peaks of K2, Annapurna and Everest, the bleak and barren plateau of Tibet, the gorges of the Yangtze, the tribal lands of the Indo-Burmese border and the vast Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh. Facing altitudes as high as 17,500 feet as well as some of the world's deepest gorges, Palin also passed through political flashpoints like Pakistan's remote north-west frontier, terrorist-torn Kashmir and the mountains of Nagaland, only recently open to visitors. They had a brush with the Maoists while filming in Nepal and advice from the Dalai Lama before crossing into Tibet. This book records the pleasure and pain of an extraordinary journey accompanied by the superb photogrpahs of Basil Pao. This is adventure at the very highest level.

Wednesday

Heaven by Virginia Andrews (I was a little surprised that I saw a few Virginia Andrews books this week!)

Open by Andre Agassi

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

Australian Citizenship book

This charming man by Marian Keyes

I, Alex Cross by James Patterson

Initially I was planning to post about the Australian Citizenship Book, because I am not sure if it is something that other countries have, but instead I am going to talk about the person who was reading I, Alex Cross by James Patterson.

I have talked briefly about my train friends a couple of times, but what started my connection with these people was books! I always read on the trains, and when there was only one or two of them by themselves they were reading, and one day I started chatting to one of the ladies about the book she was reading, and then since then, I started sitting and chatting with them (which is not actually all that conducive to reading but still). A couple of the girls aren't readers, but if I happen to get on the train and there is just one of the other readers, we might chat, but it is just as likely for one of us to say something along the lines of "I want to read today" and we quite happily sit there reading our books with only the occasional comments!

Thursday

This Charming Man by Marian Keyes - I quite often stand next to the girl who is reading this book. She has been reading it for a while now but she is nearly at the end!

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

The Serpent Bride by Sara Douglass

The Danger Game by Kalinda Ashton (This was a new to me author. Will have to check out more about this book at some point)

Picnic at Hanging Rock is an Australian classic, and was made into a movie a while ago by Australian Director Peter Weir. I read it in my pre blogging days, and still couldn't really tell you what happened to the girls. Here's the blurb:

On Saint Valentine`s day, 1900. a party of ninteen girls accompanied by two schoolmistresses sets off from a fashionable College for Young Ladies for a day`s outing at the spectacular volcanic mass called Hanging Rock. What begins as a pleasant and happy day out ends in inexplicable terror. The sinister implications of the events cannot be ignored, and Joan Lindsay traces the effects of this mysterious incident on the lives of the people involved.

Friday

I had a much shorter commute on Friday as I drove most of the way into the city because the boy had his cricket final on Friday night.

Frostbite by Rachelle Mead

Debt of Honour by Tom Clancy

Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert

Assegai by Wilbur Smith

I talked a bit before about how I hadn't read many travelogues recently. Another setting I haven't read much of lately is Africa (if you don't count the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books that is). I really enjoy reading big adventure stories, and I am pretty sure if I ever read a Wilbur Smith book I would like it! One day I will...maybe! I really should try and read more Beverly Harper too. I really liked the books I read by her, but haven't read any in a while! Here's the blurb for Assegai:

It is 1913 and ex-soldier turned professional big game hunter, Leon Courtney, is in British East Africa guiding rich and powerful men from America and Europe on safaris in the Masai tribe territories. One of his clients, German industrialist Count Otto Von Meerbach, has a company which builds aircraft and vehicles for the Kaiser’s burgeoning army. But Leon had not bargained for falling passionately in love with Eva, the Count’s beautiful and enigmatic mistress. Just prior to the outbreak of World War I, Leon is recruited by his uncle, Penrod Ballantyne, Commander of the British Forces in East Africa, to gather information from Von Meerbach. He stumbles on a plot against the British involving the disenchanted survivors of the Boer War, but it is only when Eva and Von Meerbach return to Africa that Leon finds out who and what is really behind the conspiracy.

So there you have it! My observations about the books that I saw other people reading on the train this week! I might do this again for another Sunday Salon post.

Edited to add: Muse in the Fog has started a Suddenly Sunday meme for people like me, who want to post on a Sunday but can't participate in Sunday Salon because it is now closed to new members. Check out all the details here

Book Blogger Hop

Jennifer from Crazy-for-Books has had a fabulous idea for a way to connect with more book bloggers. Here are the details:

Hey book bloggers!  Every day I seem to find another book blog that I start following.  In the spirit of the Friday Follow, I thought it would be cool to do a Book Blog Hop to give us all bookies a chance to connect and find new blogs that we may be missing out on!

Now, I follow a lot of blogs and I haven't seen this feature yet, so if someone else is doing a Book Blog Hop, please let me know!!  I don't want to step on any toes or anything!

So, if you'd like to participate, just repost this, sign MckLinky below, and check out other blogs in MckLinky!  Let's connect and make new book bloggy friends!!

I'll try to make a nifty graphic to go along with this, but give me another week to get that done!  :)

Head on over to Crazy-for-Books to sign up and see who else is participating. Of the people who are already signed up I only recognise a couple of them! The world of book blogging seems to be ever expanding and this would be a good way to find new like minded people!

As nervous as....

It's funny how you hear something for the first time, and then again very soon afterwards!

Today, I was listening to a skit on the radio and one of the characters said something was "as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs".

Less than half an hour later, I was reading my book on the train, and there was the saying again! I swear I hadn't heard it before that, and now, twice in one day!

Library Loot - March 3 to 9

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and me that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Eva has Mr Linky this week, so be sure to drop by and share the link to your loot!

The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey - I enjoy reading fiction set in Ireland so when I saw a giveaway of this book over at Celtic Lady's blog, I was quick to add it to my TBR list. Luckily for me, the library already had it on order, and so I am the first to read it! This will be my first read for the Ireland Reading Challenge.

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson - I can't remember where I first heard about this book, but it was a couple of years ago at least, and I have wanted to read it ever since! I have checked my library catalogue several times, but it was never there....until now!

The Crimson Rooms by Katherine McMahon - I liked The Alchemist's Daughter by this author, but wasn't so keen on The Rose of Sebastopol. Giving this author another go.

Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos - Really enjoyed Love Walked In, so was keen to get this book as soon as I saw it was in the library catalogue.

The King's Daughter by Christie Dickason (reloot)

Dreamy Days at the Hotel Existence by Powderfinger - My trip through the Powderfinger back catalogue continues. In addition to the album, this packaging included a DVD. Last week I shared the first single off of Powderfinger's latest album. This week I bring you a live version of one their older songs as featured on the DVD, These Days, with guest performers Missy Higgings, Nic Cester (from Jet) and indigenous performer Kev Carmody. Add in a location right near the Opera House with the bridge in the background and you have an awesome performance!

Teaser, erm, Wednesday

I know that I only just quoted from Terry Pratchett's Equal Rites for Teaser Tuesday, but he is just so good that I wanted to share two more quotes with you as examples of the reason why his writing is so good.

Esk, in fact, moved through the fair more like an arsonist moves through a hayfield or a neutron bounces through a reactor, poets notwishtanding, and the hypothetical watcher could have detected her random passage by tracing the outbreaks of hysteria and violence. But, like all good catalysts, she wasn't actually involved in the processes she initiated, and by the time all the non-hypothetical potential watchers took their eyes off them she had been buffeted elsewhere.

And,

It was also changing colour, starting with a dull read and then climbing through the spectrum until it was a painful violet. Snakes of white fire coruscated along its length.

(There should be a word for words that sound like things would sound like if they made a noise, he thought. The word "glisten" does indeed gleam oilily, and if there was ever a word that sounded exactly the way sparks look as they creep across burned paper, or the way lights of cities would creep across the world if the whole of human civilization was crammed into one night, then you couldn't do better than "coruscate".)

Teaser Tuesday - Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

Oh Terry Pratchett, how I love your humour, and for the most part your writing! This is the third book I am reading as part of the Terry Pratchett 2010 Reading Challenge that I am hosting. I loved the first half, but not quite so keen on the second half of the book. It didn't help that I got stuck on the train tonight and so there was lots of noise with everyone grumbling and so I kept on getting distracted.

My teaser comes from page 119:

Esk, of coursee, had not been trained, and it is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you're attempting to do can't be done. A person ignorant of the possiblity of failure can be a halfbrick in the path of the bicycle of history.

Teaser Tuesday is host by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!

Thaw Blogsplash

Ruth's diary is the new novel by Fiona Robyn, called Thaw. She has decided to blog the novel in its entirety over the next few months, so you can read it for free.

Ruth's first entry is below, and you can continue reading tomorrow here.

*******

These hands are ninety-three years old. They belong to Charlotte Marie Bradley Miller. She was so frail that her grand-daughter had to carry her onto the set to take this photo. It’s a close-up. Her emaciated arms emerge from the top corners of the photo and the background is black, maybe velvet, as if we’re being protected from seeing the strings. One wrist rests on the other, and her fingers hang loose, close together, a pair of folded wings. And you can see her insides.

The bones of her knuckles bulge out of the skin, which sags like plastic that has melted in the sun and is dripping off her, wrinkling and folding. Her veins look as though they’re stuck to the outside of her hands. They’re a colour that’s difficult to describe: blue, but also silver, green; her blood runs through them, close to the surface. The book says she died shortly after they took this picture. Did she even get to see it? Maybe it was the last beautiful thing she left in the world.

I’m trying to decide whether or not I want to carry on living. I’m giving myself three months of this journal to decide. You might think that sounds melodramatic, but I don’t think I’m alone in wondering whether it’s all worth it. I’ve seen the look in people’s eyes. Stiff suits travelling to work, morning after morning, on the cramped and humid tube. Tarted-up girls and gangs of boys reeking of aftershave, reeling on the pavements on a Friday night, trying to mop up the dreariness of their week with one desperate, fake-happy night. I’ve heard the weary grief in my dad’s voice.

So where do I start with all this? What do you want to know about me? I’m Ruth White, thirty-two years old, going on a hundred. I live alone with no boyfriend and no cat in a tiny flat in central London. In fact, I had a non-relationship with a man at work, Dan, for seven years. I’m sitting in my bedroom-cum-living room right now, looking up every so often at the thin rain slanting across a flat grey sky. I work in a city hospital lab as a microbiologist. My dad is an accountant and lives with his sensible second wife Julie, in a sensible second home. Mother finished dying when I was fourteen, three years after her first diagnosis. What else? What else is there?

Charlotte Marie Bradley Miller. I looked at her hands for twelve minutes. It was odd describing what I was seeing in words. Usually the picture just sits inside my head and I swish it around like tasting wine. I have huge books all over my flat; books you have to take in both hands to lift. I’ve had the photo habit for years. Mother bought me my first book, black and white landscapes by Ansel Adams. When she got really ill, I used to take it to bed with me and look at it for hours, concentrating on the huge trees, the still water, the never-ending skies. I suppose it helped me think about something other than what was happening. I learned to focus on one photo at a time rather than flicking from scene to scene in search of something to hold me. If I concentrate, then everything stands still. Although I use them to escape the world, I also think they bring me closer to it. I’ve still got that book. When I take it out, I handle the pages as though they might flake into dust.

Mother used to write a journal. When I was small, I sat by her bed in the early mornings on a hard chair and looked at her face as her pen spat out sentences in short bursts. I imagined what she might have been writing about; princesses dressed in star-patterned silk, talking horses, adventures with pirates. More likely she was writing about what she was going to cook for dinner and how irritating Dad’s snoring was.

I’ve always wanted to write my own journal, and this is my chance. Maybe my last chance. The idea is that every night for three months, I’ll take one of these heavy sheets of pure white paper, rough under my fingertips, and fill it up on both sides. If my suicide note is nearly a hundred pages long, then no-one can accuse me of not thinking it through. No-one can say; ‘It makes no sense; she was a polite, cheerful girl, had everything to live for’, before adding that I did keep myself to myself. It’ll all be here. I’m using a silver fountain pen with purple ink. A bit flamboyant for me, I know. I need these idiosyncratic rituals; they hold things in place. Like the way I make tea, squeezing the tea-bag three times, the exact amount of milk, seven stirs. My writing is small and neat; I’m striping the paper. I’m near the bottom of the page now. Only ninety-one more days to go before I’m allowed to make my decision. That’s it for today. It’s begun.

Continue reading tomorrow here...

TSS: February reading round up

This week's unofficial Sunday Salon post is my February reading round up, although I am still wondering how on earth can it possibly be the end of February already. I know it is a short month, but it really should still only be near the middle of the month, maybe the 21st, not the end of the month.

The biggest casualty of the fact that the end of the month is upon us is my LOTR Readalong book, The Fellowship of the Ring. My intention was to read 100 pages a week, but I am still stuck on page 160 having not read anything for a couple of weeks at least! And, I haven't even requested the next book from the library so it isn't like I would be ready for the next month's readalong anyway!

So, if I haven't been reading the Tolkien book, what have I been reading? This month I read 12 books, which is not bad, especially considering that two of those books were chunksters.

The books I read were:

If His Kiss Is Wicked by Jo Goodman (4.5/5)
Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex (4/5)
First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh (4/5)
A Distant Shore by Peter Yeldham (4.5/5)
Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander (3/5)
Graceling by Kristin Cashore (4.5/5)
Emma Vol 2 by Kaoru Mori (4/5)
Remember When by Nora Roberts/J D Robb
Roses by Leila Meacham (4.5/5)
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (5/5)
Betrayal of the Blood Lily by Lauren Willig (4/5)
Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland (4/5)

And how did I go with my challenges?

I had several books which covered multiple challenges this month. I love it when that happens! The book that I read for the Year of the Historical challenge was Jo Goodman's If His Kiss Is Wicked (excellent dialogue) also qualified for the Romance  Reading Challenge as did First Comes Marriage.

The books that I read for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge this month were Leonardo's Swans, Roses, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily and Mistress of the Sun. I am making good progress through the Historical Fiction Reading challenge having read 6 of the 20 books required to get to the Obsessed level of achievement. Karen Essex's Leonardo's Swans also qualified for the Tournament of Reads (just), and Mistress of the Sun for the French Historical Challenge.

I am happy to report that I am still doing okay on the Aussie Authors reading challenge. This month I read A Distant Shore by Peter Yeldham, and I am currently over half way through Lord Sunday by Garth Nix, the final book in the Keys to the Kingdom YA series.

So far I have read 27 books for the 100+ Reading challenge and 22 books for the Support Your Local Reading Challenge. I did notice that there is new reading challenge called 100 Books in a Year that is being hosted by Reading with Sea which runs from March 2010 to February 2011. I am still deciding whether to sign up or not for that challenge. It does seem to be a duplication 100+ challenge that I am already participating in, but covers a different period, so I might still sign up.

I made a start on the Chunkster Challenge this month by reading Roses by Leila Meacham and The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (excellent, excellent book). Roses also qualified for the Pub 2010 challenge.

I also read a book for the In Death Reading Challenge. Remember When is a bit of a strange book really. The first half of the book is written in the style of Nora Roberts, and the second half is J D Robb featuring Eve Dallas from the In Death books. Nora Roberts and J D Robb are the same person writing under different names but it was still a bit strange to read.

The challenges that I didn't make any progress on this month include the Harry Potter Reading Challenge, the Vampire Series Challenge (which I kind of surprising - a whole month without reading a vampire novel. I can't remember the last time that happened), the Tudor Book Challenge, the L J Smith reading challenge and also my own Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge. I am planning to put a post up for the Terry Pratchett Challenge this week. Actually, I have been planning that for a while now, but this week I will actually do it!


No progress on these challenges doesn't stop me from joining new challenges. This time I am joining Carrie at Books and Movies in her Ireland Reading Challenge. It runs from February to November and I am planning to meet the Luck O' the Irish level of achievement by reading 4 novels that are either set in Ireland, written by Irish authors or involving Irish history or Irish characters

Sign of the times?

I was driving around various places in the car today, when this song, Send Me an Angel by Real Life came on. As I tend to do, I start singing along. About halfway through the song my son asked me what the words are.

Send me an angel
Send me an angel
Right now
Right now

Ohhh, says the boy. I thought it was saying send me an email right now.



I have no idea if I knew this back in 1983, but I certainly didn't realise now that this was an Aussie band so I have no idea how many people would even know this song. Given that I have been singing it all night, it is only fair to share!

Alphabet in Historical Fiction: F is for French

Not F for French as in someone from France, but F for French, as in Jackie French, who is a very prolific Australian YA author! She writes all sorts of novels, including some adult novels, YA historical fiction, straight YA novels, non fiction and picture books. And that adds up to good news for me as I work my way slowly through at least some of her backlist!

I am going to post about my impressions of The Night They Stormed Eureka by Jackie French.


Here is the book blurb:

It's 1854 and, on the Ballarat goldfields, men are willing to risk their lives to find freedom and make their fortunes in the mine.

Sam, a homeless teenager, is called back to the past to join the Puddlehams, who run 'the best little cook shop on the diggings'. The Puddlehams dream of buying a hotel with velvet seats, while others dream of freedom from the government with its corrupt officials and brutal soldiers.

As the summer days get hotter, and the miners' protests are ignored with catastrophic results, Sam experiences first-hand the power of a united stand, which will change her life forever.

Jackie French's fresh look at an event entrenched in our nation heritage will touch and surprise every reader.

First an introduction. I had heard of Jackie French, but must confess that I often would get her confused with an Australian actress called Jackie Weaver. Last year, I participated in Book Smugglers YA Appreciation month, and asked for recommendations for YA historical fiction, and for YA by Australian authors. It must have been while I was visiting other participants that I discovered that Jackie French who met both criteria, and so I had to request a book from the library catalogue by her!

What I didn't realise when I first requested the book, is that this was actually a time travel novel. When we first meet Sam, she is a very unhappy, lonely teenage runaway. She is hiding in the cemetery and finds herself curled up on a gravestone of a couple called the Puddlehams. When she wakes up, she finds herself in a very different time and place - the Victorian Goldfields during the 1850s.

The goldfields are no place for a young girl, and Sam soon finds herself pretending to be a boy, and being taken under the wing of Mr and Mrs Puddleham. Mr Puddleham used to be a butler for Queen Victoria before he followed Mrs Puddleham to Australia. They quickly realised that they wouldn't make their fortune by panning for gold, but rather that they could make enough money to follow their dreams by running a cookshop on the diggings, or rather, the best cookshop on the diggings.

Sam is soon drafted in to help in the cookshop, and soon begins to make friends - not only with the Puddlehams, but also with the eccentric former professor, and a local half-caste boy. She finds it difficult to equate some of the things that happen to her friends with her 21st century experience.

The goldfields were a very volatile place with corruption and violence rife, and with tensions rising, it was only a matter of time before there would be trouble. Sam knows what tragedy is coming, and she hopes to keep those that she loves from being caught up. With the principles of freedom and justice at stake though, it is difficult and Sam finds herself at the encampment as the time approaches for the confrontation between the miners and the authorities.

The Eureka Stockade is one of the iconic events of Australian history. Whilst the actual stockade wasn't a success, the events that occurred there were the catalyst for change that helped build the foundations of Australian society particularly in terms of the right for non land owners to vote (just the men at this point). It was also where the Eureka flag was used for the first time as a banner to rally around. Even today, the Eureka flag is used by some of the trade unions as a symbol.

Whilst Sam brings us a bird's eye view of the events that lead up to the Eureka Stockade, she is also learning valuable life lessons like being able to ask for help when you need it, and about learning to love, and to accept love from others, but not without having to deal with sorrow along the way.

I definitely intend to read more from Jackie French. I am starting with a series about animals being present at major events in history. The first book in that series, The Goat Who Travelled the World is on my TBR pile to get to soon, and is about a goat that travels with the First Fleet to Australia (or New South Wales as it was known then).

Not only does this book qualify as my read for this letter in the Alphabet in Historical Fiction, it also qualifies as one of my reads for the Aussie Author Challenge, the Year of the Historical Challenge, and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

Rating: 4/5

Library Loot - February 25 to March 3

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and me that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

It is awesome to see how many people are sharing their loot with us on a regular basis! If you would like to share your loot this week, leave your link in Mr Linky below:






My library catalogue is down, so I can't check to be 100% sure that I haven't forgotten anything I borrowed, but I am pretty sure I only picked up items once this week, and those items were:

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake - I love reading books that are set against a background of war, so when I first heard about this book, it was added to my TBR list immediately. It has taken my library a while to get it in, but it finally arrived!

Fire by Kristin Cashmore - I read Graceling by this author a few weeks ago. I have heard that this book is even better so I am excited at the prospect of reading it!

Golden Rule by Powderfinger- I was little late coming to Powderfinger, but I do enjoy listening to them now. Their early albums were released when I was overseas. I have no idea whether they have made it big outside of Australia or not. This is their latest album.

Just for fun, here is the video for All of the Dreamers, the first single off of Golden Rule.

Teaser Tuesday - Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland

I am glad to be FINALLY reading this book! I borrowed it originally about 18 months ago, and then never actually managed to read it. Since then I have borrowed it again, and again, and again, but each time I couldn't quite get around to reading it. This week I had to return some books and as I was looking at my list I thought there was no way I could return and reborrow this book again, so this one stayed and the others went back!

This week's teaser comes from page 235 of Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland:

The eight young men - all from fine families - would be tried and condemned. They had found the means to flee (such was their privilege), but upon sentence of death they would never be able to set foot in the country again.

Teaser Tuesday is host by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!

TSS: Reading Chunksters

This week I found myself reading two chunksters at the same time.

Maybe I should explain the word found. In order to keep track of my library books, I keep a spreadsheet which tells me how many renewals I have left for each book, along with what date the books are due back (yes, I know I am a nerd. I have several other spreadsheets that I could tell you about too, but I won't!)  It just so happened that the two books I was reading were due back within two days of each other and so I ended up reading them both at the same time.

I love reading chunksters. There's just something about a really big book that I just love, and this started when I was really very young. I remember being very proud of myself when I was 6 or 7 and I had read The Wind in the Willows all by myself. In my memory the book was very thick, but I realise now that it probably had very big writing, or a lot of pictures because when I looked at a copy a while ago it really wasn't all that long but to my child's eye it was a massive tome!

Fast forward to my late teens, once I started working I would go to the bookshop at least once a week (usually more often)  and I would often choose books to buy based on how big they were. Authors such as Nelson DeMille, James Michener, John Jakes and Noel Barber (all of whom I am intending to read again some day were on my list to buy). Move forward another 15 years and more chunkster authors like Diana Gabaldon and Paullina Simons have joined the list.

Looking at my pile of books to be read and there are quite a few big thick books that are waiting to be picked up, although I don't think that I pick up books that often any more just because they are huge. I am more likely to pick a book because I have heard good things about it, and it just happens to be a chunkster, or because they are authors who I have read previously. Even without going out of my way to find chunksters, enough still find me to be able to having completed the Chunkster Challenge for the last few years, and these two books give me a good start for this year's challenge.

I know that not everyone loves big books, but I do! How about you? Do you like chunksters or do you avoid them? Does a chunkster strike fear in your heart or excitement?

If you would like to see which books I was reading this week then check out my Teaser Tuesday post.

Lessons in French by Laura Kinsale

He's always been trouble...

Trevelyan and Callie are childhood sweethearts with a taste for adventure, until the fateful day her father discovers them embracing in the carriage house and, in a furious frenzy, drives Trevelyan away in disgrace...


Exactly the kind of trouble she's never been able to resist...

Nine long, lonely years later, Trevelyan returns. Callie discovers that he can still make her blood race and fill her life with excitement, but he can't give her the one thing she wants more than anything—himself.

For Trevelyan, Callie is a spark of light in a world of darkness and deceit. Before he can bear to say his last goodbyes, he's determined to sweep her into one last, fateful adventure, just for the two of them.

There was great excitement when it was announced that Laura Kinsale had a new book coming out this year. I was pleased because she is a big name in historical romance circles in particular, but personally I wasn't truly excited mainly because I have only read one of her books previously, albeit one of the classics - Flowers from the Storm. I am thinking that I am going to be more excited when we get news of the next book from Laura Kinsale, and now it is my intention to read through as much of her backlist as possible.

Lady Callie Tallefaire is the daughter of a duke, but at the age of 27, and having been jilted by fiances three times, she is resigned to the fact that she is never going to be married. Her cousin is now the duke, and his insufferable wife duchess, and Callie is waiting for the day when her younger sister marries so that she can move out with them. Callie is somewhat unique amongst her class. She is a lady, but she is also intensely passionate about her animals, in particular her prize bull, Hubert.

As youngsters, Callie was often caught up in escapades and adventures with her neighbour, Trevelyn d'Augustin. Trevelyn is a French emigre whose family escaped from The Terror with little more than the clothes on their back. However, when Callie and Trevelyn are caught in a somewhat intimate situation by her father, Trev is banished, returning to France ostensibly to try to regain his family's lands.

After ten years, Trev has returned, and he is completely surprised to find that Callie is not yet married with children, and finds that the feelings that he once had for her are not as dead as he thought. Trev has returned to visit his sick mother, but in so many ways he is not anything like he initially seemed. I am very much a hero-centric romance reader, and in this book I was not disappointed. Gradually we get to know the man that Trev has become as a result of the life he has experienced, and it is fair to say that he hasn't been living an elegant, or gentlemanly, life while he has been away.

Being the unmarried cousin to the current duke means that Callie is subject to the whims of her cousin and his wife. She is devastated when she finds out that he has sold her prize bull to one of her former suitors, Major Sturgeon, just before she is about to exhibit Hubert at the local show. It is to Trev that she turns in her despair, and there begins a series of misadventures featuring the two of them.

There is a definite sexual chemistry between Trev and Callie, but there is an underlying feeling of yearning, particular on Trev's part. He is a man used to thinking on his feet. His plans quite often don't necessarily work out as he intended, but he improvises as necessary, with often funny results, particularly as he leads Callie into some unlikely situations.

He is ,however, not what he seems, and neither Callie or his mother have any idea of exactly what is going on in his life until the very end of the novel. If there is a weakness with this novel, it is the ending. Suddenly we find out exactly how dangerous it is for Trev to have returned to England to see his ailing mother, and for him to remain there because of his attachment to Callie, and also some explanation of why Callie has been so unlucky in love for all these years. All's well that ends well I guess.

I loved how unusual some of Trev's past experiences have been and how they have influenced him, and I loved how certain he was in his feelings for Callie. Yes, he may have been tempted to walk away from Callie, but not because he didn't love her, but because he did love her and he knew what her life may have been had she stuck with him.

Callie wasn't quite as well defined for me. Whilst so many romance heroines are described as spirited (particularly the red haired ones who are so prevalent in historical romances) often they can be a bit too modern, or a bit too clever. There's no doubt that Callie was intelligent, and she did have unusual interests for a woman of her time, but she did still seem to fit her time in terms of setting.

This novel is a welcome return from Laura Kinsale, and one that I enjoyed very much. Whilst the story was funny (with a touch of slapstick at times) and somewhat light, there were also well developed characters with interesting back stories, and plenty of depth lying just under the surface waiting to be discovered.

This is my first read for the 2010 Pub Challenge, and also counts for my Romance Reading challenge.

Thanks to Sourcebooks for sending me a copy of this book for review.

Rating: 4.5/5

Library Loot - February 18 to 25

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and me that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

This week's Library Loot could be subtitled "The Romance Edition" as I seem to have got most of the romances that I had requested all come in on hold at once!

Eva is back from hiatus and will have the Mr Linky this week.

Here's my loot for this week:

A Notorious Love by Sabrina Jeffries - I am now at the point with Sabrina Jeffries where I have read all of the complete series that the library has, and now I am just working my way through the bits and pieces. After that I will have to try and find the books that are missing!

The Truth About Lord Stoneville by Sabrina Jeffries - Luckily while I am working through the backlist that my library has, they are still ordering the new books that she comes out with. This is the first book in the newest series.

Emma Vol 3 by Kaoru Mori - This is the next book in the Emma manga series.

Summer Knight by Jim Butcher - Book number 5 in the Harry Dresden series.

A Duke of Her Own by Eloisa James - Next book in the Desperate Duchess series.

Lonely Planet: Rarotonga & The Cook Islands - I am planning to take a trip next year. It will be the first time I have been out of Australia for 11 and a half years by then, and I will so be ready for an overseas holiday. I am thinking about a South Pacific island somewhere, and one of my friends has good things to say about Cook Islands so I am starting to have a look and see if that might be somewhere for my friends and I to go.

I also ended up buying a couple of books for 10 cents each tonight. There was no way I could walk past the table of books for sale and leave an Elizabeth Chadwick book there, even though I have already read it, or a Dorothy Dunnett book, which I may never read! So now I need to find room for Children of Destiny and To Lie with Lions on my bookshelf!