Friday, October 2, 2009

Friday 56: Week 17










Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions
on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*
Post a link along with your post back to this blog and to Storytime with Tonya and Friends at http://storytimewithtonya.blogspot.com/
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.


Here's mine:

"This attracted the interest of the Inquisition, which tried hiim for heresy and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He subsequently died in prison, although the ever-hopeful Manly Hall relates that 'there are rumors that he escaped, and according to one very significant story Cagliostro fled to India, where his talents received teh appreciation denied them in politics-ridden Europe.'"

- The Masonic Myth: Unlocking the Truth About the Symbols, the Secret Rites, and the History of Freemasonry by Jay Kinney

Winners of Highland Rebel by Judith James

Winners of Highland Rebel by Judith James

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Congratulations! I've emailed the winners and they have until 6 pm on Sunday to send me their mailing addresses.

Thanks so much, Judith, Danielle and Sourcebooks for sponsoring this giveaway!

Interview with Jason Quinn Malot, author of The Evolution of Shadows

The Evolution of Shadows I'd recently reviewed the well crafted and unusual The Evolution of Shadows by Jason Quinn Malot. He's been kind enough to stop by and chat. Please welcome Jason Quinn Malot!

oOo

Q: You have a BA in Creative Writing and have had a varied career, when did you first want to become a writer?


A: I’m not sure I would call what I’ve done since graduating college and getting The Evolution of Shadows published a “career.” It might be more accurately called, treading water, or paying my dues, or that old saw “suffering.”


I usually mark desire to be a writer to when I was 12 and in the sixth grade. Fridays were “art day” and for a while, my sixth grade teacher, Connie Jobe, liked to use these story worksheets that taught the parts of a story. There were three or four activities on each worksheet, and then an assignment. Each worksheet had a theme, like “Sunken treasure” or “Alien Invasion.” The final assignment on each worksheet was to finish the fragmented story from the worksheet, or write your own version of a sunken treasure story, or an alien invasion, or whatever. We’d turn in our stories on the following Monday and the next Friday Mrs. Jobe would pick a few to share with the class before we did another worksheet. By the end of the year a private competition had developed between me and my friend Lars Ellingson to see how often our stories would be picked. All of my stories were part of a series, “The Adventures of Jason & Friends.” I still have a few of them in a box somewhere secret and I’ll never tell where.


It turned out it was a great outlet for my imagination . . . and curbed my penchant for telling tall tales.


Q: How did you first come up with the story for The Evolution of Shadows?


A: There are two parts to this story. The first goes back to 1995, just as the war in Bosnia was winding down, and the second comes from late 1999, early 2000.


I became interested in Bosnia just as I was graduating from college. Immediately I wanted to write a novel set in or around the war. Thankfully, at the time, I was still too young, undisciplined, and naïve to pull it off. So, I put the idea away and moved on to other things. But I kept reading about the Bosnian war because I found it so appalling that the European Union and America refused to act until late in war.


Then, in 1999/2000 I was in my first year in the MFA program at Naropa University and I had a full-time job in the call center of a media and market research company. There was also a very beautiful, young Korean American woman working there named Callie. I developed a massive crush, but never worked up the courage to talk to her, except this one time. I don’t remember what I said, but I didn’t intend it to be funny, but she laughed and, embarrassed, I never tried again. The crush didn’t go away though, so, I started a short story called “Curse Softly To Me,” which was supposed be an exercise to get over my crush. But about halfway through the two characters quit being proxies for me and Callie and became wholly themselves. And there I was with these two shattered, desperate characters – Gray and Lian – and no idea what to do with them. After I took the story in to a workshop, my classmates reinforced the idea that there was a lot more story to those two characters than a short story could handle.


I fumbled about with them for months after that, trying to figure out who they were, what they did, and how this one shocking act would affect them. Then, one day, while trying to figure out something about Gray, I picked up one of my books on Bosnia and that little light bulb went on in my noggin.


So, that’s it. A five-year-old obsession and the desire to get over a crush on a girl lead to The Evolution of Shadows.


Q: What sort of research do you do for your books?


A: Mostly, a lot of reading and a lot of observing the people around me. I’m not a big traveler, mostly because I’ve never had the luxury of time without a need to work, nor the money to do any traveling. Plus, I write about relationships between people and the mutually sad and wonderful thing is that people feel love, hate, fear, anger, joy, betrayal, and grace pretty much everywhere. Get the people right, and the rest will take care of itself.



Q: Which books or writers do you admire/enjoy reading? What are you reading now?


A: I actually have a shelf in my office where I keep the books by all the writers I admire most. However, I think two of the best living writers in English are Michael Ondaatje and John Berger. They both have the capacity to make me forget that I’m a writer. Ondaatje is the more poetic of the two, while Berger is the more stark. However, they both have this deep, emotional core that is completely without sentimentality while also being incredibly generous. I go back to “The English Patient” a lot, and Berger’s book “To the Wedding” is the sweetest of melancholy heartaches. I hope that I live long enough to write a book even half as beautiful.


Right now I’m reading “The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea” by Yukio Mishima, and “Sometimes We’re Always Real Same-Same” by Mattox Roesch.


Q: What are you currently working on?



A: Currently, I’m working on cleaning up my second novel before submitting it to my editor. It’s tentatively titled “By The Still, Still Water” and it’s a multigenerational family drama set over a weeklong family reunion in 2001. When a stranger shows up to the Goodson family reunion looking to hear the story of how his father died during the Korean War, the stoic patriarch of the Goodson family, Ben, decides to finally tell the tragic and horrible story of the events he’s been trying to forget for the last 50 years. His story also begins to shift his family’s perception of him and of themselves and how they became the people they are. It’s kind of about how the mutation of memory and secret history shape us as much as the things we know (or think we know) about ourselves and our origins.


I’m also trying to resurrect a project that I mistakenly killed a few years ago. Not sure what else is on the horizon. I have a list of ideas and related books to read. I don’t mean to be cagey about it, but I’m from the school of thought that telling a story before writing it means you don’t have to write it.


Q: Is there something that no one has asked that you wish they'd asked?



A: Nothing comes to mind. I’m so new at all of this I’m just happy people are asking about the book.



oOo



Congratulations, Jason! The Evolution of Shadows doesn't read like a first novel at all. It has the complexity and anguish that reminded me of The English Patient. Have you thought of sending Callie a copy of the novel? I'm looking forward to your second book. Thank you for taking the time to chat today and for the book recommendations. I haven't read anything by John Berger yet. Best of luck and congratulations again!


About the Author, courtesy of his website:

Jason Quinn Malott has a BA in Creative Writing from Kansas State University and an MFA in Writing and Poetics from Naropa University (The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. He has worked as a dishwasher, a short order cook, a barista, a newspaper stringer, a photographer, a phonebook chucker, a market research associate, an in-bound call center operator, a movie house troll, a bookseller, a bookstore inventory manager, a technical writer, and an adjunct composition instructor. He is the publisher and the Editor-in-Chief of the online literary journal "The Project for a New Mythology" at pfanm.com. The Evolution of Shadows is his first novel. He is currently working on his second. Learn more at Jason Quinn Malott's website at http://www.jquinnmalott.com/_/Welcome.html


A big thank you to Caitlin at Unbridled Books for this opportunity!


Book Giveaway of My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times by Harold Evans

I'm excited that Valerie and Hatchette Book Group are sponsoring the giveaway of 5 copies of My Paper Chase: Trues Stories of Vanished Times by Harold Evans. At a time when the big newspapers suffering financially, Harold Evans takes us to the time when Fleet Street reigned and through important events in recent history. Doesn't this make you want to learn more?

About the Book, courtesy of the publisher:

In My Paper Chase, Harold Evans recounts the wild and wonderful tale of newspapering life. His story stretches from the 1930s to his service in WWII, through towns big and off the map. He discusses his passion for the crusading style of reportage he championed, his clashes with Rupert Murdoch, and his struggle to use journalism to better the lives of those less fortunate.

There's a star-studded cast and a tremendously vivid sense of what once was: the lead type, the smell of the presses, eccentrics throughout, and angry editors screaming over the intercoms. My Paper Chase tells the story of Evans's great loves: newspapers and Tina Brown, the bright, young journalist who became his wife.

In an age when newspapers everywhere are under threat, My Paper Chase is not just a glorious recounting of an amazing life, but a nostalgic journey in black and white.

Harold Evans, the author of The American Century and now They Made America, is a celebrated historian and journalist. He was the editor of the Sunday Times of London for fourteen years and then the Times of London before settling in 1984 in America, where he has been successively founding editor of CondéNast Traveler; president and publisher of Random House; editorial director and vice chairman of U.S. News & World Report, the Atlantic magazine, Fast Company, and the New York Daily News.

In 2002 Britain's journalists voted Evans the greatest all-time British newspaper editor. He was knighted in Queen Elizabeth's 2004 New Year honors list. He lives in New York with his wife, Tina Brown, and their two children.

About the Author, courtesy of the publisher:

Harold Evans, the author of The American Century and now They Made America, is a celebrated historian and journalist. He was the editor of the Sunday Times of London for fourteen years and then the Times of London before settling in 1984 in America, where he has been successively founding editor of CondéNast Traveler; president and publisher of Random House; editorial director and vice chairman of U.S. News & World Report, the Atlantic magazine, Fast Company, and the New York Daily News. In 2002 Britain's journalists voted Evans the greatest all-time British newspaper editor. He was knighted in Queen Elizabeth's 2004 New Year honors list. He lives in New York with his wife, Tina Brown, and their two children. Visit Harold Evans's website at http://www.sirharoldevans.com/

CONTEST DETAILS

To enter, tell us which event in the 20th century you most want to read about.

Rules:
Please include your email address, so that I can contact you if you win. No email address and answer, no entry. The contest is limited to US and Canada only. No P.O. boxes. The contest ends at noon on November 15, 2009.

Thanks so much, Valerie and Hatchette Book Group for this generous giveaway!

Book Giveaway of Run for Your Life by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge

Valerie and Hatchette Book Group are sponsoring a giveaway of 5 copies of the new thriller Run For Your Life by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge. It sounds like an exciting read. Have you ever hoped that someone arrogant, powerful and mean might meet a bad end? "The penalty of obnoxiousness is now death..." There are a few people on my list and certain actions that rile me up, though the worst I do is mutter under my breath or write a scathing email - and then delete it. You can tell why I'd like to read this book!

About the Book, courtesy of the publisher:

A calculating killer who calls himself The Teacher is taking on New York City, killing the powerful and the arrogant. His message is clear: remember your manners or suffer the consequences! For some, it seems that the rich are finally getting what they deserve. For New York's elite, it is a call to terror.

Only one man can tackle such a high-profile case: Detective Mike Bennett. The pressure is enough for anyone, but Mike also has to care for his 10 children-all of whom have come down with virulent flu at once!

Discovering a secret pattern in The Teacher's lessons, Detective Bennett realizes he has just hours to save New York from the greatest disaster in its history. From the #1 bestselling author comes RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, the continuation of his newest, electrifying series.

About James Patterson, courtesy of the publisher:

The subject of a recent Time magazine feature called, "The Man Who Can't Miss," James Patterson is the bestselling author of the past year, bar none, with more than 16 million books sold in North America alone. In 2007, one of every 15 hardcover fiction books sold was a Patterson title. In total, James's books have sold an estimated 150 million copies worldwide. He is the first author to have #1 new titles simultaneously on The New York Times adult and children's lists and is the only author to have five new hardcover novels debut at #1 on the list in one year — a record-breaking feat he’s accomplished every year since 2005. To date, James Patterson has had nineteen consecutive #1 New York Times Bestselling Novels, and holds the New York Times record for most bestselling titles by a single author (40 total).

He is the author of novels — from The Thomas Berryman Number (1976) to Honeymoon (2005) — that have won awards including the Edgar, the BCA Mystery Guild's Thriller of the Year, the International Thriller of the Year award, and the Reader’s Digest Reader’s Choice Award.

About Michael Ledwidge, courtesy of the publisher:

Michael Ledwidge is the author of The Narrowback, Bad Connection, and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. His latest thriller, The Quickie, was released by Little, Brown in 2007.

Listen to a clip of Run For Your Life.

CONTEST DETAILS

To enter, please share your favorite detective, whether from a book, movie or tv series. Or if you want to vent, describe the sort of behavior or person that you wish you could publicly chastise or worse. No names please!

Rules:
Please include your email address, so that I can contact you if you win. No email address and answer, no entry. The contest is limited to US and Canada only. No P.O. boxes. The contest ends at noon on November 15, 2009.

Thanks so much, Valerie and Hatchette for sponsoring this giveaway!

Book Giveaway of Girl on Top: Your Guide into Turning Dating Rules into Career Success by Nicole Williams

I'd read about this book recently and thought it sounded interesting. I was excited when Valerie and Hatchette Book Group offered to sponsor this giveaway of 5 copies of Girl On Top: Your Guide to Turning Dating Rules into Career Success by Nicole Williams. Thanks so much, Valerie and Hatchette!

About the Book, courtesy of the publisher:

Nicole Williams is the tell-it-like-it-is career expert who you wish could fight your work battles for you. But with her ingenious approach-taking the tactics used to land a man and applying them to your career-you'll be able to handle any work situation and come out on top. Here, Nicole introduces twenty tried-and-true dating rules such as "Don't Give Away the Milk for Free" and "Don't Waste the Pretty" and reveals how they can be applied just as effectively in the office. Other strategies include:

· Keep It Brief
· Don't Bash Your Ex
· Have Others Sing Your Praises
· Play Hard to Get
· Keep the Fire Alive
· Be Willing to Walk Away

Among other topics, Nicole dishes on how much to reveal at work as well as what to put up with from your boss (and, more importantly, what not to). She tackles everything from having the money talk to leaving them wanting more on a job interview. And sprinkled throughout GIRL ON TOP is fashion advice ("Top Ten Commandments of Style") and checklists to determine if you need to get a life.

Nicole's keen insight and candid advice will teach you how to recognize the good guys from the bad, win the kudos of those who matter, and create the career of your dreams.

About the Author, courtesy of the publisher:

Nicole is the best-selling author of Wildly Sophisticated: A Bold New Attitude for Career Success and Earn What You're Worth, and the founder of WORKS by Nicole Williams, the first media and content company marketed toward young professional women. Her advice is featured regularly in major media outlets including Elle, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Marie Claire, The Wall Street Journal, and The Financial Times. Nicole also regularly appears on The Today Show, ABC's Primetime, Good Morning America, Fox News, and CNN. Learn more on Nicole Williams's website at http://www.nicolewilliams.com/

Take the Girl On Top quiz. Want your own copy?

CONTEST DETAILS

To enter, share one personal goal that you've set for yourself.

Rules:
Please include your email address, so that I can contact you if you win. No email address and answer, no entry. The contest is limited to US and Canada only. No P.O. boxes. The contest ends at noon on November 15, 2009.

Thanks so much, Valerie and Hatchette Book Group for sponsoring this giveaway!

Book Giveaway: Cheating Death by Sanjay Gupta, MD

Anna and Hatchette Book Group are sponsoring a giveaway of 5 copies of Sanjay Gupta's book, Cheating Death. Thanks so much, Anna and Hatchette for this generous giveaway.

Most of us are familiar with Sanjay Gupta because of his show on CNN. Sanjay Gupta, MD, is a practicing neurosurgeon at Emory University Hospital and associate chief of service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

About the Book, courtesy of the publisher:

An unborn baby with a fatal heart defect . . . a skier submerged for an hour in a frozen Norwegian lake . . . a comatose brain surgery patient whom doctors have declared a "vegetable."

Twenty years ago all of them would have been given up for dead, with no realistic hope for survival. But today, thanks to incredible new medical advances, each of these individuals is alive and well . . .Cheating Death.

In this riveting book, Dr. Sanjay Gupta-neurosurgeon, chief medical correspondent for CNN, and bestselling author-chronicles the almost unbelievable science that has made these seemingly miraculous recoveries possible. A bold new breed of doctors has achieved amazing rescues by refusing to accept that any life is irretrievably lost. Extended cardiac arrest, "brain death," not breathing for over an hour-all these conditions used to be considered inevitably fatal, but they no longer are. Today, revolutionary advances are blurring the traditional line between life and death in fascinating ways.

Drawing on real-life stories and using his unprecedented access to the latest medical research, Dr. Gupta dramatically presents exciting accounts of how pioneering physicians and researchers are altering our understanding of how the human body functions when it comes to survival-and why more and more patients who once would have died are now alive. From experiments with therapeutic hypothermia to save comatose stroke or heart attack victims to lifesaving operations in utero to the study of animal hibernation to help wounded soldiers on far-off battlefields, these remarkable case histories transform and enrich all our assumptions about the true nature of death and life.

CONTEST DETAILS

To enter, please tell us about your favorite doctor character on TV, in a book, or in a movie. Medical examiners and psychologists qualify as well.

Rules:

Please include your email address, so that I can contact you if you win. No email address and answer, no entry. The contest is limited to US and Canada only. No P.O. boxes. The contest ends at noon on November 15, 2009.

Thank you so much to Anna and Hatchette Book Group for sponsoring this giveaway!


Book Giveaway: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold


Valerie and Hatchette Book Group are sponsoring a giveaway of 5 copies of The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Thank you so much, Valerie and Hatchette!

The movie adaptation of The Lovely Bones will be released this December, directed by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings!) and starring Rachel Weitz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Mark Wahlburg, and Saorise Ronan (from Atonement). Interested?! Read more below.


About the Book, courtesy of the publisher:

Once in a generation a novel comes along that taps a vein of universal human experience, resonating with readers of all ages. The Lovely Bones is such a book -- a #1 bestseller celebrated at once for its artistry, for its luminous clarity of emotion, and for its astonishing power to lay claim to the hearts of millions of readers around the world.

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."

So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her -- her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, The Lovely Bones succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.

Alice Sebold is the author of three #1 bestselling books, the novels The Lovely Bones and The Almost Moon and the memoir Lucky. She lives in California with her husband, the novelist Glen David Gold. To read an interview of Alice Sebold about the journey of writing The Lovely Bones, visit the Hatchette site at http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/Alice_Sebold_(1003757)_AuthorInterview(1).aspx
Or Alice Sebold's website at http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/features/alicesebold/index.html#utm_source=alicesebold.com&utm_medium=redirect&utm_campaign=print


Reading Group Guide, courtesy of the publisher:
  1. In Susie's Heaven, she is surrounded by things that bring her peace. What would your Heaven be like? Is it surprising that in Susie's inward, personal version of the hereafter there is no God or larger being that presides?
  2. Why does Ruth become Susie's main connection to Earth? Was it accidental that Susie touched Ruth on her way up to Heaven, or was Ruth actually chosen to be Susie's emotional conduit?
  3. Rape is one of the most alienating experiences imaginable. Susie's rape ends in murder and changes her family and friends forever. Alienation is transferred, in a sense, to Susie's parents and siblings. How do they each experience loneliness and solitude after Susie's death?
  4. Why does the author include details about Mr. Harvey's childhood and his memories of his mother? By giving him a human side, does Sebold get us closer to understanding his motivation? Sebold explained in an interview about the novel that murderers "are not animals but men," and that is what makes them so frightening. Do you agree?
  5. Discuss the way in which guilt manifests itself in the various characters - Jack, Abigail, Lindsay, Mr. Harvey, Len Fenerman.
  6. "Pushing on the inbetween" is how Susie describes her efforts to connect with those she has left behind on Earth. Have you ever felt as though someone was trying to communicate with you from "the inbetween"?
  7. Does Buckley really see Susie, or does he make up a version of his sister as a way of understanding, and not being too emotionally damaged by, her death? How do you explain tragedy to a child? Do you think Susie's parents do a good job of helping Buckley comprehend the loss of his sister?
  8. Susie is killed just as she was beginning to see her mother and father as real people, not just as parents. Watching her parents' relationship change in the wake of her death, she begins to understand how they react to the world and to each other. How does this newfound understanding affect Susie?
  9. Can Abigail's choice to leave her family be justified?
  10. Why does Abigail leave her dead daughter's photo outside the Chicago Airport on her way back to her family?
  11. Susie observes that "The living deserve attention, too." She watches her sister, Lindsay, being neglected as those around her focus all their attention on grieving for Susie. Jack refuses to allow Buckley to use Susie's clothes in his garden. When is it time to let go?
  12. Susie's Heaven seems to have different stages, and climbing to the next stage of Heaven requires her to remove herself from what happens on Earth. What is this process like for Susie?
  13. In The Lovely Bones, adult relationships (Abigail and Jack, Ray's parents) are dysfunctional and troubled, whereas the young relationships (Lindsay and Samuel, Ray and Susie, Ray and Ruth) all seem to have depth, maturity, and potential. What is the author saying about young love? About the trials and tribulations of married life?
  14. Is Jack Salmon allowing himself to be swallowed up by his grief? Is there a point where he should have let go? How does his grief process affect his family? Is there something admirable about holding on so tightly to Susie's memory and not denying his profound sadness?
  15. Ray and Susie's final physical experience (via Ruth's body) seems to act almost as an exorcism that sweeps away, if only temporarily, Susie's memory of her rape. What is the significance of this act for Susie, and does it serve to counterbalance the violent act that ended Susie's life?
  16. Alice Sebold seems to be saying that out of tragedy comes healing. Susie's family fractures and comes back together, a town learns to find strength in each other. Do you agree that good can come of great trauma?
CONTEST DETAILS

To enter, please share your favorite movie adaptation of a book.

Rules:
Please include your email address, so that I can contact you if you win. No email address and answer, no entry. The contest is limited to US and Canada only. No P.O. boxes. The contest ends at noon on November 6, 2009.

Thank you so much to Valerie and Hatchette Book Group for sponsoring this giveaway!

Book Review: Show No Fear by Marliss Melton

Synopsis:

In Show No Fear, the 7th and latest in Marliss Melton's Navy SEAL series, Lieutenant Gus Atwater is assigned to work with his long lost love CIA agent Lucy Donovan.

Fiercely independent and with a reputation built on hundreds of death-defying missions, Lucy Donovan is sent back into the field after having been captured and tortured by the Venezuelan Elite Guard. Battling her post traumatic stress disorder, Lucy is simultaneously comforted and uneasy about having been partnered with Lieutenant Gus Atwater. Gus had been her college boyfriend and her rescuer, but working closely with him has brought back a level of comfort and closeness that she can't afford to feel.

Gus Atwater has always held a torch for Lucy Donovan. Now they're working together, in negotiations with Columbian terrorists for the release of US prisoners. The two professionals face enough obstacles, will their closeness help or hinder their mission?

Review:

This is my first experience with Marliss Melton's Navy SEAL series. I enjoyed how she combined romance with the plot and excitement of a military thriller. Lucy and Gus are sympathetic and likable characters. But what makes this book stand out is the Navy SEAL and CIA aspect that heightens the level of action and adventure. As Gus and Lucy showcase their unique skills, you can't help but be drawn into the story.

Publisher: Forever (September 1, 2009), 320 pages. Courtesy of the publisher.


About the Author, courtesy of the publisher:

Marliss Melton enjoyed an exotic childhood growing up overseas where entertainment meant riding on elephants in Laos, visiting museums in Paris, and tracking tigers in northern Thailand. Her experiences traveling the world led to her love of language, music, and storytelling. She has taught English and Spanish at the high school level and linguistics at the College of William and Mary, her alma mater. A Golden Heart and RITA finalist, she has written ten books since first becoming published in 2002.

Audio and Video

Thanks so much for the opportunity, Anna and Hatchette Book Group!