Tuesday, September 14, 2010

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell

Set on the Island of f Dejima in Japan in the early 19th century, Jacob De Zoet was trying to make a name for himself. Jacob has come all the way from Holland as a young clerk in the hopes of making his fortune. The plan was to go back to Holland to his fiancée and marry her with the approval of her wealthy father.


While on Dejima, Jacob has a chance encounter with Ortio Aibagawa, a midwife who was granted permission to learn medicine under the tutelage of Dr. Marinus. It is very rare to see a Japanese woman unless she is a prostitute. Jacob becomes infatuated with her.

The first chapter of the book grabbed me and wouldn't let me go. It was of a childbirth that Ortio was midwife for. The child appeared to be dead but Ortio breathed life into him. It's too bad that the next 130 pages didn't hold my interest much. They were about the day to day business of Jacob as a clerk. To me they were boring and at times, hard to understand. I felt like I needed to have an interest in Jacob's job as a clerk, to understand what was going on. Historically, it seemed quite accurate but painfully boring to me.

When Ortio was brought back onto the pages, the story picked up again for me. She ended up in a horrific place that I had to see resolved. That is what kept me reading this book. It was these parts of the book that made me fall in love with David Mitchell's writing.

I have had David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Black Swan Green on my "to be read" list for a very long time. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet is the first book I have read by him but certainly won't be the last.

3.5/5

Thanks to Good Reads and David Ebershoff of Random House for an advance readers copy of this book.

Also reviewed by:














S is for the ship that Jacob De Zoet sailed on from Holland, Shenandoah and for the horrific place Ortio ended up at, The House of Sisters, Mount Shiranui Shrine.


David Mitchell is coming to the 2010 Vancouver Writers and Readers Festival.  He will be at four different events at the festival.  I will be seeing him at event #53, Japaning and event #62 The Sunday Brunch.  If your going to be in Vancouver, come join the fun!

Posted by Teddy Rose at 8:57 PM 6 comments  

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Sunday, September 12, 2010

Missives from Possible Futures #1, Alternate History Search Results by John Scalzi


About the photo.  Apparently John Scalzi likes to alter his likeness in photos to amuse himself.  This is one of those photos. 

In a way, the photo is a good representation of what this story is about.  The story is actually written as an advertisement to customers of "Multiversity", interested in alternative history.  All the customer needs to do is tell the company what alternative history she/he would like and they get a fully researched report.

They use the death of Adolf Hitler in the sample scenarios.  For instance the first sample scenario is "Adolf Hitler is Killed by Mugging on the Steps of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna."  The results and scenarios get get more crazy as the story progresses.  It's really a fun story and has made me want to read more by John Scalzi.  You can read the story, here.

Also reviewed by:
The Book Mine Set

If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays, 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 review. Come join in the fun!

Posted by Teddy Rose at 10:00 PM 3 comments  

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Winner: THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN by Garth Stein

Thanks again to Sarah Daily of Terra Communications for making this giveaway of this book possible.

The Winner is:

Susan

Congratulations!  I emailed you.  Please respond within two days to claim your prize.

Posted by Teddy Rose at 5:47 PM 1 comments  

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Friday, September 10, 2010

Giveaway: OOGY By Larry Levin

Thanks toAnna Balasi of Hachette Books, I am giving away up to three copies of this book.

Book Description:

In the bestselling tradition of Rescuing Sprite comes the story of a puppy brought back from the brink of death, and the family he adopted.

In 2002, Larry Levin and his twin sons, Dan and Noah, took their terminally ill cat to the Ardmore Animal Hospital outside Philadelphia to have the beloved pet put to sleep. What would begin as a terrible day suddenly got brighter as the ugliest dog they had ever seen--one who was missing an ear and had half his face covered in scar tissue--ran up to them and captured their hearts. The dog had been used as bait for fighting dogs when he was just a few months old. He had been thrown in a cage and left to die until the police rescued him and the staff at Ardmore Animal Hospital saved his life. The Levins, whose sons are themselves adopted, were unable to resist Oogy's charms, and decided to take him home.

Heartwarming and redemptive, OOGY is the story of the people who were determined to rescue this dog against all odds, and of the family who took him home, named him "Oogy" (an affectionate derivative of ugly), and made him one of their own.

The number of entrants to this giveaway will determine how many copies of this book I will giveaway:

1-10 entrants= 1
11-20 entrants= 2
21 or more entrants= 3

Here are the rules:

1. For one entry, leave a comment.  Please be sure to include your email address (if it isn't available in your profile), so that I can contact you if you win. If I can't find your email either in the comments or your profile, you will be disqualified!

2 .Bonus Entries:

+2 Post about this giveaway on your blog and leave link to your blog post in the comments. You will also get an referral entry for each person who tells me that they learned about this giveaway from you.

+3 Become a Follower of my blog or subscribe to my blog through Google Reader or other subscription service. If you are already a subscriber or follower you still get the five extra entries! Please do not comment that you are a follower three times! I will give you the extra  entries myself. I will delete any extra entries that you make as it will just confuse me when I go to pick the winners.

+3 Become a follower on Twitter.  I'm teddyrose1

That's up to 9 entries plus any referral entries.

Sorry, the giveaway is only open US and Canadian residents only.
The winner’s mailing address: NO P.O. Boxes.

Only one entry per household/IP address 

Winners will be subject to the one copy per household rule, which means that if you win the same title in two or more contests, you will receive only one copy of the book.
 
This giveaway will end on Friday, September 24th,11:59 P.M. E.S.T. The winners will be notified by email, so remember to include your email address in the comments, if it isn't available in your profile! Winners must respond within TWO days or will be disqualified.

Posted by Teddy Rose at 9:40 PM 39 comments  

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Giveaway: The Golden Hustla by Wahida Clark

Thanks toAnna Balasi of Hachette Books, I am giving away up to three copies of this book.
Book Description:All of Georgia law enforcement is aware that WMM Advertising-also known as "We Make Millionaires"-is one of the biggest and hardest-to-penetrate fraudulent telemarketing firms in the state. But when a tape recording of a man's death surfaces that may involve WMM, Atlanta homicide detective Danny Houser realizes that he may actually have the smoking gun needed to go after the firm. All he needs is someone inside WMM to sniff out the company's secrets. Soon he sets his sights on Alexis Greenspan, aka Nina Coles, the telemarketer's top sales associate. Approaching retirement, Houser will do everything in his power to manipulate Coles and solve this one last case...no matter who gets hurt in the process.

The number of entrants to this giveaway will determine how many copies of this book I will giveaway:

1-10 entrants= 1
11-20 entrants= 2
21 or more entrants= 3

Here are the rules:

1. For one entry, leave a comment.  Please be sure to include your email address (if it isn't available in your profile), so that I can contact you if you win. If I can't find your email either in the comments or your profile, you will be disqualified!
2 .Bonus Entries:

+2 Post about this giveaway on your blog and leave link to your blog post in the comments. You will also get an referral  entry for each person who tells me that they learned about this giveaway from you.

+3 Become a Follower of my blog or subscribe to my blog through Google Reader or other subscription service. If you are already a subscriber or follower you still get the five extra entries! Please do not comment that you are a follower three times! I will give you the extra  entries myself. I will delete any extra entries that you make as it will just confuse me when I go to pick the winners.

+3 Become a follower on Twitter.  I'm teddyrose1

That's up to 9 entries plus any referral entries.

Sorry, the giveaway is only open US and Canadian residents only.

The winner’s mailing address: NO P.O. Boxes.

Only one entry per household/IP address

Winners will be subject to the one copy per household rule, which means that if you win the same title in two or more contests, you will receive only one copy of the book.

This giveaway will end on Friday , September 24th, 11:59 P.M. E.S.T. The winners will be notified by email, so remember     to include your email address in the comments, if it isn't available in your profile! Winners must respond within TWO days or will be disqualified.

Posted by Teddy Rose at 9:23 PM 9 comments  

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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

For the King's Favor by Elizabeth Chadwick


Ida de Tosney was a ward of King HenryII through childhood.  As a teenager she was presented to the King  who would determine her future.  Hopefully he would find a suitable marriage for her and she would have a happy life.  However, once set eyes on Ida, he decided to keep her for himself and kept her as his mistress.  She had no say in the matter.  

Ida prayed that she wouldn't become pregnant and have King Henry's bastard child.  She took every preventative measure she could find however, she conceived a son.  Though she was worried about the religious ramifications, she fell in love with her son.  In the mean time, she became infatuated with Roger Bigod.  

Roger had a story of his own.  He rebelled against his father and took the side of King HenryII.  He spent the majority of the time trying to win the Kings favor and getting his family land holdings after his father died.  His rightful title was Earl and he wanted it.

Eventually, King Henry married Ida de Tosney off to Roger Bigod and they had many children of their own.  However, the son she had with King HenryII, was kept from her.

Many of my friends, including those at Historical Tapestry have been encouraging me to read a Elizabeth Chadwick book for a very long time.  I have had her on my TBR and finely had the chance to read one of her books when I received an invitation to review this advance readers' copy.  

Chadwick did not disappoint!  She had a good cast of characters from real life to draw from.  She made them come back to life with richly textured scenes of England and Royalty.  I felt like I was one of the maids,  getting to witness everything that happened.   I will definitely be reading more Chadwick in the future!

Note: For the King's Favor was released previously as The Time of Singing.

4.5/5

Thanks to Danielle Jackson of Sourcebooks, Inc. for this book.

Also reviewed by:
Booklust
Historical Tapestry

If you reviewed this book, please include the link in the comments so I can give you some "link love."

"R" is for Roger Bigod

Posted by Teddy Rose at 12:30 AM 9 comments  

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Monday, September 6, 2010

Riff-Raff by Heather O'Neill


Heather O'Neill is the author of Lullabies for Little Criminals which, is on my TBR (to be read).  I thought I could get a tase of her writing by reading one of her short stories.

Riff-Raff is narrated by an un-named 19 year old woman from Montreal.  She is in a bad relationship with a man, Leroy, whom she met at McGill University.  She claims that, "I prayed that I would have the strength to leave him, but I never did."

As her first year of school was coming to an end, she met an "American boy" and she decided it was time to change her life.  She was going to follow the  American back to New Mexico.  Her father paid for the Greyhound Bus ticket and she had $80 to cover meals for the three day trip.  However, in St. Louis something happened. 

I don't want to spoil the story, so this is all I will tell you.  

This is a truly Canadian story.  In fact, Ms. O'Neill throws in some Canadian Steriotypes into her story telling.  I liked Ms. O'Neill's writing style however, I am finding the devise of making fun of Americans using Canadian Stereotypes a bit old.  Because of this, I wasn't too crazy about the overall plot and the ending was lame.

That said, I would like to read more by Heather O'Neill.  She does show great writing potential.  You can read Riff-Raff here.

Also reviewed by:

The Book Mine Set

If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays, 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 review. Come join in the fun!
 

Posted by Teddy Rose at 5:09 PM 0 comments  

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Sunday, September 5, 2010

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia of The Printed Page and is now on tour.   Kathy of Bermudaonion's Weblog is hosting for the month of September.

I received one book last week and I was so excited when it arrived!

Thanks so much to Julie Forrest of Random House of Canada.

Posted by Teddy Rose at 11:01 PM 8 comments  

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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Giveaway: DESPERATE DEEDS By Dee Davis

Thanks toAnna Balasi of Hachette Books, I am giving away up to three copies of this book.

Book Description:

As the demolitions expert for A-Tac, a black-ops CIA unit masquerading as Ivy League faculty, Tyler Hanson has two great loves: literature and explosives. She lives by the motto "Duty First" and doesn't have time for personal attachments . . . until a steamy one-night stand turns into a professional partnership.

BURNED BY BETRAYAL
When Tyler meets Owen Wakefield, a handsome British operative, she seduces him with no intention of ever seeing him again. But then the sexy Brit is brought into A-Tac, and despite Tyler's efforts to keep her distance, she finds herself falling for him. Trusting him.

Owen seems too good to be true - and he is. He's hiding his true motives and identity, and no matter how he feels about Tyler, he can't keep her secrets. One of A-Tac's members has turned traitor and helped terrorists to hijack a shipment of nuclear weapons. As witnesses start dying and evidence starts disappearing, Owen and Tyler must race to find the mole - and prevent a final, cataclysmic act of destruction. 

The number of entrants to this giveaway will determine how many copies of this book I will giveaway:

1-10 entrants= 1
11-20 entrants= 2
21 or more entrants= 3

Here are the rules:

1. For one entry, leave a comment.  Please be sure to include your email address (if it isn't available in your profile), so that I can contact you if you win. If I can't find your email either in the comments or your profile, you will be disqualified!

2. For two more entries, post about this giveaway on your blog and leave link to your blog post in the comments. You will also get an entry for each person who tells me that they learned about this
giveaway from you.

3. For another 5 more entries: Become a Follower of my blog or subscribe to my blog through Google Reader or other subscription service. If you are already a subscriber or follower you still get the five extra entries! Please do not comment that you are a follower five times! I will give you the extra entries myself. I will delete any extra entries that you make as it will just confuse me when I go to pick the winners.

Sorry, the giveaway is only open US and Canadian residents only.

The winner’s mailing address: NO P.O. Boxes.

Only one entry per household/IP address
Winners will be subject to the one copy per household rule, which means that if you win the same title in two or more contests, you will receive only one copy of the book.
This giveaway will end on Thursday, September 16th , 11:59 P.M. E.S.T. The winners will be notified by email, so remember to include your email address in the comments, if it isn't available in your profile! Winners must respond within TWO days or will be disqualified. 

Posted by Teddy Rose at 9:25 PM 11 comments  

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Giveaway: AH-CHOO! By Jennifer Ackerman

Thanks toAnna Balasi of Hachette Books, I am giving away up to three copies of this book.

Book Description:

Some colds are like mice, timid and annoying; others like dragons, accompanied by body aches and deep misery. In AH-CHOO!, Jennifer Ackerman explains what, exactly, a cold is, how it works, and whether it's really possible to "fight one off." Scientists call this the Golden Age of the Common Cold because Americans suffer up to a billion colds each year, resulting in 40 million days of missed work and school and 100 million doctor visits. They've also learned over the past decade much more about what cold viruses are, what they do to the human body, and how symptoms can be addressed. In this ode to the odious cold, Ackerman sifts through the chatter about treatments-what works, what doesn't, and what can't hurt. She dispels myths, such as susceptibility to colds reflects a weakened immune system. And she tracks current research, including work at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, a world-renowned center of cold research studies, where the search for a cure continues.

Just in time for cold season!

 The number of entrants to this giveaway will determine how many copies of this book I will giveaway:

1-10 entrants= 1
11-20 entrants= 2
21 or more entrants= 3

Here are the rules:

1. For one entry, leave a comment.  Please be sure to include your email address (if it isn't available in your profile), so that I can contact you if you win. If I can't find your email either in the comments or your profile, you will be disqualified!

2. For two more entries, post about this giveaway on your blog and leave link to your blog post in the comments. You will also get an entry for each person who tells me that they learned about this
giveaway from you.

3. For another 5 more entries: Become a Follower of my blog or subscribe to my blog through Google Reader or other subscription service. If you are already a subscriber or follower you still get the five extra entries! Please do not comment that you are a follower five times! I will give you the extra entries myself. I will delete any extra entries that you make as it will just confuse me when I go to pick the winners.

Sorry, the giveaway is only open US and Canadian residents only.

The winner’s mailing address: NO P.O. Boxes.

Only one entry per household/IP address
Winners will be subject to the one copy per household rule, which means that if you win the same title in two or more contests, you will receive only one copy of the book.
This giveaway will end on Thursday, September 16th , 11:59 P.M. E.S.T. The winners will be notified by email, so remember to include your email address in the comments, if it isn't available in your profile! Winners must respond within TWO days or will be disqualified.
 

Posted by Teddy Rose at 9:16 PM 20 comments  

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