Archive for May, 2009
« Previous EntriesThe Sunday Salon – May 31, 2009
Submitted by BOOKS ON THE BRAIN
It’s quiet around here today- the hub’s out of town on business and daughter #2 went to a sleepover birthday party last night. Daughter #1 is still in bed, so it’s just me and the dog, hanging out. And of course, lots of book bloggers are out of town at [...]
Review: The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Submitted by BOOKS ON THE BRAIN
I was so excited to receive The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides as part of the Picador Book Club on Twitter. I read Eugenides’ Middlesex two years ago, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2003, so I was really happy to get this book and started it as [...]
Geeky Guilty Pleasures
Submitted by Book Nut
This week’s geek is all about pleasures:
So. Weekly Geeks, we’re going into the confessional this week.
What’s your non-reading guilty pleasure?
Trashy TV?
Trashier movies?
Junk food?
Share with the group.
And I have to ask: is it a guilty pleasure if everyone knows about it?
I’m cheating this week, and just posting a link to a [...]
May Jacket-Flap-a-thon
Submitted by Book Nut
Summer.
Our air conditioning is on the fritz, and while it’s okay in the house in the morning through mid-afternoon, by evening, we’re dying and retreat to the basement. We must get this fixed… because if it’s this hot at the end of May, who knows how hot it will be in a [...]
Book Review: Not Just The Levees Broke by Phyllis Montana-Leblanc
Submitted by The Thin Red Line
Back in March of this year I wrote about Joshua Clark’s memoir (Sussurus OR Heart Like Water) and concluded by suggesting that those who are not die-hard New Orleanians wait for a better memoir to come along. Phyllis Montana-Leblanc’s Not Just The Levees Broke is in fact an at least [...]
Book to Movie Friday: Nim’s Island
Submitted by Book Nut
It’s officially summer here; yesterday was the last day of school. And to celebrate, I thought I’d put up a summerish book-to-movie post, since around here at least, movies are part of what summer is all about.
Having read the book a short while before I watched the movie, I have to say [...]
Book Review: Cookies To Die For! by Bev Shaffer
Submitted by The Thin Red Line
In our house, my partner Ron is the family baker and today he provides a review of a wonderful new book from Pelican Publishing (located in Gretna, Louisiana my old stomping grounds).
Cookies To Die For! by Bev Shaffer is quite full of them, literally. She assumes that you know [...]
Library Loot #20
Submitted by Book Nut
I put about a dozen books on hold that will be in next week. Plus the girls are out of school. I hope I’m ready for summer…. (You should see my pile for the 48 hour Reading Challenge; I’ll put it up before the challenge starts next week.)
For A/K:
I decided that since [...]
Book Review: Real Cajun by Donald Link
Submitted by The Thin Red Line
Donald Link would probably call himself a real Coon-Ass. Though as a city boy from New Orleans, I wouldn’t quite dare. Those of you who are not from Louisiana may have no idea what that means, while those of you who count Coon-Asses, Cajuns and other Louisianians [...]
The Year the Swallows Came Early
Submitted by Book Nut
by Kathryn Fitzmaurice
ages: 10+
First sentence: “We lived in a perfect stucco house, just off the sparkly Pacific, with a lime tree in the backyard and pink and yellow roses gone wild around a picket fence.”
I started wondering if I went back and looked through my posts, how many would start like this:
[Blank [...]
The Actor and the Housewife
Submitted by Book Nut
by Shannon Hale
ages: adult
First sentence: “Becky was seven months pregnant when she met Felix Callahan.”
Release date: June 9, 2009
ARC sent to me by the publisher.
Becky is your normal, average, run-of-the mill, Mormon mother of (almost) four (she’s pregnant with her fourth when the book opens). She doesn’t work, instead focusing most of [...]
BONUS E-Book Review–Serial by Jack Kilborn and Blake Crouch
Submitted by The Thin Red Line
As a special bonus today I have my first ever e-book review. Best selling authors Jack Kilborn (aka Joe Konrath) and Blake Crouch have teamed up to produce this unique little offerring. Everyone knows how dangerous it is to hitch hike or pick up hitchikers. The first chapter of this [...]
Book Review: Fault Line by Barry Eisler
Submitted by The Thin Red Line
Yesterday I wrote about a category of author who is popular and has published a number of books and with whom I am familiar with from working with those books as a library drone and a bookseller but have never read. That category is truly vast. But today’s category “authors [...]
Review: Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
Submitted by BOOKS ON THE BRAIN
Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett is the story of the author’s friendship with troubled fellow author and poet, the late Lucy Grealy.
I read Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face last year and developed very strong, protective feelings for this brilliant girl/woman who was permanently disfigured by Ewing Sarcoma and [...]
7 Ways To Make Sure No One Reads Your Blog Posts
Submitted by BOOKS ON THE BRAIN
I picked up a few tips from the comments in Read Me and wanted to pass them along!
1. Be longwinded. Lots of readers will skip right over your posts if they are extra long.
2. Write lengthy paragraphs. Breaking up your writing into smaller chunks makes it much too easy for [...]
Book Review: The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly
Submitted by The Thin Red Line
Working at the library, I’ve gotten to know just a little bit about all sorts of popular authors, though in most cases I have never and probably will never read these authors and their books. Just off the top of my head I could tell you that David Baldacci , [...]
Welcome To The New Libdrone
Submitted by The Thin Red Line
Welcome! If this is not your first visit, you will undoubtedly have noticed that this site has undergone a whole bunch of changes in recent days. I have a new theme and a new look. I have consolidated all of the About pages and even added a few more. I [...]
The 19th Wife
Submitted by Book Nut
by David Ebershoff
ages: adult
First sentence: “In the one year since I renounced my Mormon faith, and set out to tell the nation the truth about American polygamy, many people have wondered why I ever agreed to become a plural wife.”
Three bloggers, whose opinions I respect and who are all members of my [...]
The Wee Free Men
Submitted by Book Nut
by Terry Pratchett
ages: 12+
First sentence: “Some things start before other things.”
Yes, I’m here in Cincinnati, enjoying the lull in the reunion (there’s an awesome uncle who make a great playmate, and the rest of us thoroughly enjoy the downtime… though they do come away really wound up)… it’s been fun being with [...]
Read Me
Submitted by BOOKS ON THE BRAIN
Are you a skimmer or a reader?
I’m guilty. Sometimes I don’t read an entire review or blog post (gasp!)
If a post is very long, I’ll skim. If it’s a review for a book I’m currently reading, I’ll skim and comment that I’m reading it now and was just looking to [...]
Devilish
Submitted by Book Nut
by Maureen Johnson
ages: 13+
First sentence: “So this was how it ended.”
Ingredients for a fun YA romance:
1 kick-butt heroine (this ohe’s named Joan)
1 best friend in trouble (Allison)
Add
1 not-so-hot ex-boyfriend
1 interesting new friend who may be trouble
1 new guy who may or may not be a love interest
Mix in some adventure, interesting family [...]
Library Loot #19
Submitted by Book Nut
Small haul this week because we’re off tomorrow for a quickie Memorial Day family reunion with my family. Who knows exactly how much we’ll read.
By the way, Hubby really enjoyed the Tiffany Aching books, and is currently reading Small Gods…
For A/K:
Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months, by Maurice Sendak
Jack the [...]
Ranger’s Apprentice: The Burning Bridge
Submitted by Book Nut
by John Flanagan
ages: 10-14
First sentence: “Halt and Will had been trailing the Wargals for three days.”
When we last left our determined Hero, Will, he had just killed off a couple of Big Bad Guy Morgarath’s bad beasties, and received a hero’s welcome home. But, this being War, he is not allowed to [...]
Teaser Tuesdays-May 19, 2009
Submitted by BOOKS ON THE BRAIN
Miz B and Teaser Tuesdays asks you to: Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) 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” [...]
Review: The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer
Submitted by BOOKS ON THE BRAIN
“We think we know the ones we love.”
The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer is about Pearlie and Holland, a young couple living in San Francisco in the 1950s with their invalid son, a victim of polio. They sleep in separate rooms and don’t communicate well, but [...]
