In My Mailbox Monday: The Wife’s Tale

Happy Cyber Monday, folks! Whatever that means. I shall resist from online purchases today as I know there’s nothing I truly “need” therefore, any purchases would only be cause for shoppers remorse about ten minutes after I click the Submit button. Instead, I’ll revel in the free books I received last week, as it’s In My Mailbox Monday in my world.

From the Hachette Book Group/Little Brown & Co. I received an ARC of The Wife’s Tale by Lori Lansens.  Synopsis from the publisher’s website: 

On the eve of their Silver Anniversary, Mary Gooch is waiting for her husband Jimmy–still every inch the handsome star athlete he was in high school–to come home. As night turns to day, it becomes frighteningly clear to Mary that he is gone. Through the years, disappointment and worry have brought Mary’s life to a standstill, and she has let her universe shrink to the well-worn path from the bedroom to the refrigerator. But her husband’s disappearance startles her out of her inertia, and she begins a desperate search.

For the first time in her life, she boards a plane and flies across the country to find her lost husband. So used to hiding from the world, Mary finds that in the bright sun and broad vistas of California, she is forced to look up from the pavement. And what she finds fills her with inner strength she’s never felt before. Through it all, Mary not only finds kindred spirits, but reunites with a more intimate stranger no longer sequestered by fear and habit: herself.

***

 Via Shelf Awareness/Random House I received The Wives of Henry Oades by Johana Moran. Synopsis from the author’s website:

The Wives of Henry Oades is inspired by a controversial court case. In the late 19th century, Henry and Margaret Oades emigrate from England to New Zealand. There, Margaret and her children are abducted by Maori and eventually given up for dead. Grief stricken, Henry sails to California, where, many years later, he marries a young widow, Nancy Foreland. When Margaret and her surviving children show up on their doorstep, Henry and Nancy take them in, and all attempt to adapt. Berkeley townspeople rise up against the apparent debauched arrangement. Henry is charged with bigamy, a crime punishable by hanging. As their legal troubles mount, Margaret and Nancy find themselves allying in ways neither could have predicted. The story at heart is theirs. Readers will probably take sides, and will no doubt be divided. Both women have a rightful, lawful stake.

***

Both novels look excellent, and I think it’s funny they’re both related to “wives.”

What did you receive last week? Mailbox Monday is hosted by The Printed Page. In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren.

TSS: When did they create “Cyber Monday?”

Seriously, I’d never heard the Friday after Thanksgiving be called “Black Friday” until I moved to Massachusetts. And now someone’s decided to call the Monday after Thanksgiving “Cyber Monday?” Because allegedly tomorrow is the day to get insanely good deals online? You know these things are what make me feel like I have to spend money! My husband woke me up at 7 a.m. Saturday and convinced me it would be a fabulous idea to get out of bed and hit Old Navy for the doorbusters. My bed was warm, outside it was not. But I guess I should give him credit because he did end up buying lots of nice things for me that I won’t open until Christmas. Hopefully I’ll forget what they all are over the next four weeks.

Moving on, it’s Sunday which means I’m holed up in the bedroom about to recommence studying for ye old GRE.  I have four days to make myself oodles smarter. I finished my review of The Atlantis Code by Charles Brokaw on Friday, which meant I got to pick a new book this weekend! I have four ARC’s awaiting my attention, but since they aren’t released until January, February, and March, I am lucky to be able to read a book I’ve purchased. Which lead to lots of nail-biting, several first-page reads, and general angst over what I am in the mood to start. I was really intrigued by Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, thanks to Marie at The Boston Bibliophile, but it is semi-long and small fonted and I kind of feel like a quick read right now. I am always up for James Rollins or Steve Berry, but I just finished an action-y book, and my next ARC is more of the same, so those two are out. I’ve heard rave reviews of Outlander by Diane Gabaldon, but it’s a million pages long. I have Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen which I’ve been looking forward to, and also the second Southern Vampire/Sookie Stackhouse book, Living Dead in Dallas, and Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, and oh-so-many-many more. I thought about posting a blog asking for y’all to suggest which one I should read, but got too anxious last night and decided Alias Grace it is. So far so good, I am not worried about the length anymore because it seems like a quick read, and Atwood’s writing is beautiful. It’s the kind of writing that speaks to me, so I can hardly put it down now. I think Atwood is one I will be reading a lot more of, probably one I should have been reading all along.

Cheers, have a Happy Sunday while I drown in algebraic equations.

Review: The Atlantis Code by Charles Brokaw

Setting aside preconceptions from The DaVinci Code, The Atlantis Code by Charles Brokaw is about a Harvard linguistics professor, Thomas Lourds, who stumbles across an ancient artifact wanted by a secret group of Cardinals from the Vatican. Together with television journalist Leslie, and Russian police officer Natashya, Lourds and a few other characters travel the globe in search of five ancient instruments inscribed with an untranslatable language, somehow linked to the lost city of Atlantis. Where did the instruments come from? Are the ruins in Spain really Atlantis? And how can Lourds and his women escape the evil Cardinal Murani with their lives intact? These are the types of plots and action and conspiracies which I adore in a book. Running for your lives, secret languages, ancient artifacts, evil dudes wearing robes. I eat these things for lunch, and I like them.

Brokaw’s twist on an often used stock-plot (Catholic Church hides something, and someone else must discover it) was new and unique and I was thankful that it kept me entertained. Lourds is searching for five musical instruments that unlock Sacred Texts which the Church does not want known. This is the reason I kept reading, I wanted to know the key to the mystery. Did they really discover Atlantis, and would Lourds be able to translate the artifacts in time? Sadly, it’s the only thing I really liked about the book.

Before I get started on the things I didn’t like, I will confess something: I’m a woman. I know, shocking. But I’m saying that now because in case some guy reads this and thinks I’m biased because of my sex, I will also say that I’m not a moron. I know how the male brain works, but I also know how books should work and they’re not supposed to placate to the male fantasy of travelling across the globe while two hot chicks fight over you. Less is more, but Brokaw’s sexual undertones were blatantly obvious and annoying. From the first time Lourds meets Leslie and appreciates her trim figure, to the second time he sees her, wearing a crop top and a belly ring, to the time they’re on a boat together heading toward Venice and “the chop of the waves rolled their bodies together in a manner that was altogether too pleasing and too tempting,” (177).* It became way too frequent, and way too sickening. Especially when Natashya enters the picture, complete with trench coat and pockets full of guns. I believe Brokaw enjoyed turning her from a masculine character smoking a cigar, into a feminine vixen wearing pajamas with no panties later in the novel. It’s a shame it was more for his own pleasure than that of the reader’s. He’s not a misogynist, he does not hate women, but he certainly enjoyed making them into stereotypes for his own entertainment. He used the phrase “grind him into dust,”* and he wasn’t talking about a fist fight, people. Lourds is supposed to be middle-aged, but sexy; intelligent and kind. But he’s a pig. He can’t possibly understand why two women fight over him? And Leslie can still find time to be jealous when she’s running for her life? And Natashya, really? I had faith that you of all of them would remain normal, but no. Sadly, the only character who lived up to my expectation was the evil Cardinal Murani. He knew what it meant to be a villain.

• I’d give this book 1 star for the character of Thomas Lourds
• 1 star for the character of Leslie
• 2 stars for Natashya
• 3 stars for the bad guys
• 3 stars for the writing
• 4 stars for the plot and twist on religious conspiracy
• 1 star for the ending with the women
• 3 stars for the ending with the plot resolution
• Average: 2.25 which rounds down to 2

So there you have it folks, 2 stars. I am sad for that. I received this book from GoodReads First Reads program and I was so very excited to start it. I love these types of books. I do not enjoy giving bad reviews, and I’m sorry that I have to, but it’s necessary. We don’t read books just for the plots, we read them because we enjoy the characters and we can relate to them. I thought Thomas Lourds was going to be a great character, he had all the beginnings of one, but he decided to think with his libido more than he should have, and I can’t enjoy that when it happens every ten pages.

If you’ve read this book, leave a comment to your review, I’d love to hear what you thought of The Atlantis Code.

*My copy is an uncorrected ARC, so quotes and page numbers may be subject to change in final version.

Booking Through Thursday – Thanksgiving Edition!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Before I start cutting the desserts and prepping the side dishes I thought I’d take a quick moment to answer this week’s Booking Through Thursday question:

What books and authors are you particularly thankful for this year?

This is a hard one because I’m thankful for all of my books. But in particular, I would say I’m thankful for Sarah Stonich’s wonderful novels These Granite Islands and The Ice Chorus. I would also the thankful for Sarah Addison Allen’s The Sugar Queen, and Alice Hoffman’s The Third Angel. Above all, I’m thankful for Bookcase Number Two: the To Be Read shelves. To Sarah Morton’s The Forgotten Garden, and Audrey Niffeneger’s Her Fearful Symmetry, and James Rollins, and Steve Berry, and Stephen King, and all the others. For their love and patience while I toil away through their pages ever so slowly, while even more books are added on. I promise I will read you all, have no fear.

I am also thankful to all of you, who read my blog and share your comments. And I’m thankful for your blogs as well. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Share yours here and at Booking Through Thursday.

Waiting On/Wishful Wednesday: Altar of Eden

Wishful Wednesday is hosted by The Bluestocking Guide. It’s a chance for us to share our wishlists with each other, new books we’ve found, or old books we want again. A sort of release of the burden we all carry: the desire for more books, and the lack of time/money/space to have them all. Waiting on Wednesday, hosted at Breaking the Spine, is similar, but specifically for unreleased books. This week my choice qualifies for both!

My pick for the week is the new James Rollins’ novel, Altar of Eden which is released on December 29, 2009. I haven’t read his last novel yet, The Doomsday Key, which is a continuation of the SIGMA series, but it’s at home on my shelf waiting for my attention. I am more excited about Altar of Eden though, I’m not going to lie. I can’t tell you how much I loved Rollins’ first novels, Subterranean, Excavation, Deep Fathom, etc. They were sci-fi and thrilling and kept me up many a late night turning the page. His SIGMA series is great, but I am glad to see him returning to his roots. This one is about genetic engineering, which means there is a bad-ass animal loose in Louisiana, and veterinarian Lorna Polk must team up with U.S. Border Patrol Agent Jack Menard to find the missing creature and figure out why it’s all freaky looking. It’s too bad Harper Collins’ First Looks program is on hiatus right now, otherwise I’d be all over that.

What are you wishing for today? Post your links here and at the host sites.

Teaser Tuesdays: The Atlantis Code

It’s my favorite day of the week folks! Well, not really because in general Tuesday’s are a disappointment since it’s neither Monday, nor any closer to Friday, but the highlight of Tuesday is definitely Teaser Tuesday hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading! Yay!

Typically when I post a teaser, I like to give you a really good sentence or two that has stuck out from the rest of the book. I know this is kind of against the rules, because you’re supposed to let your book fall open to a random page and you’re supposed to post a random sentence or dos and the page number. But when I’ve tried that it’s usually a horrific sentence, mostly boring dialogue, and it just seems like that would be a waste. So I started posting good sentences that I knew you would like. Until now. See last Tuesday I posted a random sentence, per the rules, from The Atlantis Code. It ended up being quite funny. But since then I’ve not found a sufficiently good sentence to post for a Teaser. Lucky for you, I’ve found a couple bad sentences to post in place of the good ‘uns.

To give you a quick idea of the scene: Thomas Lourds ( linguistic professor and ladies’ man) has just received a lilac scented business card from some cougar who wants to jump him. Leslie (sexy photojournalist with an eye on Lourds’ “brain”) sees the exchange.

“Leslie plucked the card from Lourds’ hands. ‘Trust me. You won’t need that.’ She deposited the card into the nearest waste receptacle and guided Lourds from the outdoor cafe and back into the street. Lourds didn’t mind. He had a photographic memory for telephone numbers. Even international ones.” (179)

Really dude? You’re a tool. It’s become blatantly obvious to me that I’m going to have to set aside my dislike for Brokaw’s cliché characters and obvious sexual subtext to appreciate the adventure aspect of his book. It’s a difficult task, since Lourds keeps pretending he doesn’t have a clue as to why two women would be catty to each other in his ever-so-sexy-professor presence. Gag.

Musing Mondays: November 23, 2009

Well, it’s Monday again. Ack. The good news is that today’s Musing Mondays question from Just One More Page is a great one to answer! We are asked:

What books did you read while in school? Were there any that you particularly liked, or even hated? Did any become lifelong favorites?

Right off the bat, I have to answer with The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It’s my favorite book for a reason. I forget what grade I was in, maybe eighth, when I first read this book, but it changed my life. If I had to pinpoint a zero-hour where my love of literature started, it would be the day I started reading this book. After Gatsby came 1984 by George Orwell, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. These were my absolute favorites, fully cementing my love for the novel.

If I had to say one book that I couldn’t stand, I think I’d have to go with Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger. Sorry folks, I don’t remember much of the book, I just remembered feeling like I wanted to poke my eyes out while reading it. As I’ve said before, that’s when I know I don’t like a book. But it’s been years and years since I read Catcher, and maybe, to be fair, I should give it another shot sometime. Sometime far down the road, when the desire to poke my eyes out is forgotten.

For books which changed my life that weren’t read specifically for school, I have to acknowledge The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. They have always held a special place in my heart, and they always will. I re-read the whole series every five years or so and love it just as much now as I did when I was young.

What about you? What books did you read in school that changed your life?

The Sunday Salon – Quicky: The Atlantis Code

Happy Sunday Doodles. For today I thought I’d post a Quicky on The Atlantis Code by Charles Brokaw. A Quicky is posting of my initial thoughts on the book I’m reading.

To give you an idea of what The Atlantis Code is about, I will transcribe the first line of the back-cover book synopsis: “A thrill-seeking Harvard linguistics professor and an ultrasecret branch of the Catholic Church go head-to-head in a race to uncover the secrets of the lost city of Atlantis.” And now I will perform a magic trick, with no smoke or mirrors. I shall read your mind, my Doodle, and tell you what you are thinking. You are thinking: Heck, that sounds a like The DaVinci Code but with Atlantis! And yes, I was thinking it as well. I wish Brokaw had picked another university, ANY other university than Harvard, because sadly all of his readers are no doubt going to compare his book to Dan Brown’s novels because he made a protagonist who happens to be a Harvard professor.

Setting that aside, I had high hopes for The Atlantis Code, like I usually do with books. I was really looking forward to starting it since I love action/adventure/mystery/sci-fi/lost-secret types of books, and it’s been a while since I’ve been able to indulge in one. I’ve been slightly disappointed so far, I am sad to say. The main character, Thomas Lourds (Harvard dude) seems like a playboy, who happens to be ridiculously smart and knows pretty much every single language known to all mankind, past and present. He’s supposed to be middle-aged and sexy, a la George Clooney I’m thinking, but his mind can only focus on flirtation and belly rings when it’s not trying to transcribe ancient artifacts. Setting aside my dislike of Lourds, I’m able to acknowledge the fact that the plot is starting to pick up, thank goodness. I’m finally to the point of action books that I like: they’re running for their lives!!! Secrets are flying, conspiracies are hiding, artifacts are popping up out of nowhere and they’re super-duper old, and I love it. It reminds me of James Rollins’ first sci-fi books which I’ve just added to my Christmas wish-list because I got rid of them all way back in the day (stupid!).

Anyways, I am enjoying this book much more now, I just wish Robert Langdon Thomas Lourds would stop thinking about belly rings and boobs and stop trying to flirt with Leslie, who is apparently a dimwit.

What are you doing today?

The Honest Scrap Award!

Katy from A Few More Pages kindly tagged me with an Honest Scrap Award. Hooray! Her blog and reviews are really wonderful, and I think it’s so nice she gave me a shout out.

Here are the rules:

• This award is bestowed upon a fellow blogger whose blog content or design is, in the giver’s opinion, brilliant. When accepting this award, you must write a post about it, including the name of the person who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to the said person so everyone knows she/he is real. Choose a minimum of seven blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Show the blog names and links and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with the Honest Scrap award. List at least ten honest things about yourself. Then pass it on!

I think these awards are so great. We can let other bloggers know we appreciate their work! I know how hard I work on my little Leaf, so I can only imagine the work others put in on blogs that are more in-depth than mine. I’m going to list my award handouts first, and then the ten things about myself. Without further adooooooooo, my Honest Scrap Awards:

1. Lena at Save Ophelia. Her reviews are always insightful and intelligent. Her blog was the first I started following and ultimately what made me decide to start my own.
2. Aimee at My Fluttering Heart. Her blog is fab and she always posts amazing fairytale pictures. 
3. Raych at Books I Done Read. This girl is hysterical. I love reading her reviews.
4. Teresa & Jenny at Shelf Love. This is a two-for-one.  These girls host the blog together, doing mainly separate reviews, but sometimes co-reviewing. Always smart and well-read.
5. The Boston Bibliophile. Another excellent and intelligent blog. She does a crazy amount of reviews every week.
6. MizB at Should Be Reading. She has the best memes, they’re fun, creative, and they bring everyone together.
7. T.Y at The Lit Connection. This is another really funny blog, she always posts great collages, as well as hot, hot guys.
8. Andi at Tripping Toward Lucidity: Estella’s Revenge. Her blog is refreshingly down to earth and honest and I really like that.

So, ten things about me that you probably don’t know:

1. My name is Alayne
2. I just got married less than 2 months ago.
3. I text myself when I need to remember things, like book titles and song lyrics and movies I want to rent.
4. I am addicted to coffee, and caffeine in general.
5. I’m obsessive about cleaning the apartment every Sunday, but get super crabby when I do.
6. I’m a bit of a nerd, and I am damn proud of it.
7. I’m applying for a Masters Program in Publishing. I was rejected from said program last year. I started this blog as a way of getting more experience in writing about books so that I could prove to the Admissions committee that I’m truly dedicated. I hope they are convinced.
8. My favorite book is The Great Gatsby. But I also love The Chronicles of Narnia and they would be a close second.
9. I have good days and bad days. Sunny, warm, fall weather always makes me have a good day.
10. I love to travel and want to see the wooooooooooooooorld.

Spread the book blogger love ya’ll!

Booking Through Thursday – November 19, 2009

Today’s Booking Through Thursday question is a doozy, and quite insightful if I do say so myself.

Do you think any current author is of the same caliber as Dickens, Austen, Bronte, or any of the classic authors? If so, who, and why do you think so? If not, why not? What books from this era might be read 100 years from now?

Although I know that there are genius authors publishing books right now, I personally think that in order for us to place these current authors on the same level as Dickens, Austen, etc., we’re missing a big ingredient in the Genius recipe: time. Austen was known to be a writer during her contemporary years, but it’s only with the passing of time, and the studying of her life and texts that she’s come to be known as The Jane Austen. Same with the others I think. They were all known to be writers, but back in their centuries, who could have predicted their legacies would last as long as they have? No one. And so, I don’t think we can honestly say that any current author is on the same caliber as those authors, but maybe in a fifty years we’ll think different. I would love another Fitzgerald.

Post your answers here and at the BTT comment field.