Literary Suprises on a Sunday

Hello Everyone! How are you on this fine Sunday? I'm doing just fine. :)

Perhaps one and a half to two years ago, our mailman had mentioned in passing that his wife had a whole box of books that she was getting rid of, and would I be interested in reading them (he noticed that we get a lot of books through the mail! LOL! :)) Anyway, Mareena and I returned home from being out this afternoon, and we were met with a giant plastic bin and a plastic bag full of books on our doorstep! :)

There are probably between 60-70 books all together. We actually just did a cursory examination later on this evening and so far there's 67 books in this package of books! :)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Alma Katsu - The Taker

84. The Taker by Alma Katsu (2011)
The Taker Trilogy Book 1
Length: 440 pages
Genre: Horror
Started: 2 September 2014
Finished: 7 September 2014
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 1 June 2013
Why do I have it? I like horror and Alma Katsu is a new author for me.

In the tiny town of St. Andrew, Maine, on a freezing wintry night, Dr. Luke Findley is expecting a quiet evening of frostbite and the occasional domestic dispute - just your typical midnight shift at Aroostook County Hospital. That's until Lanore McIlvrae - Lanny - walks into his Emergency Room, and completely changes his life forever. Lanny is unlike any woman Luke has ever met - a mysterious woman with a past and plenty of dark secrets. He is inexplicably drawn to her, sure that they have met somewhere before...despite the fact that she is a murder suspect and currently in police custody; under armed escort. 

A stranger and apparently new to town, Lanny is accused of a bizarre crime: allegedly killing a man and leaving his body in the Great North Woods. Lanny insists that while she committed the killing, the man had wanted to die. Always a practical man - a man of science - Dr. Luke Findley witnesses something which he can't explain - a miraculous impossibility that confounds him, and leaves him enthralled by this woman, whose very existence defies all reason. And so, as Lanny begins to tell her story - a tale of enduring love and consummate betrayal that transcends time and mortality, Luke Findley finds himself utterly captivated.

Her impassioned account begins at the turn of the nineteenth century in the same small town of St. Andrew, Maine, at the time that it was a Puritan settlement. As a child, Lanny finds the love of her life in Jonathan St. Andrew, the privileged son of the town's founder. She promises herself that she will do absolutely anything to be with him forever. But the price she pays is too steep - an immortal bond that chains her to a terrible fate for all eternity. Now, two centuries later, the key to her healing and salvation lies in the hands of Dr. Luke Findley.

I must say that Mareena actually chose this book for me at the Library Book Sale that we went to in June of last year. While I would technically classify this book as horror, in my opinion, the story actually wasn't all that horrific - creepy or eerie perhaps, but not scary. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have chosen this book to read for myself - as this is not my usual choice in horror - although I still thought it was very well written and an interesting story nevertheless. 

I was certainly fascinated by this particular story; some aspects of the plot which seemed utterly implausible to me, actually made perfect sense within the story. In my opinion, The Taker by Alma Katsu was just the slightest bit too long, although I still enjoyed it very much. I give this book an A! 

A! - (90-95%)
 
Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Joan Rivers and Richard Meryman - Still Talking

Reread. Still Talking by Joan Rivers and Richard Meryman (1991)
Length: 285 pages
Genre: Non-Fiction
Originally Read: 7 October 2010
Reread Finished: 2 September 2014
Where did it come from? Originally from a Library Book Sale, then from my "keeper" shelf.

I first read this book from October 1st to October 7th, 2010 and decided to refresh my memory about Joan Rivers' life after hearing that she was so ill in hospital. The reread took me three days - from August 31st to September 2nd, 2014.

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Reading Wrap-up For August at Moonshine and Rosefire

Hello everyone out there and I hope that you all had a terrific reading month for yourselves. I am known as Rosefire around the Internet and this is my new personal reading blog. I originally posted my reviews over at my daughter's blog, Emeraldfire's Bookmark but am now in the process of transferring them all over to my own blog. My daughter makes blogging look like so much fun that I thought that I would try it out for myself! :)

Anyway, I started out August with 929 unread books lying around the house and ended the month with 916 books unread. All the books that I acquired this month came from Bookmooch, Paperback Swap, a Library Book Sale that Mareena and I went to on the 16th and friends.

Let me try to break down the influx for you:

Rereads
- Guilt by Association by Susan R. Sloan

Changes to the TBR pile

Read from my TBR pile (Yes! I am a reading machine :))
- The Diary by Eileen Goudge
- Kiss and Kill by Karen Young
- Sandcastles by Luanne Rice
- Sleeping Tiger by Rosamunde Pilcher
- Prized Possessions by Avery Corman
- Behind Closed Doors by Susan R. Sloan
- A Nice Place to Live by Robert C. Sloane 
- The House of Stairs by Barbara Vine 
- A Perfect Divorce by Avery Corman  
- Blood Beast by Don D'Ammassa 
- The Heresy of Dr. Dee by Phil Rickman
- Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks

Added to my TBR pile (oh well, you win some and you lose some! Not too bad though, I suppose:))
- Domestic Affairs by Eileen Goudge
- Woman in Red by Eileen Goudge
- Blessings by Anna Quindlen
- Blood in the Water: An Alice Rice Mystery by Gillian Galbraith
- Bloody Irish: Celtic Vampire Legends by Bob Curran
- Breaking the Rules by Barbara Taylor Bradford
- Cold Justice by Jonnie Jacobs
- The Collection by Bentley Little
- The Country Diary Book of Crafts by Annette Mitchell
- Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris by David King
- Do no Harm by Don Donaldson
- The Empty Chair by Jeffery Deaver
- The Evidence Against Her by Robb Forman Dew
- Fly Away Home by Judith Kelman
- Forces of Change: A New View of Nature by Daniel Botkin
- Forever by Pete Hamill
- Gallows Lane by Brian McGilloway
- Ghost Light: A Novel by Joseph O'Connor
- A Good Yarn by Debbie Macomber
- Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult
- Holy Fools by Joanne Harris
- House of the Hanged by Mark Mills
- The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg
- I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman
- The Jewels of Tessa Kent by Judith Krantz
- Kill Her Again by Robert Gregory Browne
- The Law of Similars by Chris Bohjalian
- Mister X by John Lutz
- The Murdered House by Pierre Magnan
- The Newgate Jig by Ann Featherstone
- No Naughty Cats by by Debra Pirotin and Sherry Cohen
- Off Season by Anne Rivers Siddons
- One Ball Knits Purses: 20 Stylish Handbags Made with a Single Ball, Skein, Hank or Spool by Fatema Habibur-Rahman, Khadija Habibur-Rahman and Hajera Habibur-Rahman
- Outside the Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller
- The Pact: A Love Story by Jodi Picoult
- The Perfect Wife by Shari MacDonald
- The PMS Outlaws by Sharyn McCrumb
- The Rest of Her Life: A Novel by Laura Moriarty
- Return to Sullivan's Island by Dorothea Benton Frank
- The Second Silence by Eileen Goudge
- Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend by Robert James Waller
- Small Town Girl by LaVyrle Spencer
- Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picoult
- Stones From the River by Ursula Hegi
- Suddenly by Barbara Delinsky
- Taboo by Casey Hill
- Then Came Heaven by LaVyrle Spencer
- There But For the Grace of God: Survivors of the 20th Century's Infamous Serial Killers by Fred Rosen
- Three Graves Full by Jamie Mason
- Twilight Whispers by Barbara Delinsky
- What Happened to Sophie Wilder by Christopher Beha
- Where the River Ends by Charles Martin
- Philomena: A Mother, Her Son and a Fifty-Year Search by Martin Sixsmith  
- 100 Years, 100 Crosswords: Celebrating the Crossword's Centennial by Peter Gordon
- The Queen's Fool: A Novel by Philippa Gregory

Taken off my TBR pile and sent to a new home (Yay! Happy Dance! :))  
- A Happy Marriage by Rafael Yglesias
- The Hanging Tree: A Novella by Michael Phillip Cash
- Time Bomb by Jonathan Kellerman
- My Name is Mary Sutter: A Novel by Robin Oliveira
- Once in a Blue Moon by Eileen Goudge
- The Bad Place by Dean R. Koontz
- When the Wind Blows by John Saul
- Hunter's Blood by Jere Cunningham
- Sliver by Ira Levin
- Into Thin Air by Stan Washburn
- An Isolated Incident by Susan R. Sloan
- The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
- Kiss and Kill by Karen Young
- Watcher in the Dark by Beverly Hastings
- A Patchwork Planet: A Novel by Anne Tyler
- Victims by Jonathan Kellerman
- Nell by Nancy Thayer
- Class Reunion by Rona Jaffe
- Just Ask the Universe: A No-Nonsense Guide to Manifesting your Dreams by Michael Samuels
- Family Pictures by Sue Miller
 
Well, there it is...the breakdown! All in all, a very good reading month for me. Here's a further breakdown:

Books Read: 13
Pages Read: 4,514
Grade Range: A+! to B+!

So, there you go! The reading month that was August. I hope that you all had an equally good reading month; if not a little better. :) See you all next month! :)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

August's Book of the Month

Hello Everyone! I chose the picture posted above because it reminds me of reading to my daughter Mareena when she was little. Every afternoon until she was about eight or nine years old, we would take one of her books that she wanted to read or that she was reading and we would curl up together on my big bed.

We would spend an hour or so reading a chapter of her book, and then take a nap together. Her absolutely favorite author at that time was an English author named Enid Blyton. Ahh, nice memories...

My picks for 'Books of the Month' will be decidedly more adult these days, but they will be from almost any genre. August's Book of the Month is:

A Perfect Divorce by Avery Corman

Published as: A Perfect Divorce: A Novel in September 2004

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Birth Name: Avery Corman

Born: 28 November 1935 in The Bronx, New York

Canonical Name: Avery Corman
Pseudonyms: None  

A Perfect Divorce by Avery Corman was the seventy-ninth book that I read in 2014. I have had this book on my TBR shelf since August 20, 2014 and it took me two days to read. This book is definitely a keeper for me.

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Nicholas Sparks - Nights in Rodanthe

82. Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks (2002)
Length: 212 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started/Finished: 30 August 2014
Where did it come from? From Walmart
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 1 June 2007
Why do I have it? I like contemporary fiction and Nicholas Sparks is a new author for me. This was actually a birthday present given to Mareena by a friend for her birthday in 2007.

Broken-hearted and reeling from such betrayal, Adrienne Willis must rethink the entire course of her life after her husband leaves her for a younger woman. Now, at age forty-five, Adrienne has been divorced for three years, and is simply worn down by life. The trials of raising her teenage children alone and caring for her terminally ill father have ultimately left Adrienne completely exhausted and severely emotionally depleted.

At the request of a friend, and seeking respite and self-rejuvenation, she has come to Rodanthe - a coastal village in North Carolina - to tend the local inn for the weekend. What seems to Adrienne like a perfectly restful plan at first, is threatened by the news of a major brewing storm. Her time away doesn't seem too promising...until a guest named Paul Flanner arrives. 

At fifty-four, Paul is a successful surgeon, but in the past six months his life has unraveled into something that he doesn't even recognize. Estranged from his son and recently divorced, he has sold his practice and his home and has journeyed to this isolated town with hopes of closing a painful chapter in his past. Inevitably, Adrienne and Paul come together as the storm sweeps over Rodanthe and two battered and bruised hearts find a home with each other. Something begins between them during that single weekend; a bond that will resonate with them for the rest of their lives, intertwining past and future, love and loss.     

In my opinion, this was a surprisingly good book; I really, really enjoyed the story. I don't usually like reading anything that is overtly romantic, but to me, this was a true love story and not just a 'romance-for-the-sake-of romance' plot. The story was well-written, touching and poignant, and I enjoyed it immensely. I know that I have at least one more book by Nicholas Sparks sitting on my bookshelf, and I think Mareena has at least two or three books by this author that she says she'll lend me to read as well. I give this book an A+!

A+! - (96-100%)
  
Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Phil Rickman - The Heresy of Dr. Dee

81. The Heresy of Dr. Dee by Phil Rickman (2012)
The John Dee Papers Series Book 2
Length: 446 pages
Genre: Historical Mystery
Started: 26 August 2014
Finished: 29 August 2014
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 16 August 2014
Why do I have it? I like historical mysteries and Phil Rickman is a new author for me.

In this second book of the acclaimed historical series featuring Dr. John Dee - Queen Elizabeth's personal astrologer, and esteemed expert on matters of the occult - Tudor court intrigue, murder and the practice of the dark arts abound. England during the sixteenth century is rife with talk of the end-times...and the dead are rising. And John Dee must discover if one of his closest friends may have had sufficient motive to commit murder. However, devious politics and small-town corruption; as much as distorted religion and a sense of brooding superstition, leave Dr. Dee and his traveling companions isolated in the land of his father. 

At the end of the sunless summer of 1560, dark rumor and base innuendo shrouds the death of the one woman who stands between Lord Robert Dudley and marriage to the young Queen Elizabeth. Did Lord Dudley's wife, Amy, die from an accidental fall in a deserted house, or was it actually an act of calculated murder? Even Dr. John Dee, royal astrologer and adviser on the Hidden, as well as one of Lord Dudley's oldest friends, is uncertain. Then a rash promise to the Queen sends him to his family's old home on the Welsh border on a quest to find the Wigmore Shewstone, a crystal credited with supernatural properties.

Traveling with Dr. Dee is Robert Dudley, perhaps the most hated man in England. They travel with a judge sent from London to try a sinister Welsh brigand with a legacy dating back to the time of the Battle of Bryn Glas. This was a battle in which close to one thousand Englishmen died at the hands of the Welsh. According to legend, after the battle many of the bodies were obscenely mutilated. Now, on this same haunted hill, another dead man has been found, similarly slashed. 

In my opinion, this plot was certainly very intriguing; the story was well-written and strongly researched, and I'm pleased to have read it for that reason. This book is very historically accurate, and the age-old enmity between the Welsh and the English is obvious. If you are interested in learning more about Wales, then this is definitely the book to read.

I found that this book was definitely heavy reading - there were just so many characters to keep straight, and so many parts that those characters played in the mystery - that I had trouble remembering everything. This is definitely not a 'two-minute' reading style mystery - it is intricate and involved - and I found that I had to concentrate inordinately hard on it as I read this book. I think I've read some books by this author in the past, although I can't remember which ones. I would give The Heresy of Dr. Dee a B+! In my opinion, while this was certainly not my favorite book, it was still well worth reading.

B+! - (89-94%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight