Monday, August 31, 2009

Mailbox Monday

Visit Marcia every Monday at The Printed Page to share what arrives in your mailbox each week.

I received one book this week. I have drastically cut down on requesting ARC's and entering giveaways.


Since Alzheimer's runs in my family, I thought this would be a good book to read.

Thanks to Denise Poon , Publicist for Creative Streamline.

Posted by Teddy Rose at 10:34 PM 10 comments  

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Sunday, August 30, 2009

The World of What If by Sheramy Bundrick



Suppose you’re an art historian, and you write nonfiction. Suppose you’re studying Vincent van Gogh, and you know that he was acquainted with a prostitute named Rachel in 1888 Provence. That for some reason he cut off part of his ear and gave it to her. Who was this girl? How well did Vincent know her? Was he just a customer, or was their relationship something more? If you’re writing nonfiction, you can only go so far, then you have to stop. Ultimately you must admit that neither you nor anyone else will ever know the truth of Vincent and Rachel.


But if you’re writing a novel — if you’re writing historical fiction — “we’ll never know” quickly transforms into “what if?” The doors that seemed closed can be thrown wide open, your imagination can roam freely, and the mysteries big and small that make scholars shrug can become your blank canvas. I’m an art historian by trade and a longtime van Gogh fangirl, and one day, after an evocative visit to Auvers-sur-Oise in France (where Vincent is buried), I thought to myself “what if?” What if Vincent was hiding something from his brother Theo all those months in Provence? What if Rachel and Vincent were more than just prostitute and customer? What if ... ?


I spent many months writing Sunflowers, during which I immersed myself in Vincent’s artwork, his letters, and the plethora of van Gogh scholarship. I stood before his paintings in museums; I traveled to France and the Netherlands and walked in his footsteps. Historical novelists, for all their freedom and what-if’ing, still have an enormous responsibility, especially when writing about an actual historical figure. I couldn’t just change the facts of Vincent’s life on a whim to suit my plot, and I needed to build the fictional story on a solid historical framework. Luckily there was no shortage of research to work with: we know the ground plan and measurements of Vincent’s famous yellow house in Arles, the sites of most paintings he painted and where he must have been standing, even the weather on specific days he was out working. Yet there is plenty we don’t know — and that’s where “what if” came into play. I admit, sometimes I wondered if what I was imagining could have actually happened!

It’s a magical thing, “what if.” For a historical novelist, it might be the most powerful phrase in our arsenal of words — it’s our Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, our Open Sesame. It leads us places we never expected, and hopefully, it brings our readers along for the ride.


Sunflowers is Sheramy Bundrick’s first novel and will be released on 13 October 2009 from Avon-A/HarperCollins.

Posted by Teddy Rose at 10:50 PM 2 comments  

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Saturday, August 29, 2009

China Challenge!

September 1, 2009-September 1, 2010

Jennie of Biblio File is hosting this challenge to learn more about China.

Here's what she says about it:
We hear about China all the time in the news. It has one of the richest and longest literary histories in the world. It's a huge and changing country, and there are a million books out there to enjoy. In order to help us understand China, join the China Challenge!

Okay, I know I am in too many challenges but I have to do this one. Besides, there are many different levels of participation and I plan to do the easiest one:

Armchair Traveler: Read 1 book about China. I'm defining this pretty loosely, but the majority of the action should take place in China. For the sake of ease, places such as Hong Kong, Macau, Tibet, and Taiwan count.



See, easy! In fact it's so easy that I think some of you, my blogging friends should join the challenge. Come on, you know you want to. All you have to do is click on the lanterns about to go to the challenge.
I haven't decided which book I will be reading for this yet but I'll update this post when I decide.

Here's what I will read:

Our Hart: Elegy for a Concubine by Lloyd Lofthouse

Posted by Teddy Rose at 7:52 PM 14 comments  

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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Portland, Oregon Book Bloggers Retreat

Last weekend I attended the first ever Portland Book Bloggers Retreat. Bloggers from Northern California, Washington, Oregon and Canada met up. (Okay, I was the only Canadian).

On Friday August 21st we met up for dinner and drinks. Then we had a full day on Saturday.

First we got a tour of Powells , the largest independent new and used bookstores in the world. This is my favorite book store! When ever I'm in Portland I go to Powells! I had never seen the rare books section before and we got a tour of that as well. The biggest highlight there, was Lewis and Clark’s journal with a copy of their original map tucked in the back (and worth about $35,000). Such a treat!


From left to right: (Suzi) of Whimpulsive, Gabe of Reading Local., Wendy of Caribousmom, Gilion from Rose City Reader, Ali from Worducopia, Kristen from We Be Reading, Me, of course, Bethany of Dreadlock Girl, and Trish of Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’?


Pictures above: Front and back of a post card from Alex Ginsburg to Bill Burroughs, dated 1965.

After lunch we went to the Multnomah County Library for a tour of their rare books Collection. My photos of most of the books didn't turn out to well, so I am only going to post a couple here. However, click on the links to the other bloggers who attended for more cool pictures of rare books!


Pictures above: the first and original Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter.


Bloggers with Author Molly Gloss. From Left: Bethany of Dreadlock Girl, (back) Gabe of Reading Local, Ali from Worducopia, Me, Molly Gloss, Kristen from We Be Reading, Wendy of Caribousmom, and Trish of Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’?

We also met with local author Molly Gloss. It was a fun filled hour chatting with her about her books, other books, blogging, etc.

On Sunday I made the 6 hour drive back home.

This was a wonderful experience, especially meeting some of my favorite book bloggers! I hope we get to do it again!

Posted by Teddy Rose at 10:14 PM 17 comments  

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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Awards Round up

I have received these lovely awards over the summer. My apologies for my lateness in posting these. It has been wild summer.


Thanks to Wanda of A Season to Read!

This is what she said: "Five blogs and their authors that continually keep me coming back for more."

A Season to Read and Wanda keeps me coming back for more, so the feeling is mutual. Go check her out!

Thanks to Yvonne of Socrates' Book Reviews!

This award means my blog is:
B: Beautiful
I: Informative
N: Neighborly
G: Gorgeous
O: Outstanding

Wow, what an honour. If you haven't visited Yvonne of Socrates' Book Reviews, what are you waiting for? Your in for a treat.

Thanks to Julie of Julie's Jewels!

Eleni @ /-LA FEMME READERS-/ made this award & here is what she said about this special award:

"I made the Humane Award in order to honor certain bloggers that I feel are kindhearted individuals. They regularly take part in my blog and always leave the sweetest comments. If it wasn't for them, my site would just be an ordinary book review blog. Their blogs are also amazing and are tastefully done on a daily basis. I thank them and look forward to our growing friendships through the blog world."

Thanks to Linda of Bambi Reads!

Here's what she said:

"I'm new to book blogging, therefore so many book bloggers are new to me, but I can only choose 10. =( I find many of them are deserving of an award and even though some may have this award already), I'll nominate them still."

Thanks to Michelle of Master Musings by Michelle!

Here's what she said:

I've got to give a shout-out to my favorite bloggers, the ones who got me started on this and encouraged me and provided me support when I was just starting out (okay, I'm still a blogging newbie compared to them, but I'm getting better).

Your doing a great job Michelle! You go girl!

Posted by Teddy Rose at 9:23 PM 5 comments  

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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

BBAW Nominations: Thank You!

Last year, I didn't get nominated for any categories however, this year I have been nominated in three different categories!

Best History/Historical Blog
Most Eclectic Taste
Most Extravagant Giveaways

Wow, what an honour! Thanks so much to those who took the time nominated So Many Precious Books and some of the other fabulous book blogs out there! It really means a lot even if I don't win. Actually, I disqualified myself from Most Eclectic Taste, since I read mostly Historical Fiction and Literary Fiction. I think that there are other book blogs that are much more eclectic.

Thanks again!

Posted by Teddy Rose at 10:34 PM 11 comments  

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Elizabeth Chadwick Week at Histiorical Tapestry

This week is being held as a celebration for the fact that on 1 September The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick is going to be released in the US by Sourcebooks. There have been many readers who have already discovered how great Elizabeth Chadwick's books are, but they have been very hard for US readers to get hold of in the past. With the release of The Greatest Knight, there are many readers of historical fiction who will get their chance to discover for themselves how enjoyable her books are.

For Alex, Ana and Marg, Elizabeth Chadwick is already one of our favourite authors! We are working on Kailana and Teddy, and hope that this week will whet their appetites enough to entice them to try her books, and hopefully to entice some of you, the loyal readers of Historical Tapestry as well!

During this week there are going to be reviews, a couple of guest posts including one from Elizabeth herself as part of The Greatest Knight blog tour, an interview with Elizabeth Chadwick and much more. There will also be a giveaway.

Go check it out at Historical Tapestry!

Posted by Teddy Rose at 10:09 PM 2 comments  

Monday, August 24, 2009

Giveaway Winners

Thanks to Valerie of Hachette Books for all 3 of these giveaways possible!

Everyone, please accept my apologies for not getting the results out sooner!


The 5 winners of the Summer Beach Bag of Books are:

Nfmgirl (alredy won)
Throuthehaze
Karen B.
Jemima
Leann
Ann Marie

Congratulations! I emailed all five of you, please contact me within 3 days to claim your prize.

The 2 winners of The Lost Dog are:

Marjorie(already won)
Nelsby
Jake

Congratulations! I emailed both of you, please contact me within 3 days to claim your prize.

The 2 Winners of The Blue Star are:

Linda
Beth(already won)
Marie

Congratulations! I emailed both of you, please contact me within 3 days to claim your prize.

Posted by Teddy Rose at 9:38 PM 9 comments  

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Reminder: Bookworms Carnival Edition 36: Historical Fiction



I will be hosting the Bookworms Carnival in September with the theme of Historical Fiction. I have receive3d some wonderful submissions for it but I would love more. I hoping to include book reviews, author interviews and/or guest posts, and articles about Historical Fiction. If you have any of the above that you would like to submit for the Carnival, please email me. My email address is in my profile. Don't by shy, submit something today. The deadline for submissions is August 28, so don't delay.

Posted by Teddy Rose at 11:14 PM 8 comments  

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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

My Trip to Edmonton, Alberta- Part Two: Edmonton Folk Music Festival

The festival was for 5 days and there was so much excellent music. Bill and I tried to capture it as best we could with pictures. However, the photos below is just a small representation of all of the artists that were there.















Tracy Chapman. Her voice and as you can see from this photo, her looks have not changed.















Sarah Mclachlan. Unfortunletly we were not able to get a very good phot of her but trust me, her performance was outstanding.
















The audience. This photo doesn't reflect the candle light very well. The audience was huge and spaned up an ampatheatre hill.
















Kathleen Edwards: If you haven't heard her do a search and listen to her. She has an incredible voice.
















Steve Earle: another great.















Boz Scaggs: He's still at it! Great performance.















Do you remember The Maveriks?

This is none other than Raul Malo, the lead singer fron the Grammy winning group. Wow, he can still belt them out!














Raul Malo and myself.
















The Skydiggers and myself.
















This last phot was the biggest treat for me!

Remember Jefferson Airplaine? Sure all you fellow baby boomers do. LOL!

This is me with non- ther than, Jack Casady (right) and Jorma Kaukonen (left). They have been in the group Hot Tuna for 40 years now. When Jefferson Airplaine was together, they played in both bands.

Posted by Teddy Rose at 10:02 PM 13 comments  

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Sunday, August 16, 2009

My Trip to Edmonton, Alberta- Part one: Darlene

One of the biggest highlights of the trip was meeting Darlene of Peeking Between the Pages! There are several fellow bloggers that I would love to meet and Dar was at the top of my list.

We met for coffee and hit it off right away, like we were old friends. We found out that we have more than books in common. Darlene is as warm,friendly, and as genuine in person as she is on her blog! I LOVED meeting with Darlene, in fact this was my favorite part of the entire trip! I can't wait until we can meet again! I'm hoping for next year. Hey Dar, maybe I can meet Buddy, the next time too. Hugs!

Posted by Teddy Rose at 10:24 PM 16 comments  

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The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist



This book takes place in Sweden, sometime in the near future. Dorret just turned 50 and must give up her home and dog and be taken to the Reserve Bank Unit for Biological Material. All women at the age of 50 and men at the age of 60, who are deemed not needed by society much go to the Unit. You are considered dispensable if you don't have children and / or don't contribute greatly to economic growth.

Dorret is picked up in front of her home and brought along, with other dispensables , to the Unit. They are warmly greeted by staff and others that live there and shown to their apartments. Everyone on the Unit have their very own apartment complete with kitchenette. Later that day there is a welcome party, where Dorret and the other new people meet more of the other dispensables.

The new people get to have 4 days to get use to the Unit and take advantage of all of the luxury amenities before they must go to the lab to be given full physicals and orientation to what is expected of them. Soon they will become human lab animals and be enrolled in different studies and lab experiments. Eventually they with have to donate their organs to those deemed needed.

Dorret is lucky that she like physical exercise so much. In her first study all she has to do is exercise for 4 hours per day. She doesn't have to take drugs or be exposed to chemicals etcetera. She also meets a fellow writer, Johnnas who she knew from the outside. They start dating and fall in love. She soon is resigned to her fate. However, as time passes and occurrences happen, she no longer feels content.

The night before Dorret's first donation, a kidney she is quite scarred. Johnnas tries to comfort her and tells her that he is getting along fine with one kidney. She recovers from the surgery and then goes on to the next experiment. She had to take a pill three times per day. Luckily she was given a placebo because all the others who were given the real thing were permanently brain damaged and sent for their final donations.

I enjoyed this book. The translation to English is smooth and the writing is quite flood yet simple. I have two complaints however. The first is a small one. IMO, Holmqvist used to many similes. They felt quite contrived to me.

The other problem I have with the book is that , Holmqvist doesn't describe what is happening around the rest of the world. Do all countries have this policy that makes people at a certain age and status become dispensable and therefore, get turned into biological material. Could Dorret flee to another country before her 50th birthday and be allowed to live out her natural life?

Despite my problems with the book, I am glad I read it. It would make a great book club book and great for an ethics debate. It is an enjoyable, yet horrifying dystopian story.

3.5/5

Thanks to Tony Viardo of Blue Dot Literary for a copy of this book.

Posted by Teddy Rose at 5:39 PM 7 comments  

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Monday, August 3, 2009

More Vacation

My husband will be back on the road again in about 10 hours time. This time, were heading to the Edmonton Folk Music Festival.

We'll be back on August 11th.

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer and I will see you soon.

Posted by Teddy Rose at 9:05 PM 6 comments  

The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner

Juana, daughter of Queen Isabel & King Ferdinand of Spain was raised to be a pawn. She was betrothed as a toddler to Philip of Flanders, heir to the Hapsburg throne, to improve political alliances with Spain.

At 16 she was sent with her attendants to Flanders, to marry Philip. She did not want to go but knew it was her duty. Once she met Philip and saw how handsome he was, she fell in love with him. Their first years together were romantic and happy one's. Juana had a daughter and then a son, which made Philip very happy.

Juana was given an education, as a child she was raised to be a good wife and to gently persuade her husband to agree with Spain on issues that may arise. However, after a few year of wedded bliss, Juana's brother and the sister and nephew died. She was next in succession to the Spanish throne.

Though she was not raised to be Queen, she knew it was her duty. However, this created a power struggle with her husband. She also had to struggle with other men of power to take her rightful place as Queen.

This is an enthralling story of greed, lust, power, loyalty, and friendship. C.W. Gorther keeps the story going in perfect pitch! His vivid re-telling of the last Queen of Spain is quite believable and you can tell he really did his research to keep historical facts accurate.

I could not put this book down and it kept me up into the wee hours of the morning. I highly recommend this wonderful book. If you love historical fiction, you must read this book!

5/5

This trailer For The Last Queen is really good. There is some good backround information. Check it out:


Posted by Teddy Rose at 8:57 PM 20 comments  

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Mailbox Monday


Visit Marcia every Monday at The Printed Page to share what arrives in your mailbox each week.

I won this from Reading the Past. Thanks Sarah!








Thanks to author Deborah A. Williams for a copy of this book for review.





I won this from The Bluestocking Society, Thanks Jessica!








The Inconvenient Adventures of Uncle Chestnut

Thanks to author Paul Nowark for a copy of this book for review.






Giv: The Story of a Dog and America

Thanks to Bostick Communications for a copy of this book for review.






Too Too Many Tutus


Thanks to author Suzanne Davis Marion for a copy of this book for review.






The Wet Nurse's Tale


I received this ARC through Shelf Awareness.



Posted by Teddy Rose at 6:00 AM 12 comments  

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Sunday, August 2, 2009

Short Story Monday: Too Too Many Tutus by Suzanne Davis Marion, Illustrated by Marj Hales



Christina had to put on a Tutu to get ready for her ballet class but she couldn't decide on which one to where. She had too too many tutus. She had one in just about every colour imaginable. She asked her mom which one to wear and the reply was go ask her dad. Her dad was no help and told her to choose for herself.

Her big brother Max was some help as he told her to lay them all out together to choose. She laid them all out on her bed and looked at each one. In the end her mother gave her a brilliant idea and Christina made a choice.

This would be a great book for children who are learning colours. It could also be a good counting book by counting all of the different tutus. It is a nicely written books with vibrant illustrations.

If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays or just find out about some great short stories, go to John of The Book Mine Set. He has a short story review every Monday and a place for you to link your short story reviews. Come join in the fun!

Posted by Teddy Rose at 10:11 PM 2 comments  

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Saturday, August 1, 2009

2009 Calgary Folk Music Festival

Here are some highlights of our trip to Calgary, Alberta for the Folk Music Festival. It was very hot but we had a great time!

This is a bus stop in downtown Calgary. Cows are big business there!






This is Justin Rutledge we saw him a few years ago at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. It was good to see him again live.
Give him a listen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubxxjs7bGGA


Thursday and Friday Bill and I lined up early to get good seats. There was not suppose to be any running however, many people ran ahead of us and we are not good runners.
On Saturday I got smart! I went toward the back of the line looking for younger people and told them that they could join us in line by the front if they would run our tarp. They gladly accepted and we were in the 4th row center! Thanks again!


We love Sarah Harmer! Give her a listen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN2TL59FCQg




Yes, you guessed it, this is Glen Cambell! Can you believe how great he looks at age 73?
We aren't big fans but we did grow up with him by seeing him on TV lots. He's an icon and it was fun to see him!



(Left to right)Meet Tom Wilson of Lee Harvey Osmond, Alejandro Escovedo, and my self.
I hadn't heard of either of these guys before the festival but they are awesome. I especially fell in love with Alejandro.
Here's a sample of Harvey Lee Osmand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I1hu_mAvqA

Here's Alejandro Escovedo with Bruce Springsteen (heaven!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwZbc6aJT40

Our next trip, were off to Edmonton, Alberta for the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. We are leaving in the wee hours of the morning, this Tuesday August 4th. Well be gone one week.

Posted by Teddy Rose at 11:55 AM 5 comments  

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