There were 49 items in the list. Here they are in random order:
Most of us have collections. Many of us 'book bloggers' are collectors of literary works. Or, perhaps a house full of the sounds of the scampering of little feet or the persistent arguing of siblings. Maybe, you are the avid animal lover and just can’t say 'no' to that face! You just might be that music enthusiast with an amazingly diverse collection. What is your prize menagerie?
This week’s Thursday’s Thoughts challenge: Write me (below), or better yet, post a blog on your blogsite about your menagerie (don’t forget to send me your link). All submittals must be in by 9/8/08, midnight PST for consideration. The prize, you ask? A gift certificate to Barnes and Noble in the amount of $25, which will be on-line order friendly.
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Book Blogger Appreciation Week (BBAW) is almost here! In the meantime, the polls are open. Click HERE to visit My Friend Amy and vote for your favorite blog in a number of different categories.
I was looking through books yesterday at the shops and saw all the Twilight books, which I know basically nothing about. What I do know is that I’m beginning to feel like I’m the *only* person who knows nothing about them.
Despite being almost broke and trying to save money, I almost bought the expensive book (Australian book prices are often completely nutty) just because I felt the need to be ‘up’ on what everyone else was reading.
Have you ever felt pressured to read something because 'everyone else' was reading it? Have you ever given in and read the book(s) in question or do you resist? If you are a reviewer, etc, do you feel it’s your duty to keep up on current trends?
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent is on sale today. Kent's debut novel is an intimate look at the Salem witch trials through the eyes of a 10 year-old girl whose mother is tried and convicted as a witch.
Summary:
Product description: Ana Dominguez was happy in San Jose, but everything changed when her dad moved the family to Half Moon Bay, California, to open a law practice. Her parents think she's settling into her new school nicely, but she has them fooled. Riley, the most popular girl in school, has picked Ana as enemy #1, and Tyler, Ana's crush, doesn't even know Ana exists.
When Ana ends up in detention with Riley, her life suddenly changes. When Ana, Riley, Christine, and Zoe share their essays on "The Day My Life Changed," it turns out they have more in common than they ever would have imagined. Now as Ana lives out her faith, she and Zoe are determined to befriend Riley and Christine. But the drama of high school life has only just begun. . . .
Shana's Review:
The Miracle Girls is written entirely in Ana's voice. As the mother of a 14 year-old I can vouch for the fact that the narrative voice is very authentic. It is sarcastic, intelligent, and distinctly teenaged. Reading The Miracle Girls feels like eavesdropping on a teenage girl's conversation with her best friend.
Ana is a unique teen. Her parents immigrated from Mexico shortly after her birth. Her father is a lawyer, and apparently a very successful one because Ana wants for nothing in the material sense. She lives in a mansion and her mother spends her days redecorating the new house with the assistance of an interior designer. They employ a live-in cook-slash-housekeeper, and shop at Bloomingdales and Nordstrom. For a 14 year-old, Ana is only mildly rebellious, especially considering that her parents are extremely strict. Ana has her sights set on a medical degree from Princeton and needs to graduate high school first in her class in order to secure admission to the Ivy League.
Current culture references abound in this book. Ana talks about iPods, email, instant messaging, Google searches, Nutter Butters and Vera Wang. Again, this adds to the authenticity of the story while giving it a distinctly contemporary feel.
One of the more interesting aspects of this book is how the pressures of high school are depicted. Of course, there is peer pressure. Ana wants to fit in with the popular crowd, but she is different, mainly due to her Christian faith. Lucky for her, she finds two very good friends relatively quickly in her new school, and meets several other friends (and, eventually, a boyfriend) in her church youth group.
The authors also dealt with academic pressures, which we've heard a lot about in the media in the past year or two. Ana felt that she needed to be first in her class in order to get admitted to Princeton. The pressure was strong and constant. Her extra-curricular activities were carefully orchestrated in light of the college application process. As a freshman in high school, Ana and her parents were already thinking in terms of 'key differentiators' and how having a 'passion' would look good on her application.
The Miracle Girls is so much more than a story about a group of high school friends. Although it is full of likeable characters, it is really about Ana ... how she found a few good friends in a new school, and how in the end that turned out to be enough, and maybe even better than being part of the 'in' crowd. It is about how she balanced having a life in high school with having huge dreams for the future. It is about how she embraced her cultural roots even though at least one of her parents seemed a little embarrassed by them. And it was about respecting parents and rules and boundaries, and at the same time becoming a person who can both ask for and handle increased freedom.
Additional information:
The Miracle Girls is scheduled to be released September 8, 2008.
To purchase this book from Amazon, click HERE.
To visit the authors' website (and find out how you can win a signed copy of this book), click HERE.
Special thanks to Miriam Parker at Hachette Book Group USA for sending me this book to read and review.

Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your "teaser" from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.
Please avoid spoilers!
"The little Bathsheba! I'm not moving."

Summary:
Product description: Preston Clearwater has been a criminal since stealing two chain saws and 1,600 pairs of aviator sunglasses from the Army during the Second World War. Back on the road in post-war
During his hilarious and scary adventures we learn of Henry's fundamentalist youth, an upbringing that doesn't prepare him for his new life. As he falls in love and questions his religious training, Henry begins to see he's being used--that the fun and games are over, that he is on his own in a way he never imagined.
Shana's Review:
The Bible Salesman is a quick, entertaining read. It's comic Southern fiction that will have you laughing out loud as you follow the misguided adventures of sweet, naive Henry Dampier.
Henry is at once pious, flawed, and tempted. The story is told from his point of view with flashbacks to his childhood and occasional interjections from Clearwater's point of view, which give the reader a glimpse into the criminal's mind but can come as a bit of a surprise since there is no clear dilineation between the changing voices.
Henry has no idea that Clearwater is a seasoned criminal. He thinks the taciturn Clark Gable look-alike is an undercover F.B.I. agent. At times one wonders how the young man can be so naive, but then, that's part of what makes this story so funny.
The dialogue between characters is authentic and amusing. Often conversations are comically meandering. It's easy to picture them sitting around the kitchen table, or driving down the road, waxing eloquent about religion or their latest business venture. Edgerton does a fantastic job with the southern dialect spoken by his characters.
Throughout most of the book, Edgerton keeps the reader wondering just exactly how Henry will extricate himself from this situation without ending up in prison, or worse yet, Clearwater's next victim. But given the overall tone of this story, it is safe to assume that somehow it will all work out for Henry in the end.
A friend asked if I thought this book would be offensive to Christians. (Henry is a Baptist in a staunchly religious community who has recently began reading the Bible with a critical eye, which has given rise to a few questions and doubts.) I enjoyed reading about Henry's struggle to come to terms with faith and religion. He read the Bible literally and in doing so, stumbled upon somewhat obvious contradictions that he refused to overlook but instead examined with a questioning mind.
Rather than seeing this as a condemnation of Christianity or religion in general, I found it provided another layer to the story, one that in the end leaves the reader wondering if Henry lost his faith, or embraced a more refined and enlightened version of it.
Oh, and did I mention this book is FUNNY? Actually, I did, but it bears repeating. In fact, I was flipping through it several days after finishing, looking for a specific passage, and kept coming across comic parts of the story and laughing at them all over again.
Additional information:
To purchase this book on Amazon, click HERE.
To visit Clyde Edgerton's website, click HERE.
Special thanks to Miriam Parker at Hachette Book Group USA for sending me this book to read and review.



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My friend Dar at the wonderful blog Peeking Between the Pages nominated me for the Super Commenter Award. Thank you, Dar!
Now I am supposed to pass the award along to seven other people, which I am happy to do because it gives me the opportunity to express my gratitude to the people who visit my blog and provide support, feedback and friendship with their comments.
So, here goes ...
Many thanks to these regular and valued commenters and to everyone else who stops by to read, browse, and occasionally leave a comment. Like most bloggers, I adore comments!

Summary:
From the book jacket: In the wake of factory closings and his beloved wife's death, Lev is on his way from Eastern Europe to
Homesickness dogs Lev, not only for nostalgic reasons, but because he doesn't belong, body or soul, to his new country-but can he really go home again? Rose Tremain's prodigious talents as a prose writer are on full display in The Road Home, but her novel never loses sight of what is truly important in the lives we lead.
Shana's Review:
The Road Home, which was released yesterday, August 26, has already been awarded the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. Sometimes I read a book that has won a prestigious award and I come away wondering why it won, or I may understand why, but award or no, I just didn't like the book. Not so with The Road Home. It is completely deserving of the Orange Prize and I loved every page of it.
Rose Tremain has given us a poignant, perfectly crafted novel. It is beautifully written. The plot ambles along at a relaxed and steady pace, but never once did I lose interest. I attribute this to two things. First, the compelling characters and Tremain's ability to draw the reader in, to make us emotionally invested in what happens to these rather ordinary people.
Lev ... I really liked this guy. And by the book's end, I knew him so well. Lev's journey to London and the life he lived there made the immigrant experience so real. The competing cacophony of emotions: he was hopeful, overwhelmed, frustrated, angry, sad, at one point blissfully in love. He felt he was betraying those he left behind just by being in London, even though he was there to make life better for them; if he enjoyed life in his temporary city, he felt guilty. I felt Lev's frustration with the language barrier. Reading about how he was treated as somehow inferior just because he dressed differently, had different mannerisms, struggled to understand and make himself understood made my heart break with sympathy.
There were other characters who I grew to care about, and surprisingly most were men. I sometimes find it difficult to warm to adult male characters. But in this case, I quickly came to adore Rudi, Lev's brash and reckless, yet big-hearted old friend and Christy Slane, Lev's sweet, easygoing, down on his luck London flatmate.
The second thing that stands out about this novel are the descriptions of the two central places: London and the unnamed Eastern European country Lev comes from. The richly textured images Tremain so masterfully creates stand alone, but are especially meaningful when viewed in contrast. Lev's home country, struggling to feel hopeful after the fall of communism seemed bleak, faded, gray, sadly downtrodden. London, a frenzied melting pot, at times glamorous and sophisticated, at others gritty and ordinary, but always colorful and alive.
The characters and images in this highly readable, exquisitely written book will remain with me long after I turned the last page.
Additional information:
To purchase this book from Amazon, click HERE.
To read more about Rose Tremain and her other books, click HERE.
Special thanks to Miriam Parker at Hachette Book Group USA for sending me this book to read and review.
I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to interview the very gracious and talented Elizabeth Brundage, author of the recently released psychological thriller, Somebody Else's Daughter. (If you haven't read my review, click HERE to do so.)
The reality is it’s not a big stretch for me to write about somebody with an eating disorder, for example, because I have known so many women who have been afflicted by them. However, it’s not just writing about “an eating disorder” for the sake of writing about one as a character trait. I see that particular problem as being a symptom of a much larger, more complex problem that I tried to address thematically in this novel by looking at pornography, teenage sexuality and adultery – by exploring the ways in which we view women in society – and have viewed them for centuries – how we look at women, how we evaluate women, etc.
Again, we are being taught how to behave. Yes, betrayal hurts. It’s very disruptive to a relationship, and it causes a tremendous amount of pain and sometimes the damage is irrevocable. Yet, truly, there are worse things. Betrayal is not a death; it’s not sickness; it’s not a terminal condition. Betrayal is a strategy of warfare. When there is a war inside the marriage (and it may be a silent war), betrayal becomes a useful tactic. 1. For one entry, post a comment here and mention some aspect of this interview you found enlightening or interesting.
2. For another entry, read my review of Somebody Else's Daughter and again, post a relevant comment on that entry. The review is HERE.
3. For a third entry, spread the word about this interview and giveaway by blogging about it. Link to this post and leave the URL of your blog post in the comments here.



Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your "teaser" from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.
Please avoid spoilers!
"Aunt Dorie had told Henry to stay away from Nicky Noland and his brothers. Somebody brought them to church on the two Sundays of the annual attendance contests with Zion Baptist."

Summary:
From the book jacket: In ancient Israel, war is looming. Deborah, a highly respected leader, has coerced the warrior Barak into launching a strike against the neighboring Canaanites. Against all odds he succeeds, returning triumphantly with Asherah and Nogah, daughters of the Canaanite King, as his prisoners. But military victory is only the beginning of the turmoil, as a complex love triangle develops between Barak and the two princesses.
Deborah, recently cast off by her husband, develops a surprising affinity for Barak. Yet she struggles to rebuild her existence on her own terms, while also groping her way toward the greatest triumph of her life.
Shana's Review:
Contrary to what the title might lead one to believe, four characters share center stage in this book: Deborah, Barak, Asherah and Nogah. Eventually, I came to appreciate each of them. I saw their faults, felt annoyed and frustrated with them, but in the end I also sensed good in each one. They all possessed certain admirable qualities, even though it was often those very characteristics that led them to behave in less than admirable ways.
This novel gave life and texture to a period of time I previously knew very little about. The book begins with a war between the Israelites and Canaanites, in which Israel was victorious. A period of 40 years of peace follwed, and The Triumph of Deborah tells the story of how that peace came about, though the eyes of key players in the peacemaking process.
As the plot steadily unfolded, I found it difficult to put this book down. I wanted Nogah, my favorite character, to get the guy - Barak, who she loved desperately and rather blindly. I wanted peace to reign between the Israelites and Canaanites. I wanted happiness for Deborah, because she was so good, so noble, so just, able to look past her personal feelings about people and situations and see the truth.
Etzioni-Halevy has written two other novels, about well-known biblical characters Hannah and Ruth
, and I look forward to reading both after being mesmerized by her story of Deborah.
Additional information:
To purchase this book on Amazon, click HERE.
To visit the author's website, click HERE.
Special thanks to the author, Eva Etzioni-Halevy, for sending me a copy of this book to read and review.

The Streets of Babylon by Carina Burman, translated by Sarah Death
Summary:
From the publisher’s website: Self-centered, tactless and irresistible, Euthanasia Bondeson makes her debut on the crime novel scene. The setting is London in 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition. Together with a Welsh police inspector the successful Swedish authoress goes in search of her beautiful companion, who has disappeared in the narrow streets and alleyways of London.
She meets beggars and whores, artists and society beauties, all actors on the modern city’s stage in a drama of dark shadows and ever changing desires. In this world where gender boundaries are constantly shifting, can we even tell who is a man and who is a woman?
With skirts flapping Euthanasia forges her way through this romp of a crime novel, surveying the streets which Sherlock Holmes himself will not tread until a whole generation later.
Shana’s Review:
The Streets of Babylon was my first Victorian mystery. I certainly noticed a strong Victorian aura to this novel, and thought it was an extremely well-written introduction to the genre. Carina Burman has done extensive doctoral research in 18th and 19th century literature and that expertise shows through in this, her fifth novel.
Euthanasia Bondeson was an interesting character. An authoress and woman of independent means in an era where both were rare, she was strong-willed and audacious, often saying the wrong thing, or at best, too much and defying the Victorian strictures of the society in which she moved. She sees everything through the writer’s eye, and I felt great affinity for her when she said, '…whenever I have experienced anything, it does not become real for me until I have written it down, or at least spoken of it.'
The plot was interesting and well-paced. I was not sure who had kidnapped Euthanasia’s traveling companion Agnes until the author revealed the perpetrator’s identity. Likewise, I found myself wondering along with Euthanasia if Agnes was dead or alive.
There was also a romance element that kept me guessing. Euthanasia proclaimed, 'Men do not interest me greatly, and I have never regretted remaining single ...' but there were three attractive male characters in the book with whom the adventurous heroine did her fair share of chaste Victorian flirting. I found myself wondering if she would end up falling in love and into a romantic relationship after all.
I particularly enjoyed the fact that Euthanasia, though accepted into London's high society due to her stature as a world-famous author, preferred to explore the slums of the city and displayed a genuine concern for the underprivileged citizens she encountered there. The image of her standing on a dark and dirty street corner in a treacherous neighborhood with the silhouettes of the Tower and London Bridge in the background really stood out to me.
If you’re looking for a rapidly-paced thriller of a mystery, this may not be the book for you. However, if you enjoy genteel mysteries with impeccable period detail and just enough violence and irreverence to keep things interesting, you will likely find The Streets of Babylon a thoroughly entertaining read.
Additional information:
To purchase this book from Amazon, click HERE.
Special thanks to Marion Boyars Publishers for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Summary and review:
I'd never helped a sickly cow.
(I just knew how to milk and plow.)But I knew what my mom would do
If it were me who had the flu.I tucked the Guernsey into bed
with tissues for her stuffy head.
Eventually the animals are nursed back to health, and when the boy begins to sneeze and feel under the weather, they repay the favor.
This book is chock full of elements that appeal to children, including playful, rhyming text and colorful illustrations of animals and farm scenes. My daughter particularly enjoyed when I employed 'sound effects' for the many sneezes that took place throughout the story.
Additional information:
To purchase this book from Amazon, click HERE.

There were 19 items in the list. Here they are in random order: