Limelight by Melody Carlson

November 6, 2009 in Christian Fiction, blog tour, books, fiction, reading, review, review copy | Leave a comment

limelightLimelight by Melody Carlson (Multnomah, October 6, 2009), 384 pages

Summary
Claudette Fioré is in the twilight of her glamorous Hollywood life, but she’s in denial about that. Her beauty didn’t really bring her a hugely successful acting career, but it did bring her an enviable match. Now, though, a crooked accountant and the IRS have taken her wealth, and her beauty has faded. She is forced to face her past, which she happily walked away from as soon as she could.

Thoughts
Claudette was a hard character for me to like, or even relate to at all. I did not find her sympathetic at all. I had high hopes after reading (and really enjoying!) Carlson’s What Matters Most, but this book didn’t live up to those expectations for me.

I’m guessing this book would be a better fit for readers who enjoy knowing what’s going on in the lives of their favorite (and not so favorite) film stars.

One positive (and it’s a pretty big one): I did enjoy this book’s more hands-off treatment of the church and Christianity. It seemed quite unusual in that respect compared to the majority of Christian fiction.

About the author
Melody Carlson has written more than 200 books. She lives in central Oregon.

Other reviews
Books, Movies, and Chinese Food
Wrighty’s Reads
(They both liked it better than I did.)

Have you reviewed this book? Leave me a link and I’ll add it here.

I received this book from the publisher.

What Matters Most by Melody Carlson

November 5, 2009 in Christian Fiction, YA, blog tour, books, fiction, reading, review, review copy | 4 comments

what matters most mayaWhat Matters Most by Melody Carlson (Diary of a Teenage Girl, Maya, book 3) (Multnomah, September 15, 2009), 256 pages

Summary
Maya has just started her first year at a real high school (she was homeschooled and got her GED earlier), and she has to decide if she wants this to be her junior year or her senior year. There’s the usual high school drama. She’s busy with her newspaper column, her regular television spot and her job at a clothing boutique. But then she finds out her mom is likely going to be released from prison. Oh, and she’s been filling her time playing on her dad’s old acoustic guitar.

Thoughts
I was dubious when I picked this book up and saw that Carlson has written more than 200 books. That is so far beyond prolific, that I was worried. I may have read something by Carlson many years ago, but I can’t remember for sure either way. I was also a bit skeptical because it’s the third Diary of a Teenage Girl about Maya, and I haven’t read any of them before.

I’m happy to report, I really enjoyed this book. Maya’s life is, to say the least, very different than mine was when I was in high school. I did relate to her pretty easily, though.

Having not read the other books wasn’t really a hurdle — I was able to understand what was going on without any trouble — but when I was done reading, I was very sad that I had just read the last book. I wish I’d been able to start at the beginning, of the whole Diary of a Teenage Girl series, not just those that star Maya.

This was really a fun book. Light, but not airy. Not too heaving on the coming-of-age stuff. A quick read with some depth.

About the author
Melody Carlson has written more than 200 books. She lives in central Oregon.

Other reviews
Musings of a Book Addict

Have you reviewed this book? Leave me a link and I’ll add it here.

I received this book from the publisher.

Words from my reading

November 4, 2009 in books, reading, word | 7 comments

Just a couple fun new-to-me words for this week:

rochet, n A knee-length, narrow-sleeved, light outer garment of linen and lace, worn by prelates in some ceremonies
page 328, The Last Ember by Daniel Levin
“He wore his choir dress for Mass: a white lace rochet beneath a red cassock, and a pectoral cross on a cord.”

plastron, n A metal breastplate worn under a coat of mail; a padded protector worn over the chest by fencers; a trimming like a dickey, worn on the front of a woman’s dress; a starched shirt front; the lower, ventral part of the shell of a turtle or tortoise
page 351, The Last Ember by Daniel Levin
“Trained, cutting strokes of someone who was used to wearing the plastron of fencing gear, rather than the tin breastplate of gladiatorial costume.”

refulgent, adj Shining, radiant, glowing, resplendent
page 397, The Last Ember by Daniel Levin
“Orvieti knew that hallucination was the last stage of oxygen deprivation, but it all seemed real: his dark, wavy hair from a half-century earlier and his broad frame shining in the lamp’s refulgent gleam.”

More words from The Last Ember.

More great words on my Words from my reading page.

Review of book cited here:
The Last Ember by Daniel Levin

What new words have you found lately?

Leaving Carolina by Tamara Leigh

November 3, 2009 in Christian Fiction, The South, blog tour, books, fiction, reading, review, review copy | 3 comments

leaving carolinaLeaving Carolina: A Novel by Tamara Leigh (Multnomah, September 15, 2009), 384 pages

This is the first book in Leigh’s Southern Discomfort series, with the second, Nowhere Carolina, due out in May 2010.

Summary
Piper Wick has made a life for herself. She’s a public relations consultant at a mighty firm in Los Angeles. She and her mom left their hometown of Pickwick, North Carolina years ago, and Piper is glad to be done with it and all it entailed. She’s now “engaged to be engaged” to a U.S. congressman (who’s also her client, by the way; she’s helping him with his re-election campaign). But then she gets a call from her uncle’s lawyer, back in Pickwick. Uncle Obadiah wants to change his will, to right wrongs done by the whole family of miscreants. His plan would also unearth long-buried secrets, naturally, including Piper’s.

Thoughts
The ending of Leaving Carolina was telegraphed from the very beginning. I was annoyed by the book — but especially by Piper, I think — for about the first 100 pages. Then, though, I kind of started getting sucked in, despite myself.

This is not high literature. Thinking back on it, days later, I’m still annoyed by this book. But overall it was a pleasant enough diversion. A light-hearted dip in the South by one who has erased all traces of it from her life and from her person years ago. But also about a person who calls herself a Christian but hasn’t been living that for a long time. She’s a bitter woman, who has shut herself off from so much. Maybe I need to stay away from all chick lit.

About the author
Tamara Leigh wrote for the historical romance novels for the secular market before being convinced that these books were missing something, so eventually she started writing inspirational romances for the Christian market. She is the author of quite a few other books, including Faking Grace.

Other reviews
(These two both liked it quite a bit more than I did:)
A Peek at My Bookshelf
Relz Reviewz

Have you reviewed this book? Leave me a link and I’ll add it here.

I received this book from the publisher.

Interview with Laura Kasischke, author of In a Perfect World

November 2, 2009 in Author interview, TLC book tour, blog tour | 2 comments

After reading In a Perfect World, I had the chance to briefly interview the author, Laura Kasischke. She talks about writing, poetry vs. prose, and reading.

WordLily: I was really interested in reading your book because I’ve loved all the novels I’ve read that were written by poets. You said you start writing with a sensory image. How do you know whether this is a something that needs to be told in poetry or prose?

laura-kasischkeLaura Kasischke: The process of writing poetry and that of writing novels is very different for me. When I write a poem, it’s generally something that’s been coming on for a while — an idea, an image, an impulse. I need some free time and space to get a draft down. With novel writing, the process itself inspires the imagery, and everything else, that occurs. It’s while I’m following a narrative that the details of it come to me. I also work on novels for such a long period of time that they’re very much incorporated into my daily life, so that I might find myself writing at 10 o’clock after the kid’s in bed, etc. With a poem, I’ve got to find just the right opportunity, and it’s generally when I’ve got more energy than it takes to be rough-drafting a 300-plus page story.

WordLily: What is your favorite book you’ve read this year, and why?

Laura Kasischke: Dan Chaon’s Await Your Reply. It’s beautifully written, and scary.

WordLily: In In a Perfect World, the plague and the family seemed to follow inverse paths — as one situation degraded the other improved. Was this intentional? What does that mean to you? Or, what greater truth did you intend to communicate through this?

In a Perfect WorldLaura Kasischke: I wanted Jiselle to rise to the occasion of being mother to these children. She is a fairy tale character (I hope readers realize that I don’t think there are actually a lot of women out there who are as perfect and beautiful as she is: She’s Cinderella!), and the novel is a fairy tale. She needed to face the challenges that protagonists in tales face, and pass their tests. Her challenges grow, and her ability to meet them does, too. I think this must be the inversion you’re speaking of.

WordLily: How are the processes of writing poetry and writing prose different for you?

Laura Kasischke: I think I addressed this in the first question, so I won’t belabor it, but writing poetry is a more instantaneous and high-energy in-the-moment experience. And it doesn’t happen that often. I can’t write a novel at a high level of inspiration all day every day (and have a life!), so that’s a bit more like the experience of a quilt — a long project, made of scraps, pieced together — although, unlike a quilt, it’s followed by years of revision!

WordLily: You said you “try to write every day,” but you were careful to distinguish this from actually writing every day. What does trying to write daily look like for you, and why do you place emphasis on the importance of trying, rather than on writing?

Laura Kasischke: I distinguished because to say I write every day would be a lie. I simply can’t. I have a son, a husband, a teaching job. Some days, no writing can get done. But those days, I know that I didn’t write. So, it’s like any ritual or practice, and I’m careful to cut myself some slack so that I never start thinking, “Oh, I didn’t write today, so I just won’t bother to write tomorrow either….”

WordLily: How do you sustain a love for what you do?

Laura Kasischke: I don’t know. I just love to write. I think reading is key to that: I get very inspired by my reading. It keeps the idea that there is a purpose to the writing fresh in my mind.

WordLily: Why do you write?

Laura Kasischke: I think it’s a great way to discover what I’m thinking, to process what I’m experiencing. For a while I think the impulse was to try to save parts of my life from annihilation — as, for instance, when loved ones died, and I felt that if I didn’t write about them they would be lost to me and the world. But then it became a habit. And, as I said, I just find it fun.

WordLily: How/when did you start writing?

Laura Kasischke: I was in elementary school. I started with poetry. I think I was inspired by my mother reading to me, and also by some good teachers I had. I was also an only child with some time on my hands.

WordLily: Thank you so much for your time! Anything else you want to say?

Laura Kasischke: Thank you!!

In a Perfect World by Laura Kasischke

November 1, 2009 in TLC book tour, blog tour, books, fiction, reading, review | 4 comments

In a Perfect WorldIn a Perfect World: A Novel by Laura Kasischke (Harper Perennial, October 6, 2009), 336 pages

Summary
The world is coming to an end, and we learn this from sources more varied and more reliable (not to mention more plentiful) than Chicken Little. But that’s a different aspect of the story. Where was I? Oh yes. Jiselle had nearly given up hope that she’d ever find someone. She tried not to look too far past the next flight, the next day, but when she did look forward, she wondered if she’d ever get to wear the white dress, instead of the ugly bridesmaid dresses she was always wearing for fellow (often now retired) flight attendants. But then the handsome widower pilot starts courting her. Yes, she’s heard whispers about how hard it’s been for him to keep a nanny since his wife died. But he’s so devoted to his three children! Jiselle’s mother warns her against the marriage, but that’s probably just because she was stuck in a bad one for too long, right?

Thoughts
In a Perfect World is kind of dystopian, but also kind of not. If it is dystopian, I’d compare it to 1984, but told from the perspective of a very clueless character who’s ignoring the whole thing (to go back to my previous allusion, I think I could say told from the perspective of Henny Penny). In that way, it’s surreal.

We never saw what our characters were thinking, except sometimes tangentially through their actions. This made the book flat for me.

Maybe if I was a mom or if I had stepchildren this book would have been a richer experience for me. Even without that, watching the relationships change over the course of the book was fun.

Although I don’t necessarily need all my endings to be tied up neatly with bows, I was dissatisfied with the ending of In a Perfect World.

About the author
Laura Kasischke is the author of Boy Heaven, her first novel for teens, as well as The Life Before Her Eyes, Be Mine, and seven collections of poetry. She teaches in the University of Michigan creative writing MFA program and the Residential College.

Check out the rest of the TLC Book Tour stops for In a Perfect World.

Other reviews
A High and Hidden Place
GalleySmith
The Book Nest
BookNAround
The Zen Leaf

Have you reviewed this book? Leave me a link and I’ll add it here.

I received this book from the publisher as part of the book tour.

Facing facts

October 31, 2009 in WordLily, blogging, books, reading | 9 comments

I have known for awhile now that I will not end up meeting some of my personal reading goals for 2009. And while this saddens me, what am I to do? For now, I’m simply laying it out there, acknowledging in public where I stand.

Unmet goal #1: I wanted to read 13 books from the Image Journal top 100 list I’ve made a perpetual challenge for myself. I read 11 in 2008, and I thought one a month plus one wouldn’t be too difficult. Ha! I’ve read 2 3 so far this year. I haven’t picked one up since February.

Unmet goal #2: I wanted to read 100 books in 2009. (I read 75 in 2008.) Now, while I have already surpassed 2008’s total — I’m at 78 right now for 2009 or an average of 7.8 per month — it seems highly unlikely that I’ll get 22 read in the last two very busy months of the year. Sure, this isn’t quite as out of reach as the first one, but …

A couple other goals aren’t yet in quite so much jeopardy.

• I still haven’t read my book (Prisoner of the State by Zhao Ziyang) for the Newsweek 50 Books of Our Times challenge (due before the end of the year).

• I haven’t started working on the Harry Potter challenge, which I signed up for in early August (true, it goes through the end of July 2010, so I’m not out of time yet).

• I also haven’t read any books by Nebraska authors yet this year, something I agreed to because I really wanted to highlight local authors and learn more about my new home state besides. Although this is open-ended, I’m still a bit bewildered by my lack of progress thus far.

I think I still need to work on setting reasonable, attainable goals. That somehow don’t stress me out but still urge me on.

So, how are you doing on your (stated or unstated) reading goals?

Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

October 30, 2009 in books, fiction, mystery, reading, review | 2 comments

Curse of the SpellmansCurse of the Spellmans: A Novel by Lisa Lutz, Izzy Spellman Mysteries book 2 (Simon & Schuster, 2008), 416 pages

Summary, excerpted from the book jacket
“When Izzy Spellman, PI, is arrested for the fourth time in three months, she writes it off as a job hazard. She’s been (obsessively) keeping surveillance on a suspicious next door neighbor (suspect’s name: John Brown), convinced he’s up to no good — even if her parents (the management of Spellman Investigations) are not.”

Thoughts
I read the first book in the series, The Spellman Files, earlier this year.

Curse of the Spellmans delivers more of Izzy and her over-the-top quirky family of private investigators. I really enjoyed reading The Spellman Files, and this was more of the same. Still fun, still funny.

I have the third book in the series, Revenge of the Spellmans, waiting in the wings. And I’m looking forward to the release of the fourth, The Spellmans Strike Again, which is due out in March 2010.

About the author
Lisa Lutz’s website has an excerpt, a reading group guide and more.

Other reviews
Teen Book Review (contains a review of The Spellman Files, too)

Have you reviewed this book? Leave me a link and I’ll add it here.

Wisdom Hunter by Randall Arthur

October 27, 2009 in Christian Fiction, blog tour, books, fiction, mistakes in print, proofreading, quote, reading, review, review copy | 3 comments

wisdom hunterWisdom Hunter: A Novel by Randall Arthur (Multnomah, 2003), 336 pages

Summary
Pastor Jason Faircloth is growing his already-large Atlanta church and feels his life is on track. Not that he stops to question that, or anything else. He lives out his know-it-all faith in the same manner and questions those who see things differently. But then disaster strikes. He travels the world in search of answers, healing, in search of the granddaughter he’s never met.

Review
I knew I wanted to read this book, but when I picked it up and learned that 1) Arthur was a missionary, 2) he got fired because of this book, 3) he doesn’t regret that, and 4) the copyright is held by Eternal Perspectives Ministries, I really wanted to read it.

But then I opened the book, and in the first 4 pages I found 4 copy-editing problems, and I was reconsidering. Thankfully, that pace of mistakes didn’t keep up, and in the end I was mostly able to overlook them and focus on my love of this story. I wasn’t disappointed.

It points its finger at legalism in the American church — but then also shows the way forward. It paints a beautiful picture. This book was, at least in some small way, healing for me. Love it!

At a few points, the book seemed a little out-dated, especially in regard to technology, but that makes sense since it’s not a 2009 book (but rather a re-release).

A quote: “‘Therefore man should fear the easy routine way of life that weakens, but he should welcome the resistance-filled life that strengthens and makes wise.’” ~Yoma speaking, page 217

About the author
Randall Arthur is the author of Jordan’s Crossing and Brotherhood of Betrayal. He served as a missionary to Europe for more than 30 years.

Other reviews
Ronnica at the Book Nook Club

Have you reviewed this book? Leave me a link and I’ll add it here.

Unfinished: Shadow Government by Grant R. Jeffrey

October 26, 2009 in Unfinished book, books, nonfiction, review copy | 5 comments

shadow governmentShadow Government: How the Secret Global Elite Is Using Surveillance against You by Grant R. Jeffrey (WaterBrook Press, October 6, 2009), 240 pages

Publisher’s Summary
Security cameras, surveillance of private financial transactions, radio frequency spy chips hidden in consumer products, eavesdropping on e-mail correspondence and phone calls, and internet tracking. No one is protected, and privacy is a thing of the past.

An ultra-secret global elite, functioning as a very real shadow government, controls technology, finance, international law, world trade, political power, and vast military capabilities. These unnamed, unrivaled leaders answer to no earthly authority, and they won’t stop until they control the world.

In Shadow Government, prophecy expert Grant Jeffrey removes the screen that, up to now, has hidden the work of these diabolical agents. Jeffrey reveals the biblical description of Satan’s global conquest and identifies the tools of technology that the Antichrist will use to rule the world.

Readers will have their eyes opened to the real power that is working behind the scenes to destroy America and merge it into the coming global government. Armed with this knowledge, readers will be equipped to face spiritual darkness with the light of prophetic truth.

Why I abandoned the book
I didn’t get very far into this book. I read the introduction and the first chapter, plus the end notes that were cited in these pages. I did read more than 10 percent of the book before giving up. Although I read many things I don’t agree with in this book, perhaps my biggest complaint is Jeffrey’s treatment of his reader. I found him making outrageous statements without backing them up; telling me what I think and assumptions I make; and even worse, telling me that if I don’t understand (or, implicitly, agree with) him, I’m wicked (page 9). These kind of tactics are not OK with me.

I could say more — I took several pages of notes while reading — but I think this enough. This book may be more well received by people very interested in the End Times. I myself may have been able to finish it if it had been released when I was in high school, when I was obsessed with all things Revelation.

The cover is cool. It looks quite Matrix-y, doesn’t it?

A quick look at reviews
Amazon has 2 reviews, both 5-star ratings.

Note:
This is the first time I’ve published a post about a book I didn’t finish reading. This isn’t a full review, but I did want to talk about why I didn’t like this book and couldn’t keep reading it. I’m following the excellent mini-review format Beth Fish Reads uses for unfinished books.

October 24-25, 2009

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