Gone – Lisa McMann

To tell the truth, I had to borrow the first book in the trilogy to be able to do this review.  So, this will be a refresher of the first 2 books and then my last thoughts.

Janine has been dreaming other peoples dreams since she was 8 years old.  Unknown to her, she is a dream catcher.  At first Janine was so afraid of what was happening to her, she thought she was crazy, but then noticed that when her classmates slept or was near a person who was dreaming she would dream the same dreams they would be having.

As time passes, she gets to know a boy who lives near her Caleb.  He was once the boy who was always in scraggly clothes, never seemed to fit in with anyone, and kept to himself.  One day, where Janine hears rumours about a new boy in the school.  It isn’t who anyone imagined – Caleb.

Once Janine and Caleb become friends there is a connection.  In fact, there was always one that has now frown into something else – quirky, personally, and professionally.  She begins to work with Caleb doing undercover work to bring down criminals in the town they live in.

Now, In Gone, Janine and Caleb are still together as a couple, working cases.  There is one thing different, remember the green notebook that she was uneasy with reading?  Well, she finally reads it she is shocked with what she finds.  Not only unexpected, but quite shocking.

Janine also finds out something else that is even more shocking.  Her mother is found outside of the house yelling, crying, something about someone in the hospital from her past…

Will Janine make the decisions that are right for her, or for all the people involved?

In my honest opinion, I had troubles with the first book Wake.  Since these books are intended for 14 yr old girls, I found a fair amount of sexual references that was quite shocking to me.  I did not feel good about it at all.  The 2nd book Fade was a bit better, with more of the issues at the fore front.  Still a bit on the heavy side for this age group.

In Gone, it was a strong book that stands up better than the first two in the trilogy.  There were some strong, dark situations that she had to make decisions for the rest of her life.

All in all I would have to say that I would pass on all three.

Lisa’s Website

Simon and Schuster / Simon Pulse

Union Atlantic – Adam Haslett

I was quite surprised by this novel.

Doug is a trader for one of America’s largest banks.  Charlotte is his next door neighbour who wants him and his huge mansion removed from her property that it now sits on.  Charlotte’s father once owned the land then donated it to the town where they live in his will.  The town then sold it.  Charlotte’s dogs have recently began to talk to her, lecturing to her while they are taking walks, or just about in the house.  She was once a history teacher at the local high school, her behaviour in class and around town made it impossible for her to continue.

Doug also has his own problems at work.  He is struggling to rein in one of his associates that is in Asia doing business for him and the bank.  He has recently been adding more money to the fund saying that it is better to add more money because they will make a killing after it pays off.  If it doesn’t happen in time, the bank may go under.  It is just after 9/11, the war in the gulf is just starting up.

Amid all of this chaos, Doug has met a young teenager from town.  Charlotte is also tutoring him in history so that he will be able to graduate high school and go to college.  Doug came across him as he was breaking into his house.  This unusual relationship turns into more than Doug imagined.  The bank’s position is made known to Charlotte’s brother who is the President of the New York Federal Reserve.

Within the confines of banking, Doug’s place is making it hard for him to be able to bargain.  He needs to walk a fine line between his job, the lawsuit Charlotte is issuing against him, and of course the underage high school senior.

It was at times complex, intriguing, sometimes humorous modern novel that had me not wanting to put it down.  Deeply philosophical and daring this is a book that many will commiserate with.

Random House / Nan A. Talese

Author’s Website

GIVEAWAY – THE POSTMISTRESS CANADIANS ONLY !!

I received an email from one of the lovely people from penguin asking me if I would be able to do a giveaway and of course I said YES!

So, this is how it is going to go…..

I have FIVE copies of the advanced readers edition to give away.

These are the Rules

CANADIANS ONLY !!

NO POST OFFICE BOXES !!

NO FREEBIE SITE REFERRALS !!

ONE ENTRY PER PERSON, IP ADDRESS, YADA, YADA

Leave a comment WITH a valid email address about why you would want to have a copy of this lovely, LOVELY book.

This will run until March the 1st, 2010.

Oh yeah, anyone else will be disqualified, coz that is just how I roll !

MY review is HERE

The Postmistress – Sarah Blake

“Those who carry the truth sometimes bear a terrible weight”

It is the early 1940’s, war is raging in Europe.  Frankie Bard is there covering the war for American Radio with Edward R. Murrow.

As the bombs drop down into the dark night sky in London, Emma and her new husband have been just reunited in the small town of Franklin, Massachusetts, where he is a doctor.  This small town has it quirks and eccentricities as do all small towns; Harry is one of them – he climbs the steps to the tower on the town hall every night to search the waters for u boats, he is adamant that will arrive on their shores.

The Postmistress Iris does her job to the letter every single day keeping the town’s secrets while delivering the mail.  Until one day, she slips a letter into her pocket.  Afterwards, she reads the letter; then decides not to deliver it.

As Frankie delivers the news from Europe, she is asked in the middle of it to travel the rails to get as many stories as she can from the people who are travelling to other parts of Europe; in search of their stories, their feelings, parts of their lives recorded on a new voice recorder.  She has wanted to do this before; to travel to France where she has heard snippets of information about the Germans that are putting all the Jewish people in camps.  The people in the US don’t think the war will touch them and live as though it won’t.

As the people tell their stories to Frankie, she is changed.  Once the tough woman going to Europe to be a correspondent, she is moved by these people’s stories; as well as the guards that take each and every Jewish person off the trains at different stops; not knowing that they will be probably be dead within hours.

Two seemingly different places in the world that is just as separate as they are in miles away.  A simple letter is the only thing that will bring the two together, along with the three women, the loss of innocence, what things happen to the cherished moments, when those moments are gone forever when the news is broken from far away, and up close.

I was mesmerized and immediately taken away when I started reading the first few pages of the book.  Caught up in the 1940’s between small town America, where life for the moment was normal, and Europe during the WWII as it raged on, bombs dropping from the sky night after night.

The manner in which the author had woven the intricate worlds of both to encapsulate the reader was like poetry.  The way that the incidents, how we experienced the events as it continued its way until the end where it will change us forever.  I absolutely loved this book.  I hope that it will capture you as it did me.

Reading Group Guides

Penguin / Amy Einhorn

Wanting – Richard Flanagan

In 1844, Sir John Franklin and his wife were starting a colonial life of sorts on Van Diemen’s Land, a remote Australian island where they are attempting to teach the aboriginals a more refined type of culture with living in real houses, eating food that is new to them, learning new ways.

Lady Jane, however, is enamoured with a young Aboriginal girl Mathina; as time goes on they adopt her and attempt to raise her as their own kind.  She likes the thought of going back to civilization with a black girl, but once she is in the house and living with them, she isn’t so sure.

25 years later, Sir John’s ship that he is travelling to the South Pole on disappears attempting to find the Northwest Passage.  Rumours of cannibalism coming from the search parties frighten and have them think that the men who went on the ships were insane, bringing fear to all.

Charles Dickens is not shocked, but appalled at what he is reading in the paper.  He composes a letter to the paper debating the facts of the original story that had printed; even more intriguing than the original story published.

At around the same time, Dickens is evaluating his own home life with his wife and children.  They would have had many more, but because of many miscarriages and young deaths of children have given them a shroud of grief around their home.  He thinks of how it was before, His wife thinks about all the suffering she has accepted as part of her life being a wife and mother.  The work of just doing household duties, although, her back is in so much pain from having children.

With all the tragicness of the events happening in these three stories, it becomes a personal voyage for the reader to actually look back at their lives to date, what we have done, what is yet to be accomplished in the future.
Desire and denial of it, the why and the reasons why shapes our lives for good or bad.

Is wanting something or someone worth the risk? Are we being selfish to want the things we want when we want it? Have we thought through exactly what we want to be getting out of life; or to want to fight for it tooth and nail at any cost to make it?

This is a book I have read for the IMAP Reading Challenge that is being sponsored by HarperCollins Canada.

HarperCollins

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Eyewitness Forensic Science – Chris Cooper

If you seen or heard talk about CSI’s or Forensic Sciences on tv have you ever wondered about what they do and how they do it?  I wondered so much that I got this book.

This is the updated edition which includes a clip art cd for your own personal projects, as well as a full size poster that you can hang on your wall.

It showed me how the creative ways they first used to solve crimes in the beginning.

How they can find how and what time that people have died using bugs by seeing how old the bugs actually are using a timeline.  How they gather evidence from a crash scene and how delicately they do it.  Man, they have a lot of things they have to do when attending a crime scene.  This is just the beginning.

I liked how they can gather pieces of explosives and then decide what kind of explosive it is, then it is on to gathering other fragile information such as fingerprints, or stuff like soft drink cans or bottles.

I really liked how they can find different guns, and the different ballistics they use to pinpoint different types of guns and ammunition.

It is amazing how cautious they are, what they touch, and how they touch it, to be able to get  information from the piece of evidence they are taking into evidence; and of course the measures they take to secure the crime scene.

DK Books

How to Be A Genius – Your Brain And How To Train It – John Woodward

Full of puzzles and activities to not only train your brain, but to also boost your brain power !

I like the fact that it is very organized, full of colour posts.  It is interesting to see how the brain as well as the different parts of the brain work with one another, and separately.

The simple experiments that you can do by yourself or with a friend are cool too.  I plugged my nose and ate a banana.  Guess what, I couldn’t taste it like it said in the book.  I also tried the one where you get a piece of paper towel and I got all the saliva off my tongue as I could, I tried tasting the banana again; guess what I still couldn’t taste it.

The brain puzzles are really fun too woah

From meeting your brain, senses, to how your memory works, to helping to solve problems, learning how to be more creative, learning how your brain makes you the way you are is great.  This book is for kids that are inquisitive on how their brains work, and how amazing our bodies are, especially our brains.

Here is a sampling of what is inside -

DK Books

Browse Inside

Life In The Wild – DK Publishing

If you are an animal lover, you MUST get this book!

This portrait gallery of some of the worlds familiar, exotic, and quite bizarre animals is the most comprehensive I have come across in a long time.

All of the animals are featured in groups – mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians show how diverse and unique the animal species really is.

The rich colour photographs, even the expressions of the animals had me intrigued as I turned the pages.  My son was utterly amazed, he looked at it for hours without a break, asking questions as he went through the book.

It was amazing at how some species are so fragile, diverse, in this lavish, illustrated book.

Just breathtaking!

Here is a sampling at what is inside Life in The Wild -

DK Books

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Pre-Historic Life – DK Publishing

Have you ever wondered what the earth was like from the dawn of time until human life began?  This book is the story of evolution to life as we know it now.  From tiny bacteria to the tyrannosaurus rex along with everything in between.

Sections such as Early Earth, The Story of Life, Rise of Humans, these sections describe in such detail how it all started and evolved to who we are, how diverse we are, what we no longer see, the smallest of microbes to the largest animals that used to inhabit the earth are just some of the things they cover in this book.

Just glancing through the book, I am amazed how diverse we are now compared to when everything started.  The photographs are just amazing, the attention to detail impeccable, this is one book I will treasure for many, many years.

Here is a sampling of what is inside Pre-Historic Life -

DK Books

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Science – Adam Hart-Davis

I am more and more impressed with the quality and substance of the book from DK.  I am in awe of the attention to detail, as well as the rich photographs, graphs, and history they include to make it an all around one stop guide to getting information.  This book is a prime example of what to expect.

Science is one of those books that tells you the story of scientific progress from the invention of the wheel to 21 st century climate solutions.  Every key moment of discovery, which also includes the people who discovered it, as well as what things we cannot live without, the inventions, concepts have changed our world.  Even the most complex concepts are told in an amazingly easy way so that anyone can understand it.

• Key Concepts are explained
• Biographies done in profile style
• Inventions – inventions that have transformed our modern world as we know it now
• Breakthroughs – How people view the world, from Darwin to the structure of DNA
• Real World Applications – illustrated panels about how complex they are and how they are used
• Connections – Links are established throughout the book of the actions and consequences, from gun powder to the WWW
• Reference Section – Stand alone section in the back that provides statistics, figures, tables, laws and formulae

If there is anything you wanted to know about science, this is your go to book.

Here is a sampling of what is inside -

DK Books

Browse Inside Science

Math Dictionary Canadian Edition – DK Publishing

When you were a kid and came home with math homework, eventually forgetting what something meant was a real drag wasn’t it?  Not only could you not finish your homework, you may have lost marks on your grades for it.  Well, have no fear! DK has this amazing reference book for not only your children, but for us parents that will help us  not only explain, but show you everything you want or need to know about math.  I know, I know, I can hear the screaming from my son now, about having do math homework or even having a book about it lurking on the bookshelf.  This is a really good book.  Starting from A to Z, it has definitions, images and diagrams that are super easy to understand and to get you out of that math funk.

This book is geared for children ages 8- 12 years.

Here is a sampling of what is inside -

DK Canada

Reef – Scubazoo

This book is just absolutely GORGEOUS! Published by Scubazoo, celebrates the beauty, diversity, and of course some of the most astonishing creatures on the planet.  This is the definitive guide (at least I think so) of the world underneath the water that we cannot see unless we went under to experience for ourselves.  Just the beauty of how the reef’s sustain itself, along with the absolutely stunning photographs make this a book that is not only a coffee table book, but one that will enlighten you, amaze you, and have you coming back to learn a bit more about the habitat, conservation, beauty of these fragile little worlds, which are known as the rainforests of the sea.

Did you know that they only cover 1% of the earth’s surface, but yet they are home to 25% of  all marine species?

Here is a sampling of what is inside…

DK Books

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The Coral Reef Alliance

Q and A with Author Elizabeth Noble

I would like to take this time to welcome Elizabeth to Serendipitous Readings! I hope you enjoy the Q and A I recently got to do with her.

What was it about the premise of the story that you wanted to get across in the book? I moved to New York in the summer of 2006, and was immediately captivated by the idea of all these interesting people from everywhere, living all on top of each other on this tiny island – the idea that behind every single door, there was a story…

With you living in New York, is there a eclectic vibe to the city? I can’t imagine anywhere more eclectic than New York.

What do you value most in your friends? Loyalty, humor, and the fact that they know me well and love me anyway.

What talent would you most want to have besides writing? I wish I could run.  I really can’t.  Not even for the bus.  Sing, play piano…I could be here a while.

What is your greatest extravagance? Shoes and handbags.  They always come in my size.

When and where you the most happiest? When my babies were born.  Happiest, tiredest, messiest.  But mostly happiest.

If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? A faster metabolism.

Who are your favourite writers and why? Anita Shreve and Armistead Maupin.  For their craftmanship with words and plot, and for their endless ability to move me.

What would be the one quality you would like in either sex? I’d like for men to be less ‘fix it’ orientated.  Sometimes we just want to vent and have you listen.  And for women, to care less, sometimes, about what other women think.

What would be your greatest regret? I only regret the things I wasn’t brave enough to do when I was younger.  I intend to spend middle age doing them all – I just won’t look as good doing them…

You can visit Elizabeth’s Website here

My review of The Girl Next Door

Shame – Karin Alvtegen – Translated by Steven T. Murray

Monika is a doctor.  The clinic where she works, she is the head of surgery.  They want her to go to a 4 day leadership conference.  She doesn’t really want to go.

She wasn’t ready for what was going to happen after she went there.  It opened up old wounds that she thought were gone and forgotten.

Maj-Britt lives on her own in a flat with her dog.  She is obese as is her dog.  She is unable to do many thing for herself such as shopping.  She has home care workers that come to her home.  She doesn’t talk to them, she lets them do their thing and she does hers, which is eating, watching tv.  She likes being quiet, and being on her own doing as she pleases.  One day, she receives a letter from someone who she knew in her past that shakes her to the core.  The past memories and incidents that she thought were long gone, forgotten.

This is the story of 2 women who didn’t realize it until the unexpected happened.  They thought their pasts were behind them, but that one switch that they thought  disabled wasn’t.  The switch  flicked on, all the past memories, fears, resentments, actions all came back into an instant; the tragedy based on that one switch coming back all at once.

What was the switch? A tragic automobile accident.

They do not know it now, but they are loosely connected to the people who affected.  It becomes clear, it is the shame, their reluctance of dealing with their past will predict their futures, or what will be willing to sacrifice.

I enjoyed the book.  Translated from Swedish, the translator did a wonderful job bringing forth the emotions to english.

I can’t place my finger on it, there was just something missing that would have made the book unforgettable, making it a must read, re read, get it right away, can’t walk by without picking it up type of book.  It was still a great story for women to relate to if they have been or are in a similar circumstance.

Penguin

Karin’s Website

Women Are Crazy, Men Are Stupid: The Simple Truth To A Complicated Relationship – Howard J. Morris and Jenny Lee

Yes, we all said or thought it before right?  Our significant others can drive us crazy at times, the other times they can be just a tad stupid right?

How many times have you said I have had enough when attempting to get our points across to them when talking and it is just not getting through without yelling, screaming or even throwing that may or may not hit them or the wall, smashing into a million pieces or injuring them?

In this book from Howard and Jenny, who also live together in a committed relationship talk about.  De mystifying those stupid and crazy moments that we all have from time to time into something you both understand while instilling humour and personal reflections from their own relationship with each other.

I think in all fairness they tried to de mystify relationships with using their own relationship as examples was a poor choice.  Although, this book is laugh out loud funny, since they are both writers for television, but as they stated at the beginning of the book – that it will either spilt us up or bring us closer together.

Simon and Schuster / Simon Spotlight Entertainment

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