Library Blackout...has this happened to you?

Here's a pic of my library (taken from the second floor looking down towards the reference area).  Isn't it purty?:

I swear, there is something in the air at this place.

Every time I walk in there with ONE particular book in mind, I come out with that book, plus eleventy billion others that I have no idea when I will find the time to read.

Take, for example, last week.  I went to the library to pick up How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn.  I really, truly, try to limit my library books lately, because I have SO SO many unread books at home (not to mention on my Kindle).  But I NEEDED this book for my Around the World in 12 Books challenge.  So borrowing was imperative.

I was kind of in a hurry, so I walked in, located the book, and done.  I was walking towards the checkout desk, thinking about my other book challenges this year, and remembered the Foodies Read challenge.  And I thought, "Huh, I've only done one foodie book so far this year...maybe I'll pick up one of those too.  JUST ONE."

I wander over to the nonfiction area and peruse the food/cooking section.  Suddenly I am inundated with choices.  So many good choices.  I CAN'T HANDLE ALL THE CHOICES.

It was at this point that I blacked out.

When I came to, I was in my car with How Green Was My Valley, as well as The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain, Beaten, Seared, and Sauced by Jonathan Dixon, and Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton.  Also, Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelsson is on my holds list now, apparently.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THERE?  I will never know.  I can only assume the librarians drugged me and sent me packing with enough food-related reading material to cover me for most of the spring season.  They're a suspicious bunch, librarians.

Ah well, at-home TBR pile.  We will meet again another day.

Introducing...Alexis!

Hello, readers!  So, I'll be honest, I'm really not getting as much Bloggiesta time this weekend as I'd like.  However, I am trying to do as much as possible, including some of the mini-challenges.  And the one that caught my eye first was Suey's Getting To Know You challenge.  Suey is challenging us to make new blogging connections by finding a new blog and writing a little introductory post about them.

So, without further ado, I am happy to introduce you to...

Alexis @ Reflections of a Bookaholic!

Alexis is a book blogger who also recently graduated from the University of Texas Law School (AND passed the bar...you go girl!).  She is also a newlywed as of June 2010.  She is an eclectic reader, reviewing a wide variety of genres and offering clear, concise thoughts about her books. She's been up and running since January 2011.

Why did her blog stick out for me?  Well first of all, leopard-print header.  Who doesn't love that?  But seriously, the two biggest reasons were 1) the fact that she started the blog (with some urging from her hubster!) as an outlet for stress.  I can totally relate to that!  Books are a wonderful escape when life gets crazy.  And 2) the wide variety of genres that she covers.  I love genre-specific blogs too, but as an eclectic reader myself, I always enjoy finding someone else who is reviewing pretty much across the board.

Go check Alexis's blog out!  You can also find her all over the interwebs:
Twitter: @BookReflections
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4795801-alexis-villery
Google+: https://plus.google.com/105984540549572149460/posts
StumbleUpon: http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/lilmisslexy/lists
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/bookreflections/

What fun new bloggers have YOU discovered recently?

Small Fry Saturday #16: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

It's time for installment #16 of Small Fry Saturdays!  This is a when-I-feel-like-it meme to showcase some of books that my 20-month-old Small Fry is currently reading.  Feel free to do a SFS post on your blog (with the graphic above) or leave a comment below about your favorite kiddie reads.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
(illustrations by Lois Ehlert)

If you've become a parent within the last 12 years, I'm sure you've heard of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, but I have to review it anyway because it's a BIG HIT in our house right now.  Chicka was not around when I was a kid, but apparently it's blown up hard since its 2000 release.  For those unfamiliar, this is an alphabet story.  Basically, the lower-case letter "a" is throwing his weight around, daring the other letters to chase him up the coconut tree.  So they all go up there, and just as slowpoke "z" arrives at the top, the whole darn tree falls over.  The upper-case letters come to rescue the poor, beat-up lower-case letters, and at the end, (Chicka Chicka spoilers y'all!) "a" dares everybody to do it again (does he learn nothing?).

I have been reading Small Fry this book since he was itty-bitty, mostly because the rhythm of the story is catchy and easily got his attention.  The illustrations are bright and fun for young eyes as well.  However, now I love it because he's actually starting to pick out some of the letters, and it's an excellent book for letter recognition.  He's also chiming in for the parts of the story he remembers (his favorite: when the tree falls down and he gets to yell, "OH NO!"...haha).  A definite advantage to the singsong melody of the book.

Chicka is a modern classic for sure.  There's also Chicka Chicka 123, which we haven't checked out yet, but I plan to soon!

What are your favorite alphabet books for kids?

It's BLOGGIESTA time!

Peeps, I JUST realized it was Bloggiesta time again yesterday.  YESTERDAY!  I am a little ashamed of myself.

For any who haven't heard of it, Bloggiesta is basically a big blogger party that happens all weekend (starting today!)  The goal is to take as much time as you can to update, edit, and organize your blog...with the help and encouragement of your fellow bloggers.  It's also a great way to find some new blog friends, as I happily discovered when I first participated last September.

My participation probably won't be as good as it was last fall, but I am planning to jump in as much as possible.  I have a small to-do list (and thankfully no design problems to tackle):

1. Update my review policy...some parts of it need adjusting.
2. Create a review calendar for the ARCs I have left for this year.  I have them all written down, but I want a better view of what my year in reviewing will look like (so that I know where to fit in my other reads).
3. Try to get ahead on some non-review posts, and get them scheduled.
4. Create a blog calendar of intended posts for the month of April.  I did this in December/January and it was great, but I fell off the wagon in February.
5. Organize my Google Reader/Feedly account.  It's a little out of control.  This was also a goal for September's Bloggiesta...fail!

That's it for now, though we'll see if I add to that once I read through the mini challenges...happy blogging, all!

Book Review: The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Title: The Storyteller
Author: Jodi Picoult
Publisher: Atria
Publication Date: February 26, 2013
Source: bought a copy from Norwich Bookstore at her VT event on 2/26!

Plot Summary from Goodreads:

Sage Singer befriends an old man who's particularly beloved in her community. Josef Weber is everyone's favorite retired teacher and Little League coach. They strike up a friendship at the bakery where Sage works. One day he asks Sage for a favor: to kill him. Shocked, Sage refuses…and then he confesses his darkest secret - he deserves to die, because he was a Nazi SS guard. Complicating the matter? Sage's grandmother is a Holocaust survivor.

What do you do when evil lives next door? Can someone who's committed a truly heinous act ever atone for it with subsequent good behavior? Should you offer forgiveness to someone if you aren't the party who was wronged? And most of all - if Sage even considers his request - is it murder, or justice?

My Review:

I know, I know.  You're all tired of me waxing poetic about Jodi Picoult's novels.  But hear me out!  Because I just finished her newest one, and yes, I loved it...but I think you will too.

I will admit that, going in, I was feeling a little ambivalent about the topic.  I mentioned in my recent review of The Thief of Auschwitz that I am always unsure how fiction authors will be able to take on the Holocaust in a way that is original, and thus worthwhile for the reader.  I'm not trying to say they shouldn't write about it (I think it's important to do so, to continue sharing the experience of those victimized).  But it's fiction, not nonfiction--so the author does have some responsibility for putting a unique twist or angle on it in order to keep the interest of the reader.  Not easy with a subject that's been tackled so many times.

However, this book is in three parts, with the second part told from the POV of Minka, Sage's grandmother and a Holocaust survivor.  And within a few pages of starting Minka's narrative, I knew this was not a repeat of novels past.  As you would expect from this subject, Minka's story is simply horrific, and Picoult glosses over nothing.  There were times that I had to put the book aside for a while and take a breather before returning.  And the truly horrible thing is, having attended the author's tour event last month, I knew that most of these hideous events were NOT fictional.  Picoult interviewed many Holocaust survivors and used parts of their actual stories as events in the novel (she recounted them at the event and then I later recognized them in the book).  Knowing that made it all the more heart-wrenching to read, and lent an air of truth to this fictional tale.

As expected from any Picoult novel, the book is full of moral and ethical questions.  Do we all have good and evil within us?  How does one reign over the other?  And if someone practices more evil than good, does that make it okay to hurt them back?  Can you ever forgive them, or yourself?  It gives you a lot to contemplate, and to make it more intriguing, you have a lot of angles to contemplate from.  There is Sage and Josef's story, but then you also get Minka's POV, as well as a side story that she wrote in her childhood.  All of these perspectives are essentially attacking the same questions, but as a reader, it gives you a fuller understanding of the moral ambivalence of the novel.  And Picoult does a wonderful job intersecting all of these views throughout the book, leaving you guessing about what direction it will eventually take.

If you've read any JP novels before, you're probably wondering--is there a big twist at the end?  She is certainly known for that.  There is a twist...one that is still sticking in my brain and making me replay the novel in my mind quite a bit.  I won't say it's completely unpredictable (you get the sense that something is afoot once Part 3 begins, and I kind of figured it out a few pages before it was revealed), but it's not blatant either.  Certainly leaves you wanting to devour the last third of the book, that's for sure.

My one complaint about this one?  Too many current event/technology references!  I feel like Picoult was trying way too hard to make her book "hip" and contemporary by throwing these things in willy-nilly.  Constant reference to iPhones, Flip cameras (aren't they outdated already?), FiOS, Snooki, etc...it was a bit much, and is going to make this book sound extremely dated in about 5 years time.  I've never noticed this in her other novels and I'm not sure why she went in that direction here (it really wasn't necessary given the topic at hand).  It didn't ruin the novel by any means, but it was very noticeable.

My final verdict: this book was outstanding, up there on my list of Picoult faves.  She handles an often-used historical event with amazing accuracy and sensitivity, while also weaving a complex tale that will leave you stuck to the book and wishing your son would nap for just five more minutes, for heaven's sake, because you only have 10 pages left.  Not that I would know anything about that.  It's just an example.  The point is, READ IT!

Other reviews of The Storyteller:
So Many Books, So Little Time
...But Books Are Better
All The Books I Can Read

Have you read any other Holocaust-centric novels that really moved you?

Wondrous Words Wednesday (23)

Welcome back, wordy friends!

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by BermudaOnion each week. It's an opportunity to share new words you've encountered in your reading, or highlight words that you particularly enjoy.

Here are three of my favorite new-to-me words from my recent reads.  All definitions from Dictionary.com.

1. caesura. "...although she talks openly and easily about being a child and about her life with my grandfather, there is a caesura in the time line of her life, a break of years, a derailment."  (from The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult)  
noun
1. (in poetry) a break, especially a sense pause, usually near the middle of a verse, and marked in scansion by a double vertical line, as in know then thyself ‖ presume not God to scan.
2. (in poetry) a division made by the ending of a word within a foot, or sometimes at the end of a foot, especially in certain recognized places near the middle of a verse.
3. any break, pause, or interruption.

Oooh I like this one.  Pretty word and it's cool that it's not being used in the usual way.

2. etiolated. "He looked so small and etiolated."  (from Indiscretion by Charles Dubow)
verb (etiolate)
1. to cause (a plant) to whiten or grow pale by excluding light: to etiolate celery.
2. to cause to become weakened or sickly; drain of color or vigor.
3. (of plants) to whiten or grow pale through lack of light.

I have been really impressed by Dubow's creative use of words.  This highlights that yet again.

3. august. "We looked at the venerable stream not in the vivid flush of a short day that comes and departs for ever, but in the august light of abiding memories."  (from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad)

adjective

1. inspiring reverence or admiration; of supreme dignity or grandeur; majestic: an august performance of a religious drama.
2. venerable; eminent: an august personage.

And I here thought August was just a month!

What are your new words this week?

Book Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Title: The Night Circus
Author: Erin Morgenstern
Publisher: Doubleday
Publication Date: September 13, 2011
Source: borrowed from the good ol' public library (e-copy)

Plot Summary from Goodreads:

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. 

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. 

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

My Review:

You may remember that I mentioned this book as one of my favorites of 2012.  However, I had no review to share at the time, because I read it before I started the blog.  I decided that needed to be remedied, so I put together a brief review of The Night Circus because I want to make sure I properly share its awesomeness with the world.

I ADORED this book. Which is funny, because it falls into a million categories for things I would normally NOT enjoy about a novel. For starters, it's about magic. **side eye**  And, there's a cartoony-looking circus depicted on the cover. (Remember, I even mentioned this in my Cover Snobbery post??)  AND, it has a pretty strong romance/love story as a defining plot line, which is not my usual cup of tea.

Guess what?  IT DOESN'T MATTER! This book 100% illustrates the old adage "don't judge a book by its cover". I think the writing is part of what did it for me. It's beautiful and descriptive without being too flowy or verbose. And it's concise without being brusque. Morgenstern makes the circus (a complex and very VISIBLE character in the novel) come alive in your mind.  If she hadn't taken the time to carefully craft the words to do this, the book wouldn't be even half of what it is.  I can't remember the last time I read a novel where I could call myself a happy customer just based on the writing style alone. The characters, the ending, the plot movement: they could have sucked (even though they didn't), and I would still have been impressed by the writing.

Plus, the love story is so well done. I, the anti-romance-novel reader, have never gotten behind the love of two characters like I did with Celia and Marco.  And I think the fact that their romance was part of this big, darker "challenge" helped a lot. It was romance with a purpose, not a romance for fluff's sake.

This is getting gushy.  The point is: the plot moves along. There are excellent twists at just the right times. Overall, great reading, and totally deserving of a place on my Faves list...even though I did not expect to feel that way when I initially judged the cover.

Other reviews of The Night Circus:
Book Hooked
Leeswammes' Blog
A Cup of Coffee and A Book

Have you read The Night Circus?  Fave or flop for you?