Fall Into Reading Wrap-Up

It seems very strange to be tying up a "fall" reading challenge with the Christmas tree up and carols on the CD player. But the Fall Into Reading Challenge has ended. I had thirteen books on the list. I actually read fourteen books. But were they all on the list? Well...no. And that has been an issue for me before.

My list was comprised of:

1. Nutcracker Nation by Jennifer Fisher
2. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
3. Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
4. Guardian of the Veil by Gregory Spencer
5. Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss
6. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
7. The Shunning by Beverly Lewis (Book 1 in the Heritage of Lancaster County Series)
8. A Hideous Beauty by Jack Cavenaugh
9. The Brink of Death by Brandilyn Collins (sent to me by my friend Coach Jenny)
10. The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory
11. The Divine Appointment by Jerome Teel
12. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin (Book 1 in the Earthsea Cycle)
13. The Reckoning by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles (Book 15 of a series of 30 books that comprise the Morland Dynasty)

Katrina at Callapidder Days, our hostess for the challenge, has offered us some questions to consider as we wrap this up. She asks:

* Tell us how you did. Did you finish all the books you had on your original list? If not, why not? Did you get distracted by other books? Were you too busy to read as much as you would have liked? And if you did finish them all, did you read more?

Well, no, as I mentioned I did NOT finish all the books on my list. I didn't even start: Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin (Book 1 in the Earthsea Cycle), Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss, Guardian of the Veil by Gregory Spencer, and Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon.

I definitely got distracted with other books. I became very enamored with Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' The Morland Dynasty series early this year and have been struggling not to read just that to the exclusion of all else. I will have to devote an entire post to that sometime after the new year. I was distracted enough from the Morland Dynasty and from my original list to read some books that I received that I had not counted on when the challenge began.

And, yes, life got in the way a little and considering the time of year I guess it is not surprising. Life continues on even when we have our noses buried in books and being the mother of two energetic and busy young men kept me away from some reading time. But that is a good thing to have, no complaints about that.

* Tell us what you thought. What book did you like most? Least? Did you try a new author that you now love? Have you written off an author as "I'll never read anything by him/her again!"?

Memoir of a Geisha was fabulous. It was not an uplifting book, but was fascinating. I think it was my favorite book from the challenge. Arthur Golden created memorable characters that imbedded themselves on my imagination, and I highly recommend it as a "must read."

Nutcracker Nation was my least favorite book, but I slogged through it so I could discuss it with my friend. I am not one to finish unsatisfying books, but I did it. It read like a thesis paper more than a book and I felt a lot of interesting avenues were left unexplored or ignored totally.

* Tell us what you learned. Maybe you learned something about yourself, your interests, your reading patterns. Maybe you learned that you love/hate a particular genre. Maybe you learned some fabulous little nugget of truth from one of the books you read.

I learned that historical fiction has become a definite favorite. I've been surprised and extremely pleased with the quality of the Christian fiction that I've read. That has been a fantastic blessing. I learned I can live without fantasy for a little while, although I will be back to reading it again. Some might consider A Hideous Beauty fantasy, but I don't think it is although it might loosely be called Christian fantasy.

I didn't review every book I read, but these are all the reviews I did post.

What I did read:

The Other Boleyn Girl--Phillipa Gregory
Memoirs of a Geisha--Arthur Golden
The Brink of Death --Brandilyn Collins
The Reckoning--Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
The Devil's Horse--Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Kingdom Wars I: A Hideous Beauty--Jack Cavanaugh
The Divine Appointment--Jerome Teel
The Heritage of Lancaster County: The Shunning--Beverly Lewis
The Heritage of Lancaster County: The Confession--Beverly Lewis
The Poison Tree--Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
The Sovreign's Daughter--Susan May Warren and Susan K. Downs
Nutcracker Nation--Jennifer Fisher
The Abyss--Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
The Hidden Shore--Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

As you can see, five of the fourteen are by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. Those are the Morland Dynasty series. I plan on reading the third in the Heritage of Lancaster County: The Reckoning. I will be searching out other books from most of the authors I read.

I really thought the Spring Reading Thing was easier for me, so I will need to evaluate my fall reading expectations in the year to come. What my plans are for reading in 2008 are? I am working on weeding down a burgeoning list and will have some thought in a week or two.

Looking forward to checking in with all the Fall Into Reading participants. Because you know there are never too many books.

Nutcracker Nation—a Book Review

Nutcracker Nation by Jennifer Fisher

I had this book on my Fall into Reading list. I started this book at the beginning of the Fall into Reading Challenge. I just painfully finished the book last night. Ugh.

A friend of mine loaned me this book a long time ago. I wasn’t too hip on reading it, she and I have very different reading choices, but being a "Nutcracker Mom," I thought I might relate to it. And so I slogged my way through it. Very rarely do I finish books that I don’t enjoy—my “to read” pile is to high and my time is to limited to do so often, but I had told my friend I would read it. What do do? Press on...

Jennifer Fisher, the author, is a teacher of dance history, theory, and ethnology at Pomona College and the University of California, Irvine. From her writing I gather she danced more than a few Nutcrackers herself. Sadly she seems to be unintentionally stuck in the boys vs. girls’ camp that clings to ballet, especially at the amateur level. She attempts to explore the differences between male and female dancers, but it is very stereotypical and flat.

There was very little discussion of Tchaikovsky, himself although definitely history of how the ballet grew from its Russian roots at the Mariinsky Theater.

The more interesting parts of the book are where the different faces of Nutcracker are explored across the continent. Nutcracker has been adapted socially and culturally many times to interesting outcomes. Ms. Fisher has researched her history admirably. She says:

Although the ballet world, even on the amateur level, is far from egalitarian, this seems to be one way The Nutcracker is imagined by its participants—as a welcoming utopian community. This vision is supported by the idea that anyone can pursue the ideal forms inherent in ballet technique and be affected by the potentially transformational music of Tchaikovsky, while at the same time celebrating the themes of home, hearth, and adventure. And when people feel shut out of the ballet world, with all its particular history and stringent requirements, they can take The Nutcracker into their own domains, tweak it, dress it up differently, and bring it closer to home.

Perhaps it is my own lackluster attitude this year, perhaps it is the boys vs. girls attitude that has, sadly infested our school this year, perhaps I’ve “matured” in my view of the Nutcracker, but this book didn’t make me want to run out and see another one. But as Ms. Fisher concludes:

Like birthdays and weddings, the annual ballet is both dreaded and celebrated because it marks the passage of time. Once you surrender to that inevitability, you can shift gears and enjoy the endless possibilities. The Nutcracker isn’t just another aesthetic performance, although it certainly can be that. It’s also a wonderfully flexible, ritual-like, resonant phenomenon.

She is right, and I see this in the professional dancers that my children are fortunate to get to dance with, after about your twentieth or so Nut you start to grumble a little (as a volunteer and parent it only took three). But when the overture starts, you sigh and give in and let Pyotr Ilyich take over for a bit and things seem a bit sweeter.

This book would not be a recommended one, unless you are a serious student of ballet history and culture. The author’s research is faultless. She has dug deeply, but it reads more like a textbook than a book for enjoyment. Now…what to tell my friend?

You are welcome to view my other reviews and posts for the Fall Into Reading Challenge.

Fall Into Reading Book Review

A Hideous Beauty by Jack Cavanaugh

Kingdom Wars I: A Hideous Beauty by Jack Cavanaugh
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms –The Bible

A whirlwind of a read.

A Hideous Beauty is a powerful and thrilling book that addresses head on the war that wages around us. The lead character, Pulitzer Prize winning author Grant Austin, comes face to face with just how close that war is. He goes from a vague belief in God to a irrefutable confrontation angels in a very short period of time. He learns angels aren’t the pretty pocketcard picture of a gentlefaced ethereal person. He learns angels aren’t anything like what he might have had a passing thought about. Austin is dragged into an assassination attempt and the veil between the spiritual realm and the earthly realm are opened for him and for the reader to see.

How close is the spiritual battle? Mr. Cavanaugh presents a view that will take your breath away. Angels good and evil and the minion demons that surround the evil side are written in a truly believable style. I would be fascinated to read Mr. Cavanaugh’s research material for this book. And I am excitedly waiting for the second installment, because A Hideous Beauty is the first in a series that is planned. An interview with Mr. Cavanaugh from the Glass Road Public Relations appeared earlier in my blog here.

I realized only as I was writing this review that A Hideous Beauty was the second political thriller that I had read for the Fall Into Reading Challenge, the first being The Divine Appointment. Each book has a completely different premise and completely different characters, but the one shining thing in common was that they are written by Christians from an unapologetically Christian perspective. It was exciting to read intricate, educated writing with an eternal message on every page. These are thought provoking books that you could hand to a secular reader and not worry that they would not be interested.

Head on over to Katrina at Callapidder Days to check out more reviews for this challenge.

Fall Into Reading Review

The Divine Appointment by Jerome Teel


Mr. Teel has created a fast paced novel that kept me guessing for quite a while. And even after the facts are starting to become clear it was a race to finish the book so I could “see” the hows and why’s fall into place.

This political suspense drama is worthy of a prime time script. Mr. Teel’s characters are immediately riveting. He begins with a Christian lawyer who is so involved with his career that he is missing the joys of family, two young female lawyers one who is establishing her career and the other making tragic choices, an arrogant, self-sufficient and successful cardiologist who is bent on ruining his marriage, a young investigative reporter, a senate majority leader who doesn’t surprise me, his assistant who doesn’t surprise me either, a president who most certainly does surprise me, and wives. Four wives who never meet, but who are all connected by and influence the other players in surprising ways.

The worst thing about The Divine Appointment was that it left me unsatisfied with the reality that screams daily from our newspapers. I believe there are "real live"people who believe as some of the "heroes" in Mr. Teel's book believe. I just wish they'd step up to the plate and run for office and fight the dragons that hide in the halls of our politcal system.

The Divine Appointment was suspenseful and exciting. It kept me reading into the wee hours. I could not put it. down.

This is a book that I received from a book "blog tour" and if you would like to read an interview with Mr. Teel you can look here.

I read this for Katrina at Callapidder Days' Fall Into Reading Challenge. She's got lots of readers participating and writing reviews. Check it out!

Fall Into Reading Review

The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory.

History differs on many accounts of Anne Boleyn’s life, whether she was the younger or older of the sisters, whether or not she had a physical deformity of her hand, whether or not she surrounded herself with homosexual men and mostly about her relationship with her brother. But all accounts agree, Anne Boleyn, raised in the French courts, came to the English court of Henry the VIII and Katherine of Aragon. Her sister was a prior mistress of Henry’s and Anne succeeded her in this and then was successful (intentionally or unintentionally) in unseating Katherine, the Spanish queen, from the throne. Because of her inability to deliver a male heir to Henry at least, she was accused of several crimes, imprisoned in the Tower of London and beheaded.

I started out the year reading The Queen’s Fool and The Virgin’s Lover also by Phillipa Gregory. Gregory knows how to tell a story. She can lure you into the courts of royalty, she can make you follow to abject poverty and I always want to continue reading the story she shares.

Having read a previous historical fiction story earlier this year about Anne Boleyn, The Dark Rose by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, I was curious to see how Ms.Gregory would handle the story. She took a totally different approach to the account. Her tale is told in the first person voice by Mary Boleyn, who in this tale is the younger of the Boleyn sisters.

What Gregory does is takes the myths, the fact and the suspicions and weaves them into a seductive tale, casting Anne in a role that makes her the total mistress of her destiny. She is determined, aggressive, greedy and focused. She is charming and shrewish. She is totally overcome with her own vision for her life.

In this story we also see Mary, who is not as widely discussed as Anne. Mary is the sister Henry tired of dallying with. She is the sister who survived the whole family and went on to have a somewhat complete family life with a man she was purported to be in love with—a totally unfashionable proposition at that time.

I’ve read reviews arguing Ms. Gregory’s historical accuracy and I am not enough of a scholar to dive into the fray. But what I’ve noticed is that even the reviewers who are not content with the facts cannot deny this is a story that is hard to put down. Grab your hat because The Other Boleyn Girl is a riveting read that has Phillipa Gregory’s trademark characters, so personal, vulnerable and believable, present throughout, leading you down the path of a great story.

The Other Boleyn Girl is also being made into a movie. This looks like one I will enjoy!

Fall Into Reading Challenge is hosted at Callapidder Days by Katrina. Lots of reviews are up. Check out what everyone is saying!

Fall Into Reading Review

The Brink of Death by Brandilyn Collins

Oh. My. Word. If you choose to read this, just set aside some time and be prepared to fly through it. Collins can write a thriller. I read this over two evenings and I am not kidding, each night I had to double okay triple check that I locked the blinking doors. Good grief am I susceptible or what??? Don't answer that.

We start the story with a murder. With that title, would I have expected anything less. It was more graphic that I was prepared for. I understood the book to be Christian fiction, but Collins depicts murder for what it is, a hateful and totally evil crime. We see into the mind of the murderer. And we meet Annie Kingston.

Annie has come from the school of hard knocks. Her father was a brilliant defense attorney, who was lacking in the parental column and is recently dead from a heart attack. Her husband was…a louse. And she and her children are suffering from both of these facts. They've recently moved to find a safe haven and some peace to heal and grow stronger. They move to her father's old house in quiet Grove Landing.

A shocking murder occurs across the street leaving her daughter’s friend without her mother. What can Annie do but dive in and help?

Annie is an aggressive and determined woman when she decides to get involved. The story left me in the clichéd nail biting, edge of my seat panic until I had read the final paragraph. Somehow Ms. Collins wove in the salvation message without whacking her readers upside the head. Awesomely done.

There are three more books in the series. My dear friend Jenny sent them all to me recently—guess what I am going to be reading soon?

Brandilyn Collins has a knack for drawing her readers in quickly and keeping them engrossed. Brink of Death—a fantastic (albeit thrilling) read.

This was on my Fall Into Reading list. Katrina at Callapidder Days is the lovely hostess to this reading challenge.

Fall Into Reading Review

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

I have yet to read a bad review of this book. When I named it on my Fall Into Reading list I heard many a good word about it. Let me say, I was not disappointed. This book lived up to everything I heard about it and more.

Golden’s writing swept me away in the first paragraph. It transported me to the pre-WWII era in Gion where the geisha and all girls who were bought and sold and aspired to be geisha struggled in an intricate society. They hung in a delicate balance of competition and dependency on one another.

Memoirs is the story of one geisha. It begins with her as a young girl, Chiyo, in a fishing village and follows her life as she is sold to a okiya and as she becomes Sayuri the name she is given when she becomes a geisha apprentice.

I will admit that, like many women Sayuri meets, I originally presumed geisha to be little more than high dollar pro$titues (forgive me—just trying to ward off the search spiders). What I found to be true was that their society, their company was sought out for much more than I understood. And I still don’t think I get it all.

Fascinating to me was the fact that apprentice geisha wore more complicated kimono and make-up than established geisha. The layers that went into preparing to leave the okiya to go to the teahouses for an evening was unbelievable. The elaborate education and training that geisha maintained and the social rules for how a geisha visited different teahouses and parties was mapped out like strategy.

The culture that was pre-war Japan was complicated and dominated by men. The cultural difference between the women of today and the Japanese women is separated by a huge chasm. Certainly I was bothered by the commonality of geisha in the upper societies. The presumption of society that it was a right of wealthy men to seek their entertainment. But at the same time I was fascinated by the complexity of geisha and how a girl rose to be one and I was mesmerized by the story Mr. Golden wove.

Memoirs of a Geisha goes on my short list of all time favorites and I am truly tickled to be able to say I have a spare copy to give away. If you have not read it and would like to, leave me a comment in my giveaway post found HERE.

The only bad thing I can say about Memoirs of a Geisha is that I wish I had read it sooner.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Books On My List for Fall into Reading 2007

Katrina's Fall into Reading 2007 challenge begins on September 23rd and ends December 23rd. For the Spring Reading Thing I may have gotten a little carried away. I put sixteen books on my list and then went around and visited many other readers and got a few too many ideas. I thought for this fall a baker's dozen would be manageable, giving me room to add a few tempting reads along the way.

My books will include:

1. Nutcracker Nation by Jennifer Fisher
2. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
3. Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
4. Guardian of the Veil by Gregory Spencer
5. Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss
6. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
7. The Shunning by Beverly Lewis (Book 1 in the Heritage of Lancaster County Series)
8. A Hideous Beauty by Jack Cavenaugh
9. Brink of Death by Brandilyn Collins (sent to me by my friend Coach Jenny)
10. The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory
11. The Divine Appointment by Jerome Teel
12. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin (Book 1 in the Earthsea Cycle)
13. The Reckoning by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles (Book 15 of a series of 30 books that comprise the Morland Dynasty)

I will be joining Overwhelmed With Joy's Pay It Forward Book Exchange next week. On Tuesday I will have a post giving details on how to win The Road by Cormac McCarthy which I won from Overwhelmed a little while back. Stop back to enter.

Through the course of the reading challenge I will have other books to give away, so if you don't win one, stop back and see what else is on the giveaway list.

THE PURPOSE BEHIND THE THURSDAY THIRTEEN:The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. What do you do? Write Thirteen things about yourself, summarize your week in one entry, make it easy for other bloggers to get to know you on a weekly basis. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged!