Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a random page

3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

4. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

5. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Mine is from the book Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius by Colin Dikey

Just as phrenologists looked to the heads of criminals and the insane for proof of pathological deficiencies, they also sought out the heads of artists and philosophers for proof of genius and intelligence. Often they could investigate the heads of great men by taking plaster casts, but sometimes other means were necessary.

What’s your teaser?

Happy Reading!

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Autistic Charcters in Literature

Books that have an autistic character in them

One of the things I’ve been working on at my library is making annotated bibliographies for patrons wanting books on a particular genre/subject.

One of the recent ones is dealing with autism. I thought I’d do a post about that here. Most of the books I’ve been doing are for children/YA, but this list is for all readers. Autism is misunderstood and maybe reading about these characters will help all of us understand better what autism is and understand people who live with it every day. I complied this list using NoveList.

House rules by Jodi Picoult

Unable to express himself socially but possessing a savant-like knack for investigating crimes, a teenage boy with Asperger's Syndrome is wrongly accused of killing his tutor when the police mistake his autistic tics for guilty behavior.

Rules by Cynthia Lord

Frustrated at life with an autistic brother, twelve-year-old Catherine longs for a normal existence but her world is further complicated by a friendship with an young paraplegic.

Marcelo in the real world by Francisco Stork

Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law firm.

Since we’re friends by Celeste Shally

A boy describes his friendship with Matt, an autistic boy, telling how he helps Matt cope with everyday situataions.

By the light of the moon by Dean Koontz

Three traveling companions-artist Dylan O’Connor, his autistic brother Shep, and Jillian Jackson are on the run, one step ahead of deadly pursuers, as they race to uncover the meaning of a visious violation against them.

Looking for X by Deborah Ellis

Although she may not have a normal life like everyone else, Khyber enjoys what she has and doesn't look to change things, yet when her mother decides to move her autistic brother into a special home and her homeless friend goes missing, Khyber's special world is suddenly turned upside down.

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon

Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.

Hopefully some of these books will help people understand autism and what it’s like to live with it.

Happy Reading!

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Judgment and Wrath

Judgment and Wrath by Matt Hilton

Book description:

Joe Hunter is a former military operative turned problem solver.

He’s looking forward to a new and quieter life in Florida, or so he hopes until a man asks him to bring his daughter, Marianne, home because he says she’s being abused by her boyfriend, millionaire Bradley Jorgenson. Hunter arrives to do just that, but sees a happy and loving couple.

When a contract killer shows up at Jorgenson’s mansion on Neptune Island things get complicated and interesting. The killer has his own reasons for killing the couple and Joe ends up having to save both Bradley and Marianne.

My review:

This is the second book with Joe Hunter, but you don’t need to have read Dead Man’s Dust to enjoy this novel. If you like almost non-stop action then you’ll love this book.

I couldn’t put this book down. The author keeps the action going until the last page. He also realizes that you may not have read his first novel, so he puts pieces of Joe’s life and past adventure into the novel, which enriches the story.

I liked the action as well as the humanness of Joe and his partner, Rink. They do what they do to get the scum of the earth away from the rest of humanity and if they have to kill someone so be it.

I recommend this book to anyone who’s a fan of action packed novels. This book is a roller coaster ride of a good read.

This book was sent to me free of charge from William Morrow for review.

Happy Reading!

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In My Mailbox

The idea of In My Mailbox is to bring books to the attention of our blog readers and to encourage interaction with other blogs.

How In My Mailbox works:

1. Every week we'll post about what books we have received that week (via your mailbox/library/store bought)! Preferably posts will be made every Sunday, but feel free to choose a day that works best for you.

2. Everyone that agrees to participate will try to visit each other's list and leave comments

3. Everyone is welcome to join! You can join at anytime and you DO NOT have to participate every week.

4. Be sure to sign the Mr. Linky Widget (that will be posted each Sunday with my In My Mailbox post) so that others can easily find your "In My Mailbox" post! You DO NOT have to title your post "In My Mailbox"

5. Link back here, to The Story Siren, on your In My Mailbox post, so that other people can find more information about IMM.

Monday August 23

Saving Sky by Diane Stanley (signed copy) Harper Collins

Wednesday August 25

Manifesting Change: It Couldn’t Be Easier by Mike Dooley

Atria Books/Beyond Words

Saturday August 28, 2010

Crankioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius by Colin Dckey

Unbridled Books

Happy Reading!

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Guest Post- Deborah Ellis author of No Safe Place

I’d like to welcome Deborah Ellis, author of No Safe Place to As the Page Turns:

As a woman with a valid Canadian passport and ample pocket-money, travel is a breeze. I can cross borders, get visas, book plane tickets, all without worry or hassle. A trip to the other side of the world can be arranged and taken in a matter of hours. For others, leaving home to get to a better place is not nearly so easy. Borders are walls, bureaucrats are prison guards, paperwork is a mountain and nothing is safe. What separates me from them? Not virtue, not beauty, not talent. The only reason I can travel easily and they have to struggle is because of war and circumstance. There but for the grace of geopolitical realities go I.
I wanted to explore this struggle and to get to know some of the folks who go through it. Many migrants are unaccompanied minors, young people who are travelling the world all on their own at a time when young people in our world are often not allowed to walk to school by themselves. No Safe Place tries to look at the things that happen that make our views of the world different, and also tries to look at the things we have in common, because we are all human beings stuck together on this little blue planet.
If you’d like to write to Ms. Ellis she has given me permission to post her email address for anyone that would like to write to her.
dellis42@hotmail.com

Thank you Deborah for letting us glimpse into your world.
Happy Reading!
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No Safe Place Review

No Safe Place by Deborah Ellis Review

This is a story of hope and dreams. Abdul, along with two other illegal migrants, embark on a journey that will take them to England for a better life. Abdul sneaks onboard a smugglers boat and meets Cheslav from Russia and Rosalia from Romania, who like him, are tired of their life in their home countries and want something better. Throughout the novel the three do their best to avoid each other, but end up having to rely on each other to make their dreams a reality.

This novel has adventure and suspense and will leave you wanting more from these characters.

When I decided to review this book I thought it would be depressing, but I was pleasantly surprised. This short book has a powerful punch that leaves you wanting to know more about these young people. You feel for all these children and can understand the drastic and sometimes dangerous things they did to survive. The realization is that in real life there are children and families doing the same thing and it really makes you think. You see the worst of humanity and the best of humanity in this novel. I highly recommend this book for children 10 and up. I look forward to reading more from Deborah Ellis in the future.

Thanks to Groundwood Books for sending me an advanced reading copy of this book free of charge for my review.

Happy Reading!

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Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a random page

3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

4. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

5. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Mine is from Judment and Wrath by Matt Hilton p.8

Holding his gaze, I asked, “Is that what you call southern hospitality round here ?”

“No,” he sneered. “In these parts we call that good advice.”

Happy Reading!

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In My Mailbox

The idea of In My Mailbox is to bring books to the attention of our blog readers and to encourage interaction with other blogs.

How In My Mailbox works:

1. Every week we'll post about what books we have received that week (via your mailbox/library/store bought)! Preferably posts will be made every Sunday, but feel free to choose a day that works best for you.

2. Everyone that agrees to participate will try to visit each other's list and leave comments!

3. Everyone is welcome to join! You can join at anytime and you DO NOT have to participate every week.

4. Be sure to sign the Mr. Linky Widget (that will be posted each Sunday with my In My Mailbox post) so that others can easily find your "In My Mailbox" post! You DO NOT have to title your post "In My Mailbox"

5. Link back here, to The Story Siren, on your In My Mailbox post, so that other people can find more information about IMM.

Monday August 16

No Safe Place

Deborah Ellis (Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press)

Tuesday August 17

Half Empty by David Rakoff (Random House)

Thursday August 19

Girl Stolen by April Henry (Henry Holt)

Impostor’s Daughter by Laurie Sandell ( Hatchett) won from Chick with Books

Friday August 20, 2010

Delacroix Academy by Inara Scott (Harper Collins)

Happy Reading!

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Books Have Many Futures

I saw this story on NPR about Books Have Many Futures and wanted to share it with you. Here's a little snippet, to read the rest of the story click on the link

The premise of Lane Smith's new work for children, It’s a Book, is simple: Books are under siege.

On the first page a donkey asks a monkey, "What do you have there?" The monkey replies: "It’s a book."

"How do you scroll down?" the donkey asks. "Do you blog with it?"

Then he asks: "Where’s your mouse? ... Can you make characters fight? ... Can it text? ... Tweet? ... Wi-Fi? ... Can it do this? TOOT!"

The title says it all.

No, the monkey repeatedly replies. "It’s a book."

Smith's book, in stores this month, may be an example of a dying breed. A book, published — and meant to be read — on paper.

Happy Reading!

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Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a random page

3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

4. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

5. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Mine is from the book Nonna's Book of Mysteries by Mary Osborne p.18

Herein lay the battle between spirit and matter: the struggle of the earthbound body (what we call the sulfur of the philosophers) to reunite with the pure soul (what we call liquid mercury). It is the task of every adept who strives to become a master alchemist.

Happy Reading!

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Out of the Translyvania Night Review

Out of the Translyvania Night by Aura Imbarus (Sep 27, 2010)

Book description:

In an epic tale of identity and the indomitable human spirit, OUT OF THE TRANSYLVANIA NIGHT explores tyranny, freedom, love, success, and the price paid for misaligned dreams. An incredibly powerful memoir.

After reading a galley of this upcoming memoir my first thought was WOW! This is an incredible story of how one girl had a dream to escape the tyranny of her homeland, Romania, and come to America to fulfill her version of the “American Dream”. Aura Imbarus takes us from the tyranny of a dictator, her involvement in the revolution to help make Romania a better place, to escaping to America to a better life.

She and her husband, Michael, leave Romania and begin the long arduous journey to their idea of the American Dream. After arriving in California, after Aura has a dream with palm trees in it, they discover how difficult it is to start over. They come to America legally, but clueless as to how to get started on their dream.

Aura feels the need to work many jobs to fulfill her dreams and gets wrapped up in the material world rather than the physical world. When she and Michael lose all of their savings due to the stock market crash recently and the death of Aura’s mother to cancer, she begins to realize what’s important in life.

She now helps immigrants coming to America learn the skills they need to fulfill their dream of a better life here. She works RAPN (Romanian American Professional Network) as well as Eurocircle, a professional networking organization with over 60,000 members of European origins. She is also a mentor for Blue Heron Foundation, a non-profit and professional organization whose mission is to help Romanian orphans in her native country with money and counseling in order to receive a higher education degree.

For an uplifting story and what one woman did to achieve her dreams I highly recommend this book.

I want to thank Aura for contacting me to read this book.

Happy Reading!

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Because Memory Isn't Eternal Review

Because Memory Isn't Eternal: A Story of Greeks in Upstate South Carolina by Deno Trakas (Paperback - Sep 1, 2010)

Book description from Amazon:

In 1895, Nicholas Trakas left his village in southern Greece, boarded a steamship for America, and made his way to another southern village, Spartanburg, where he became the South Carolina city's first Greek resident. He opened The Elite--one of the finest candy kitchens in the South--built a house on a lot he purchased for $44 and a pet parrot that could cuss in Greek, and began a wave of immigration from his home country into the burgeoning Upstate area.

A century later, his grandson, Deno Trakas, a writer and professor at Wofford College, explores a peculiarly Southern version of the Greek-American story in Because Memory Isn't Eternal. By introducing readers to four generations of Trakas family members, their remarkable friends, and their hardworking business partners, he tells a greater story and reflects on how these complex, larger-than-life characters have preserved the best of Greek culture down South. This intimate and often humorous memoir includes stories of Greek-American marriages, food, language, restaurants, religion, and misadventures, including the day two Trakas boys accidentally burned down the family's church.

A constantly repeated refrain at Greek funerals is ''Aionia i mnimi'' - ''May his (or her) memory be eternal.'' More often, Trakas reveals, memory is ''painfully, annoyingly short.'' His loving illustrated tribute to Greek-Americans assures that these stories and this history will not be forgotten.

I enjoyed this book and learning about how the Greeks came to live in our country. This book is about the authors family trek to come and live the American Dream.

Not only do you learn about the Greeks in Upstate South Carolina, but about Greeks in the south. I learned the difference between first, second and third generations and how the views of each change over time. The book also has some family recipes that will make your mouth water. If you like history and want to know more about how the Greeks came to be in the south then you’ll enjoy this book.

I was sent a copy of this book from Hub City Press for review at no cost to me.

Happy Reading!

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The idea of In My Mailbox is to bring books to the attention of our blog readers and to encourage interaction with other blogs.

How In My Mailbox works:

1. Every week we'll post about what books we have received that week (via your mailbox/library/store bought)! Preferably posts will be made every Sunday, but feel free to choose a day that works best for you.

2. Everyone that agrees to participate will try to visit each other's list and leave comments!

3. Everyone is welcome to join! You can join at anytime and you DO NOT have to participate every week.

4. Be sure to sign the Mr. Linky Widget (that will be posted each Sunday with my In My Mailbox post) so that others can easily find your "In My Mailbox" post! You DO NOT have to title your post "In My Mailbox"

5. Link back here, to The Story Siren, on your In My Mailbox post, so that other people can find more information about IMM.

Thursday Aug. 12

Judgment and Wrath by Matt Hilton (Harper Collins)

Friday Aug. 13

Saving Max by Antoinette van Heusten (phenix & phenix) MIRA

The Report by Jessica Frances Kane (Graywolf Press)

Sat. Aug. 14

French Letters: Engaged in War

French Letters: Virginia’s War; Tierra, Texas 1944

by Jack Woodville London (phenix & phenix) Vire Press

Happy Reading!

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Let's Have a Bite Review

Let’s Have a Bite! A Banquet of Beastly Rhymes

By Robert L. Forbes drawings by Ronald Searle

release date September 16, 2010

Product description:

If you haven't heard, the whole animal kingdom is roaring its approval for Let's Have A Bite!, this collection of delectable rhymes about animals naughty and nice. With thirty-three delicious poems by Robert Forbes and zany illustrations of each featured creature (look out for a secret critter peeping out from each page) by a master cartoonist Ronald Searle, these wildly playful rhymes and charmingly intricate illustrations will keep readers seven to seventy coming back again and again.

This book was a lot of fun to read and would be a great book for families to read together. The poems are funny and the illustrations are great. Here’s an example of one of the poems:

Rubber Ducky

My rubber ducky

Bathes with me

And boy does my ducky

Ever see

How bad I can be

So I took out

His squawky squeakee-

Now he

Can’t squeal on me

This is geared to kids 9-12, but I think all ages would love it.

This book was sent to me free of charge by the publisher through Shelf Awareness. Thank you to Overlook Press for the chance to review this book.

Happy Reading!

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Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a random page

3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

4. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

5. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Mine is from the book 2034 by Robert Renfield p. 19

In a sudden scare, he released his hold on the telescopic sight, let his awareness return to the butte top. He hadn't been moving much before;now he froze tight and felt a shiver.

Happy Reading!

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In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox

This is a fun weekly meme initiated by The Story Siren. You simply post about what books you have received during the week no matter the source--library, purchased, borrowed, etc.

If you’re new to In My Mailbox welcome! Thank you to everyone who stops by In My Mailbox . Whether you comment or visit I appreciate your taking the time to drop in.

This is what I received last week.

Monday August 2, 2010

The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey (Doubleday/Random House via Shelf Awareness)

Our Kind of Traitor by John Le Carre (Viking/Penguin Group via Shelf Awareness

Tuesday August 3, 2010

Nonna’s Book of Mysteries by Mary Osborne (Lake City Press)

Wednesday August 4, 2010

Trials of Zion by Alan Dershowitz (Hachette)

Wolves of Andover by Kathleen Kent (Hachette)

Thursday August 5, 2010

Becoming a Woman of Destiny: Turning Life’s Trials into Triumphs by Suzann Johnson Cook (Tarcher)(Penguin)

Friday August 6, 2010

Keep the Change : A Clueless Tipper’s Quest to Become the Guru of the Gratuity by Steve Dublanica (Ecco/Harper)

Dogfight, a Love Story by Matt Burgess (Doubleday)

Saturday August 7, 2010

Let’s Have a Bite! : A Banquet of Beastly Rhymes by Robert L. Forbes drawings by Ronald Searle (Overlook)

What did you get this week?

Happy Reading!

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