Six Sentence Saturday-

Welcome to Six Sentence Saturday.

Where I try to express my thoughts on recent reads using only 6 sentences!!!!.
At the end of each review I will post a
rating scale of 1-5 using the cute and original (lol) Playing Cards.
Rating scale will be as follows:

5 of Hearts- You must read this book NOW!!
4 of Hearts- A great read, put it on your TBR list.
3 of Hearts- Glad I read but no big deal
2 of Hearts- Why did I finish this?
Joker Card - Don't bother (why did I?)

Running Loose- Chris Crutcher

High school student Louie thinks he knows everything he wants out of life.A starting place on the football team, a bunch of friends, and a nice girl to show off to mom and dad. Only after Louie's football coach directs his team to inure a rival school's star black player, does he start to question how he feels about the sport he worked all summer to perfect. The only things keeping Louie sane are his girlfriend Beth, his best friend Carter, his book Dakota and the people who always have his back, his mom and dad. Louie faces hard decision after hard decision deciding if he should play along with the coaches' ways or stand for what he believes to be right. Louie's feelings are genuine and will make you think ow strongly you've fought to prove what you know to be just.

The Astonishing Adventures of Fan Boy and Goth Girl - Barry Lyga

 Have you ever felt like you're on top of the world? Just feel like everything is going your way and all the pretty girls and cool kids want to hang out with you? Well, that's about the opposite of how Donnie has felt since his very first day of middle school. Donnie is the very definition of the word geek, but his personality dives much deeper than the freaky kid in tenth grade (might be wrong grade) who still likes comic book and old Star Trek episodes. When Donnie meets Kyra, he not only finds his second ever friend, but someone who understands his views and shares his love for graphic novels. Donnie's life is full of turmoil, but he still finds happiness in his artwork, his friend Cal and adventure and trouble from the new girl he might just happen to love.

Marc's rating for both books:

I would like to thank my son Marc who so graciously sat down yesterday after school and wrote these two reviews for me!! I think he rocks and am always amazed at how effortlessly his writing comes to him!! 

When I asked him where he saved these reviews he showed me the title he gave to the document- 

marcs contribution to mommas blog (i think you have a problem, blog addict!)

I love this kid!

Library Loot- An Addict in Recovery

A few days ago I made little stacks of books that I wanted to read for the upcoming weeks and into April. I get such a rush when I gaze upon them....definitely a strange person!! Anyway, here is what I've added to those stacks this past week. I'm struggling with finding a happy medium with the amount of books that I bring in and how many I can actually read before they're due!

Marriage and Other Acts of Charity - Kate Braestrup
I read her first book, a memoir of sorts, Here If You Need Me, and loved her honest voice. I'm really looking forward to reading this one as she shares her life with us. I'm also partly blaming Kathy (Bermudaonion) for her awesome review which nudged me into requesting this one from the library!

The Last Song- Nicholas Sparks
I saw the trailer for the movie based on this book and honestly, it made me want to read it!! I need a Sparks book every now and again!
Nicholas Sparks's new novel is at once a compelling family drama and a heartrending tale of young love.

Anthropology - Dan Rhodes
Blame for this book goes to JoAnn (Lakeside Musing). Her review of this book immediately had me putting a request in for it!! I so can't wait to read these short 101 word stories.

Faceless Killers  (Wallander #1) - Henning Mankell
Nan (Letters From a Hill Farm) raves about this writer and his books, so I felt the urgent need to experience it for myself!! With her help she has guided me to this book...thanks Nan!!
From Goodreads: At once a gripping mystery in the classic detective tradition and an incisive commentary on contemporary society, Faceless Killers introduces Swedish Inspector Kurt Wallander, a cop whose personal life is in shambles. Tenacious and levelheaded in his sleuthing, Wallander has to deal with an eruption of antiforeign sentiment as he searches for brutal killers.

Books Read in 2010 to date: 42
Number of Books Checked out from the library:22

Review: If You Follow Me - Malena Watrous

“Dear Miss Marina… First learn gomi law, second Japanese language, and third you can enjoy international friendship. This is like holding hands across a sea!”
And so begins If You Follow Me and our narrator Marina’s lessons in “gomi” (garbage) law, Japanese culture, and the workings of Shika, the small, rural Japanese town in which she is teaching English for one year. For Marina, Shika is more than just her home as a “temporary person.” It’s also an attempt to escape the reality that has followed her everyday since her father committed suicide. But as Marina comes to realize, in Japan, you can never really throw away your past.

My Thoughts:
Being an exchange student in Japan during the summer of 1987, I thought that I might read about the Japan that I experienced. That was not the case. I'm sure much has changed over the course of 23 years, but I'm afraid that I really didn't connect much with the characters.  After realizing that I needed to put my time in Japan on the back burner, I was able to enjoy the story for what it was....a year in the life of Marina, who is trying to come to terms with her father's suicide. She believes that if she removes herself from that painful part of her life, that everything will be better. This is definitely a fish-out-of -water tale, but I honestly didn't find it very funny, although I did get the humor in regards to the way the Japanese interacted with her. Overall, it was an okay read.

Thanks again to TLC for asking me to be
a part of this book tour .
Check out other tour stops here.

Waiting on Wednesday

at Breaking The Spine

 Pub. Date: March 30, 2010

I love Sandra Dallas and have not been disappointed with any of her books!

 
Whiter Than Snow opens in 1920, on a spring afternoon in Swandyke, a small town near Colorado’s Tenmile Range. Just moments after four o’clock, a large split of snow separates from Jubilee Mountain high above the tiny hamlet and hurtles down the rocky slope, enveloping everything in its path including nine young children who are walking home from school. But only four children survive. Whiter Than Snow takes you into the lives of each of these families: There’s Lucy and Dolly Patch—two sisters, long estranged by a shocking betrayal. Joe Cobb, Swandyke’s only black resident, whose love for his daughter Jane forces him to flee Alabama. There’s Grace Foote, who hides secrets and scandal that belies her genteel façade. And Minder Evans, a civil war veteran who considers his cowardice his greatest sin. Finally, there’s Essie Snowball, born Esther Schnable to conservative Jewish parents, but who now works as a prostitute and hides her child’s parentage from all the world.
Ultimately, each story serves as an allegory to the greater theme of the novel by echoing that fate, chance, and perhaps even divine providence, are all woven into the fabric of everyday life. And it’s through each character’s defining moment in his or her past that the reader understands how each child has become its parent’s purpose for living. In the end, it’s a novel of forgiveness,redemption, survival, faith and family.

Teaser Tuesdays and It's Tuesday...Where are you?

It's Tuesday...Where Are You?

I'm teaching English in a remote city in Japan. 

My neighbors are nosy, my students are uninspired,

and I'm wondering if I made a mistake rooming with my girlfriend!!

_______________________________________________________________

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
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!

  

"In Japan we eat fish like this," Kobayashi-sensei says, popping a whole sardine into his mouth. I smile dutifully, trying to tune out the crunch of tiny bones being ground to a paste.

p.137

~If You Follow Me by Malena Watrous

Review: Raven Stole the Moon by Garth Stein

Title: Raven Stole The Moon
Author: Garth Stein
Pages: 445
Published: Harper Collins March 9, 2010
Genre: Fiction
Source: Terra Communications



On impulse, Jenna Rosen leaves the party she and her real estate developer husband, Robert, are attending in Seattle, takes his BMW and drives north to Bellingham. Again on impulse, she hops on the ferry to the Alaskan town where her Tlingit Indian grandmother lived and died. But there's more than impulse at work here: Jenna and Robert's 5-year-old son, Bobby, drowned in Alaska just two years ago, and something is drawing Jenna back to the scene. On the ferry, she's given a carved silver charm of a Tlingit spirit called a kushtaka, a stealer of souls. "Tlingits don't have good and evil," a local shaman explains, telling the story of how the spirit known as Raven gave the world the sun, moon, and stars by stealing them from someone else. As Jenna learns more about the kushtakas, helped by this very sophisticated shaman and an understanding fisherman, she begins to believe that her son's soul is being held captive by these spirits, as revenge for her husband's greed. Garth Stein's persuasive prose draws us into a book that mixes fantasy with tragedy and the natural human desire for closure.

My Thoughts:

I loved this book.....loved it. It's a story of a mother that is broken and damaged, who needs to find some closure in her life after the death of her young son. One night she walks away from her husband, and her life in Washington and heads back to Alaska looking for answers. The mystical elements of this book are extremely well written and I loved how Stein worked them into this story line, especially using his own Tlingit culture and sharing it with the reader. It made this book fresh and unique. At times, you wonder if Jenna is insane and you are not entirely sure if what she is experiencing and seeing is truly real. Then you sit back and ask yourself......do you believe in the spirit world? I'm a huge fan of The First North American series and this book shares some of the Indian folklore feel of that series. There is also a menacing tone that hums behind the story and you feel yourself becoming tense, anxious, and sometimes frightened as to what will happen next. I'm honestly very surprised that this book is out-of-print, but thanks to Garth's publisher they offered to reprint it. I'm so glad that they did because this truly is a book worth reading!!

 Highly Recommended
4.5 stars out of 5

2 copies for giveaway!!!

Harper Collins is releasing this book on March 9th and to help kick it off they have offered me an additional copy to giveaway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, if you're interested in winning your own copy of this wonderful book please leave your email address in the comment section and on March 14th I will let the Fruit Machine pick a winner!!!

Mailbox Monday and It's Monday...What Are You Reading?

Mailbox Monday

is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.
We share what books that we found in our mailboxes last week.

Books that I won:

Death of a Valentine- M.C. Beaton
This one came courtesy of Kaye from Pudgy Penguin and she's the reason why I started to read this series, so it was fitting that I won this from her blog!






Books from friends in high places:

Brava Valentine and Very Valentine came to me from a person who has a lot of pull with the big wig publishers!! I am over the moon to get these copies for review! Thanks friend!





Books from Publishers:

Lumby Lines - Thanks to Caitlin at FSB Media. I picked this book up a while ago at my library and never got the chance to read it so I'm beyond thrilled to get a review copy!
Nestled in the pages of The Lumby Lines you will read about a quaint little town in the Northwest that its quirky residents are proud to call home. With charming shops lining its one main thoroughfare, the town of Lumny is home to the oldest apple tree in the country and the smallest bank in the state. And though it's a fictional town, readers travel there through this book and the entire series.


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Hosted by Sheila
One Persons Journey Through a World of Books
Weekly meme where we discuss the books you've read
and those you plan to read in the coming week.

Last Week I finished and reviewed:

Mia the Magnificent- Childrens/YA review book
The Power of Half- Personal growth and inspiration book
The Silent Governess- Regency historical romance- LOVED IT!
The Nature of Jade- a new fave YA book of this year
Shiver- will post review 3/13 forgot to do it on Saturday..oops!

Books On Deck:

 

TLC Book Tour- March 11th