And the Winner Is...

Congratulations to bcteagirl, who won a new paperback copy of The Local News by Miriam Gershow! Please send me your address and I will forward it to Random House. Thank you to Miriam and Random House for sponsoring this giveaway and thank you to all of you who entered!

1. bcteagirl

Timestamp: 2010-04-01 01:13:30 UTC

Similar Covers: Girl with Bandaged Knee

Here are two more very similar covers: Durable Goods by Elizabeth Berg and Homework by Suneeta Peres da Costa. I’m almost positive I’ve seen a third lookalike cover as well, but I haven’t been able to find it again. Has anyone else spotted one?

Mailbox Monday: I’m in the Book! + a Reminder (March 29)

A little over a week ago, Carrie at Sourcebooks emailed me to let me know that my blog was mentioned in Read, Remember, Recommend: A Reading Journal for Book Lovers created by Rachelle Rogers Knight (in a list of “lighter book-related blogs”) and would I like a complementary copy of the book? Of course, I emailed her back and said yes! So I’m very excited to show off my blog name in black and white below! This book also looks like it’s going to be a great way to keep track of my reading, as well as a good resource for additions to my TBR pile!

Click on second image to enlarge

What did you find in your mailbox this past week? For other Mailbox Monday posts, head over to Marcia’s blog, The Printed Page.

REMINDER: Tomorrow is the last day to enter my giveaway of The Local News by Miriam Gershow. Don’t forget to enter!

Review: Conscience Point by Erica Abeel

Conscience Point by Erica Abeel is the story of Maddy Shaye, a woman “with all the luck,” who seems to have it all: she has a successful career as both a concert pianist and an arts reporter, is in love with adoring Nick and has a close relationship with her grown daughter Laila. But then everything starts to unravel...

Eight pages into Conscience Point, I nearly gave up on it: Abeel’s overuse of ellipsis points was driving me crazy (they appear about 20 times in those eight pages), plus the sex scene made me cringe.* Luckily, I chastised myself for my lack of perseverance–surely the book deserved at least a 50-page chance!—and picked it up again. Ironically enough, after page 8, the ellipses all but disappear and the story quickly picks up the pace.

Although the book is mostly written in the third person, it begins with—and occasionally lapses into—a first-person segment that make it clear that Maddie is actually writing her own story, a “faux memoir,” as she calls it. This device worked well: although I sometimes found the writing style frustratingly cryptic (or at least there were many references that sailed over my head), Maddie’s character is so well developed and so believable that it was Maddie I was frustrated with and not Abeel.

My favourite part of the story was the Gothic mystery—in the end I tore through the book to find out what had happened—and this despite the fact that I found the idea of the love triangle fairly distasteful. Although this book was not an easy read—it was definitely outside my comfort zone—I’m glad I gave it a second chance.

To read other reviews of this book, visit these blogs:
Booking Mama • Bookstack • Diary of an Eccentric • Linus’s Blanket • Literary License • Savvy Verse & Wit • S. Krishna’s Books

To read an interview with the author, visit this site:
Novel Journey

Thank you to the author for sending me this book to review.

This book review is part of the Spotlight Series tour for Unbridled Books. Visit the Spotlight Series site for a list of other tour stops.

*I later reread it and it didn’t seem that bad.

Similar Covers: White Dress

This week I’m featuring another pair of books that use the same cover image: Tender Grace by Jackina Stark (which was published in early 2009 by Bethany House) and The Threadbare Heart by Jennie Nash (due out with Berkley, a Penguin imprint, in May 2010). I don’t like the green tinge on the first cover, but I do like the wider cropping better (although the font and placement of the text on the second book are definitely more attractive). Even though I like both covers, I also find them a little generic—they don’t really stand out. What do you think?

Mailbox Monday + Blogger Meet-up (March 22)

Remember I mentioned last week that I had won a giveaway over at Jeanne’s blog, Necromancy Never Pays? Well, I got a great package in the mail this past week, directly from author Joan Slonczewski. In it was a signed first edition of A Door into Ocean (which is what I had won) plus a surprise: a signed hardcover copy of The Children Star! This means that I now have three* copies of A Door into Ocean and two copies of The Children Star. I guess that officially makes me a collector of Joan’s work! I’m thinking I need to read the four books in the Elysium Cycle this year; is anyone interested in joining me?

My mum also sent me a package, which contained (among other things) a copy of The Frenchy’s Connection: The Pottersfield Guide to Second-Hand Clothing Stores in the Maritimes. For those of you not in the know, Frenchy’s is the name of a loose chain of stores specializing in used clothing with outlets in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Going Frenchy shopping is quite the pastime on the East Coast (and has nothing to do with whether or not you can afford to buy new clothes—almost everyone goes to Frenchy’s!). I’ve already zipped through this book and it’s a fun read (thanks, Mum!)—although it did make me wish there were Frenchy’s in Montreal. Other thrift stores don’t quite measure up to the Frenchy experience!

Yesterday was also my monthly get-together with fellow Montreal book bloggers Cindy (Cindy’s Love of Books), Donna (BookBound), Linda (Better with Books) and Tina (Bookshipper). As usual, we had tea and hot apple cider (and cake!), talked about our trip to BEA in May (it’s official: we’re all going!) and exchanged books. I came home with quite a pile!

Tina gave me:

Back Home by Julia Keller (oops, this one actually came from Donna!)
The Opposite of Me by Sarah Pekkanen
The Reinvention of Moxie Roosevelt by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
Nice Recovery by Susan Juby

Cindy passed on:

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven: A Memoir by Susan Jane Gilman

and Donna gave me (or maybe I just kinda grabbed this one while no one else was looking**):

Fodor’s New York City 2009 by Fodor’s

What did you find in your mailbox this past week? For other Mailbox Monday posts, head over to Marcia’s blog, The Printed Page.

*One of these I actually bought for my sister Brogan and the second copy has now become my reading copy. (The latest is obviously a collector’s copy!)
**It was up for grabs—I’m just not sure in the end if anyone else wanted it too!

Library Loot (March 18)

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at Reading Adventures 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! Want to share your loot? Eva has the Mr. Linky this week!

I had to go to the library this week to return books and pick up a couple I’d reserved, so here’s what I came home with:

I won a copy of The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams last year, but unfortunately never got the book, so when I saw it at the library I knew I had to read it finally!

I reserved Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean by Douglas Wolk as soon as I’d finished reading Nymeth’s review of it at things mean a lot (even though this book has got to have one of the most unattractive covers I’ve ever seen!).

Deadly Slipper: A Novel of Death in the Dorgogne by Michelle Wan sounded good (and I thought it would count towards the POC Reading Challenge, which I haven’t officially joined yet); unfortunately, it failed the 50-pages test (more on that in another post), so I’ve already abandoned it. (I love the cover though!)

I first heard of Girl in a Blue Dress: A Novel Inspired by the Life and Marriage of Charles Dickens by Gaynor Arnold when the Concordia University Alumni Book Club read it last year; unfortunately, I couldn’t get my hands on a copy in time to go to the book club meeting, but I still wanted to read it!

Similar Covers: Fried Eggs

I’m not the only one obsessed with finding lookalike covers, and back in June of last year, PopinFresh, who blogged at the now defunct (and deleted) blog, Popin’s Lair, posted two covers she’d found that featured an egg in a frying pan: This Is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America by Ryan Grim and Strange Nervous Laughter by Bridget McNulty. Well, I recently found a third, so I just had to re-post all three: The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-Being by Nena Baker.

It seems that fried eggs are now doomed to be associated with negative things (drugs, nervous laughter, toxic products), a result no doubt of the “This Is Your Brain on Drugs” ad campaign (do you remember it?). You can watch the original PSA here.

Review: The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World by Marti Olsen Laney

If you are an introvert (or think you are), you must read The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World by Marti Olsen Laney, especially if you’ve ever felt like there was something wrong with you. If you are in a relationship with an introvert or your child is an introvert, I highly recommend you read this book too!

So what is an introvert? Laney is clear that being introverted is not the same as being shy, schizoid, highly sensitive or antisocial, although of course these may overlap. She defines introverts as follows:

“Introverts draw energy from their internal world of ideas, emotions and impressions. They are energy conservers. They can be easily overstimulated by the external world, experiencing the uncomfortable feeling of ‘too much.’ . . . They need to limit their social experiences so they don’t get drained.” (p. 19, her italics)

By contrast, “extroverts are energized by the external world—by activities, people, places, and things” (p. 19, her italics). Unlike shyness, for example, which is learned from experience, introversion is hardwired: it is a temperament one is born with. Since 75% of the world is extroverted, extrovert traits tend to be seen as normal, while introvert traits are not.

Laney examines the differences between the brains of introverts and extroverts (which is fascinating stuff) and addresses such issues as relationships, working, socializing and parenting (a section that brought tears to my eyes—I so wish an adult had been able to help me develop better introvert coping strategies as a child).

What amazed me about this book is how much I recognized myself in it. What I thought were my own personal quirks (and failings) turn out to be introvert traits (and not failings at all). If nothing else, Laney’s book gives introverts permission to be who they are and to take care of their own needs without feeling like there is something wrong with them. My only reservations about this book are that the textbook style was sometimes irritating (I thought the “Points to Ponder” sections at the end of each chapter were unnecessary) and I occasionally felt that Laney overstated her case, making introverts out to be more fragile than they are (or at least that she didn’t always take into account that introversion and extroversion are on a continuum, so not all introverts are equally introverted).

This is definitely a book I plan to reread over and over again!

To read other reviews of this book, head over to these blogs:
Better with Books • Mt. Hope Chronicles • Philosophical Ramblings • What Came Down Today

For a laugh, read this article:
Caring for Your Introvert (perhaps only funny if you’re an introvert—Mr. B, who is an extrovert, was not nearly as amused as I was)

Thank you to Linda at Better with Books for lending me this book.

Mailbox Monday (March 15)

Two books made their way to my mailbox this week. First, inspired by a giveaway (which I won!) at Jeanne’s blog, Necromancy Never Pays, I ordered The Children Star by Joan Slonczewski. Don’t be put off by the cover—this is the third book (of four) in the Elysium Cycle, which started with A Door into Ocean, one of my favourite books of all times. (The Children Star was the only book I was missing from the series.)

Second, I received The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow from Penguin USA for a TLC Book Tour in April.

What did you find in your mailbox this past week? For other Mailbox Monday posts, head over to Marcia’s blog, The Printed Page.

The 40/40 Challenge

Forty days ago, I turned 40, and to (somewhat belatedly) mark this occasion, I’ve decided to give myself a challenge, or rather 40 challenges. I got the idea from Diane at Diane’s Addled Ramblings (whose blog I found via Jenners’ personal blog, Life with a Little One and More)—Diane, in turn, borrowed the idea from the 2010 – 4040 Challenge blog.

The idea is to come up with a list of challenges, one for each year of one’s life—40 in my case—and accomplish them in the next year. I’m giving myself an extra 40 days past my birthday to finish them (so until March 12, 2011), since I’m starting this 40 days late.

The list includes a bunch of book- and blog-related challenges as well as many that are more personal in nature, so I thought I’d divide them that way.

My 40/40 Challenge list:

Blog- or book-related challenges:

1. Catch up on reviews before BEA.
2. Post at least one review a week, every week (minus the two weeks during the winter holidays).
3. Participate in a readathon.
4. Redesign my blog layout.
5. Go to BEA.
6. Organize my books (including my LibraryThing and goodreads catalogues).
7. Read at least two books in French (not graphic novels).
8. Respond to emails and comments within a week of receiving them.
9. Host (and complete) a reading challenge.
10. Make business cards for my blog.
11. Write reviews within a week of finishing a book.
12. Go to at least two book club meetings.*
13. Read and complete the exercises in the book Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: A Woman’s Guide to Unblocking Creativity by Susan O’Doherty.
14. Write at least 6 book-related opinion posts.
15. Sign up for and complete at least 2 reading challenges (other than the one I intend to host).

Personal challenges:

16. Learn how to knit.
17. Finish at least 5 knitting projects.
18. Sort out/organize my office.
19. Figure out my finances.
20. Deal with my insurance.
21. Host the circle (a group I belong to).
22. Finish the writing course I abandoned last fall.
23. Plant a balcony garden.
24. Lose another 20 pounds.
25. Call my mum & sisters at least once a month.
26. Try swing dancing (go at least twice).
27. Give up TV for a month.
28. Make 3 new friends.
29. Do a book/clothing/etc. purge (and get rid of the stuff!**).
30. Make a collage.
31. Give up coffee again (except during the readathon).
32. Buy new clothes.
33. Do the MS walk with my friend Andrea on April 25.
34. Go on dates with my partner Mr. B every week.
35. Go outside every day.
36. Meditate at least 5 minutes every day.
37. Go into therapy.
38. Find opportunities to sing/chant with others.
39. Go on a silent retreat.
40. Document my 40/40 challenge.

Wish me luck!

* Both one of my local libraries and my university alumni association have book clubs I keep wanting to check out. I’d like to try each of them at least once.
**I purge but then all the stuff I’ve supposedly gotten rid of sits in a bag or box in my back shed...

Review: Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg

Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg is the sequel to The Plain Janes (read my review) and completes the story arc. I loved The Plain Janes—however, my feelings about the sequel were mixed. I did like some aspects better, although overall I enjoyed this book less.

What I liked:
– The device of writing to Miroslaw allows Main Jane to meditate on a series of important questions: What is art? What is the purpose of art? What is the price of art? I thought this was very well done.
– Although the story ostensibly focuses on the Janes’ search for love, friendship is portrayed as being just as important as romantic love.
– My favourite two-page spread in either book follows the two pages pictured below: I really felt like I was there, peeking over Main Jane’s shoulder (and sharing her excitement) as she opened her package.

Click on photo to enlarge

What I liked less:
– The plot point left hanging at the end of The Plain Janes is glossed over in this book.
– I felt like I was missing something with respect to Theater Jane’s crush. Where did he come from?
– The secret admirer subplot seemed contrived and didn’t really go anywhere—I didn’t see the point of it.*
– The focus on love and the Janes’ quest for legitimacy made the story and their art less edgy.

If you’ve read and enjoyed The Plain Janes, you must read this book, which provides a satisfying ending to the story. I just wish there were more in this series to read!

To read other reviews of this book, visit these blogs:
bildungsroman (review of both The Plain Janes and Janes in Love) • FOB Comics • Hypothetically Speaking • Kids Lit • The Zen Leaf

Read an interview with author Cecil Castellucci:
Girls Read Comics

I read a library copy of this book.

*And, as it turns out, I may not have understood this subplot at all—my sister Brogan, who also read the book, was left with the impression that the secret admirer was someone other than who I thought it was. (If you’ve read the book, please don’t reveal this person’s identity in the comments, but feel free to email me and let me know who you think it was.)

Similar Covers: Dandelion Puffs (or the Making of a “Similar Covers” Post)

I own The Wishing Year: A House, a Man, My Soul by Noelle Oxenhandler, so when I came across the cover to Childhood: An Anthology edited by Kate Figes (which looks vaguely similar), I put both cover images into a folder. Then I saw the covers for Marni by Marni Bates and The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski and into the folder they both went too. So far these covers all have dandelion puffs on them (obviously) and, other than the last one, all have a turquoise touches. Then last week I came across an ARC of Falling Apart in One Piece by Stacy Morrison in a thrift shop (this book isn’t even out yet; it will be published by Simon & Schuster on March 23): it also has the same turquoise background with a dandelion puff... and it turns out the image on this cover is an exact match with the only non-turquoise cover I found!

Is this at all interesting, or would you rather I just cut to the chase and show you only the really relevant covers? (I won’t do this all the time, I promise!) I thought it was strange that so many of these covers are pretty much the same shade of turquoise!

Edited to add:
And then Steph Su, who blogs at Steph Su Reads, mentioned a sixth cover that fits right into this collection: Before I Die by Jenny Downham. So I updated this post!

The Local News by Miriam Gershow Out in Paperback + Giveaway!

Last week, I found a lovely email in my inbox from Miriam Gershow, author of The Local News, which I reviewed last year. She starts off her email by saying:

I found your review of The Local News recently on She Reads and Reads during my (terrible) habit of Googling myself, and I was delighted by it. I’m listening to the Nick Cave song you mentioned as I type. What a wild and wonderful experience it sounds like you had. I could wish nothing more on a reader than to feel like she’s fully embodying the character that I wrote. I’m not sure if I can fully articulate how gratifying your experience was to read about.

To see what she’s referring to, read my review. Thank you, Miriam, for brightening my day!

The Local News was just released in paperback last month and is a Random House Reader’s Circle selection, with an additional 14 pages of author Q&A, a Reading Group Guide and an author bio in the back. Miriam is also one of the featured authors in this month’s Random House Author Chats, which means that book groups can request her participation in their discussions.

To celebrate the release of this book in paperback, Miriam Gershow and Random House are sponsoring a giveaway of one copy of The Local News on my blog! The giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian residents only. I will accept entries until 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, March 30.

For one entry, post a comment here. Please be sure to provide me with a way of getting in touch with you. Entries without a blog link or email address will be disqualified.

Other ways to earn entries:
+1 if you comment on my review of The Local News (if you’ve already done so, that counts too)
+1 if you are a follower or subscriber (please let me know)

Best of luck!

Mailbox Monday (March 8)

I haven’t been receiving very many books for review recently (which is just as well, since I haven’t been reviewing many books either!), but this week I got four books in the mail: The Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman, which was a BBAW scavenger hunt win (except the person who was supposed to send me this book never did, so Ana aka Nymeth at things mean a lot sent it to me instead—thanks, Ana!); The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard, which I won from Michele at A Reader’s Respite; The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight by Gina Ochsner, which was sent to me by Houghton Mifflin; and Piece by Piece: Stories about Fitting into Canada edited by Teresa Toten, which was sent to me by Penguin Canada.

I also went to a church book sale with Tina (Bookshipper) last Friday and really lucked out. For $2.50, I bought:

• Life Notes: Personal Writings by Contemporary Black Women edited by Patricia Bell-Scott
• Dropped Threads 2: More of What We Aren’t Told edited by Carol Shields and Marjorie Anderson
• The Eloquent Essay: An Anthology of Classic and Creative Nonfiction edited by John Loughery
• Till We Meet Again by Lesley Pearse (I nearly forgot this one!)
  
• Pale as the Dead by Fiona Mountain
• The Sirens Sang of Murder by Sarah Caudwell

Finally, Tina gave me Unravelled by Robyn Harding as well as four pairs of knitting needles she got for a quarter at a church sale!

What did you find in your mailbox this past week? For other Mailbox Monday posts, head over to Marcia’s blog, The Printed Page.