Winner of The Prodigal Son by Colleen McCullough!

JaneGS of Reading, Writing, Working, Playing is the lucky winner of Colleen McCullough's latest novel, The Prodigal Son.  Congrats to JaneGS!  JaneGS has been notifed by email and has one week to respond, otherwise a new winner will be chosen.  She was selected using my favorite website, random.org.  I hope she enjoys the book as much as I did!

Thank-you to all who entered this great giveaway and thank-you to Simon & Schuster for allowing me to host this giveaway.

Stay tuned in February & March for more great giveaways!

Winner of Georgette Heyer by Jennifer Kloester!

Traveler is the lucky winner of the fascinating biography Georgette Heyer by Jennifer Kloester. Congrats to Traveler!  I have send her an email notifying her of her win.  She has one week to email me her mailing address, otherwise a new winner will be selected.  Traveler was chosen using the powers of random.org.

Thank-you to all who entered and to Jennifer Kloester for the great guest blog and for responding to the comments.  That was fantastic!

I really enjoyed this book and will hopefully have my review up and posted this week.

Stay tuned for a new giveaway in February . . .

The Prodigal Son by Colleen McCullough Review and GIVEAWAY!

The Prodigal Son is a riveting mystery set in 1969. A deadly neurotoxin is missing from Dr. Millie Hunter’s lab. Millie is a gifted biochemist that is married to an even more famous biochemist, Dr. Jim Hunter. She is also the daughter of the Holloman Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Patrick O’Donnell, therefore she notifies her dad of the dangerous theft. Shortly thereafter, a rash of mysterious deaths from this toxin spread through this college town. Who stole the toxin and why?


I’ll admit that I couldn’t put this book down. I really wanted to know the end of this mystery. Even after it became apparent who the villain of the book was, I still wanted to keep reading. The mastery of this novel isn’t the mystery as much as the expert building of the layers of wonderful characters. I enjoyed all of the characters; victims and villains and wanted to read more about them. Luckily I can. This book is the fourth in McCullough’s Carmine Delmonico series. I haven’t read any of the other books in the series, but I still enjoyed this book. Delmonico is related to Patrick O’Donnell and seemingly half of the town, and is the primary investigator on this mystery.

Another interesting aspect of this book was that Dr. Jim Hunter is African American and Dr. Millie Hunter is white. A biracial marriage in 1950’s and 1960’s America is examined as well as the status of women in society. Dr. Millie Hunter is a professional woman in an era when that was uncommon, but she is also always considered beneath her husband in the world’s eye. I thought both angles added interest and depth to the novel. Although I did have questions about McCullough’s handling of race at some points. It would be interesting to discuss this with someone else!  Feel free to comment if you have read the book.

My only complaint about this book is small . . . I really hated the name of the University – Chubb University? It’s supposed to be Ivy League, but all I kept thinking was Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Chubb – which one doesn’t belong? There were also a couple of items that didn’t seem to fit with the times.

I have read Colleen McCullough's historical fiction in the past (The Thorn Birds and Morgan's Run), and it was interesting to see her delve into a new genre.

Overall, I thought The Prodigal Son was a great mystery with wonderfully complex characters.

Book Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster – Thank-you.

Giveaway Details

Simon & Schuster has graciously offered a giveaway of one copy of The Prodigal Son by Colleen McCullough.
If you would like to win a copy of this book please leave a comment about what intrigues you about the this book or about author Colleen McCullough.

As part of your comment, you must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner.

For an additional entry, blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. Provide a link to this post in your comment.

I will be using random.org (or a monte carlo simulation in excel) to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is only open to US and Canadian residents (Sorry!).

No P.O. Boxes.

The deadline for entry is midnight on Friday January 25th, 2013.

Please make sure to check the first week of February to see if you are a winner. I send emails to the winner, but lately I've been put in their "junk mail" folder instead of their inbox.

Good luck!

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Title: Little Women


Author: Louisa May Alcott

Read by: Christina Ricci

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Length: Approximately 19 Hours

Source: Digital Review Copy from Penguin Audio – Thank-you!



I recently discovered that I was robbed as a youth. As I was listening to Christina Ricci’s excellent narration of one of my favorite novels, I discovered scene after scene of the classic novel that I didn’t remember. I read it many times as a youth and recently reread it a couple of years ago. What was happening? I got out my old classic copy bought from a scholastic book order when I was young and realized I HAD BEEN READING AN ABRIDGED VERSION MY ENTIRE LIFE. How could this happen to me? How had I never noticed the “abridged” before so apparent now on the cover?

Luckily I could now fill in the gaps with this audio book, and truthfully, I found the gaps to be more interesting now as an adult that I probably would have found them as a child. For instance, I never knew before that sainted perfect mother Marmee actually had anger control issues. She has a wonderful talk with Jo on how to control your temper and explains why she often has to leave the room or chew on her lip to control her anger. Marmee – I never knew! I loved this human flaw to a character that had always seemed so perfect before. It was also a lesson I appreciated as a mother as it is sometimes hard to make sure your temper does not get the better of you.

I also loved the extra material in “Good Wives” (the second half of Little Women) giving more detail to the relationships between each sister and their spouses and interesting dynamics with Meg’s children, Demi and Daisy. I loved the romance and found that some of the domestic trials of yesteryear could be the same today. For example, Meg always told John he could invite a friend over for dinner any time, but of course John picks a day when Meg has made and destroyed jam and has nothing ready for supper. Meg is horrified and very angry with John after the incident. I could imagine the same thing happening to me with Ben clueless on why I was angry.

I enjoyed listening to Little Women again. It was like visiting with old friends. I love the trials and tribulations of the March sisters, each with their beauties and their flaws. Ricci was an excellent narrator. The only problem I had with her narration was Hannah’s apparently Southern accent. I don’t picture Hannah as a southern servant, did I miss something?

Listening to Little Women also inspired me to rewatch the 1994 film starring Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, and Claire Danes. I love that film, but they leave so much out. I also love the 1930’s film starring Katherine Hepburn and 1940’s version starring June Allyson and Elizabeth Taylor, each with its own spin on the classic. I will admit thought that my favorite growing up in the 1980’s was a cartoon Little Women we owned on “videodisc.” It included a sequence where they rescue a runaway slave, which is not in the original novel. Looking around the internet, I discovered that this cartoon was actually a Japanese anime version. Very interesting! What is your favorite cinematic version of Little Women?

This audiobook has inspired me to dust off my copy of Little Men, which as I admitted previously, I never read as a child. I am interested to learn what happens next to the March family so hopefully I will be reading it soon.

If you are looking for the COMPLETE version of Little Women in a new format, I suggest the wonderful digital audio version narrated by Christina Ricci.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

As I watched the last Twilight movie, I was riveted by a preview for an upcoming movie called Beautiful Creatures. When I returned home, I made sure to put a hold on the novel at the library that the movie is based on. A young adult romance with paranormal activity? Count me in.

Ethan Wate has lived in the small town of Gatlin South Carolina his entire life. “There are only two kinds of people in our town. ‘ The stupid and the stuck’ my father affectionately classified our neighbors.” Wate dreams of something different and of moving away from his small town. Especially after his mother died earlier in the year in a tragic car accident and his father has basically disappeared into the study since then to work on the great American novel. Ethan is lucky to have Amma, the woman who raised his father and him to keep him in line.

Ethan is unfortunately a sophomore in high school and still has years before he will leave his small town. Things soon change when new girl Lena Duchannes starts at his school. She is dark haired, doesn’t dress “right,” and loves to read, all items that put her in the cross hairs of the bleached blonde popular cheerleaders. But the item that really puts a mark on Lena’s back is that she is the niece of Macon Ravenwood, the town’s “Boo Radley” and lives with him in his old and presumed haunted mansion. Ethan immediately connects with Lena and strangely realizes she is the girl that has inhabited his dreams all summer. Even stranger, Ethan and Lena can communicate with each other in their thoughts.

With the town against them, Ethan soon learns that Lena has a secret that will shape her on her sixteenth birthday. Ethan also discovers the hidden layers, lies, and secrets to Gaitlin that make his small town anything but boring.

I really enjoyed this book and literally couldn’t put it down. It looks like a large book, but being a young adult novel, it was a very fast read. I found the story line to be very interesting and original, but I really loved all of the characters and the setting. The southern setting was intriguing and each character seemed to have a hidden back story just waiting to be let loose. I can’t say more as I don’t want to ruin the plot, but I look forward to reading the next book in this series and to watching the movie. Any other fans or haters of this series want to share their thoughts?

Book Source: The Kewaunee Public Library

"How I First Fell in Love with Georgette Heyer's Novels" Guest Blog by Jennifer Kloester (and GIVEAWAY!)

Today I am excited to have a wonderful guest blog by Jennifer Kloester on her new biography of one of my favorite authors, Georgette Heyer.  Kloester shares her experience with discovering the wonderful works of Heyer and writing this biography.  It is next on my to-read pile so look for my review this month! 

Hi Laura, thanks so much for hosting my Georgette Heyer Blog on your lovely site.

The first time I read a Georgette Heyer novel I was living in a small mining town in the jungle in Papua New Guinea (truly!). We were very lucky to have a tiny YWCA library with a surprisingly wide range of books, among which were many well-read Heyer paperbacks. My first was Cotillion. It's a delicious novel with a wonderful cast of characters and some incredibly funny laugh-out-loud scenes. I loved Kitty Charing and her various suitors, dreadful old Mr Penicuik and poor Miss Fishguard, and within a couple of chapters I was hooked! After that I tried to get hold of every Heyer novel I could – though that took several years because she was so prolific. To this day I am in awe of the consistently high standard of her writing and, although I've sometimes heard critics claim that she used the same characters over again, I'm always struck by her ability to bring something fresh and new to each novel (and I've read her books many, many times). Heyer was a born storyteller and she loved getting to know her characters – in fact, they were so like real people to her that she sometimes complained that they took over her stories and had to be firmly dealt with!

One of the things I love about Heyer is the way she brings the past to life. She makes it seem real and I've always felt that if I could somehow time-travel back to the Regency era I'd know exactly how to behave because I'd read her novels. In fact, it was her ability to blend historical fact with an entertaining fictional story that made me want to know more about the woman behind the books. I'd read Jane Aiken Hodge's excellent biography and from that I'd learned that Heyer was incredibly private and the only firsthand information from Heyer herself were the letters she'd written to her publisher. But these dated from 1944 when Heyer was in her forties and already a bestselling author. I was sure there was more to know, so in 2001 I began researching her life.

I made regular trips to England where I was lucky enough to have the kind support of her son, Sir Richard Rougier. It was thanks to Sir Richard that I was able to gain access to a number of unread collections of Georgette Heyer's letters. That was incredibly exciting. I'll never forget reading those first letters – written by Georgette when she was only 18 and had just received the contract for her first book, The Black Moth. Over the next five years I located more than 600 previously unread letters full of new information about Heyer. Those letters (often thousands of words and pages long) were part of what made writing the biography so much fun because they not only told me heaps of new things about Heyer but they also opened up hundreds of new research lines for me to pursue. I spoke to those who'd known her, visited every house she'd ever lived in, immersed myself in her notebooks and private papers, read the books she'd read, walked where she'd walked, did one of her famous jigsaw puzzles and sat on the gold velvet Knole sofa (in her son's sitting-room) where she used to play solitaire while working out her plots and characters.

People sometimes describe Heyer's novels as the ultimate re-read and I think that's true. Her books are like a delicious meal that makes you savour every mouthful and when you get to the end you wish you could do it all again! And that's the great thing about having so many of her novels – you can read them again and again and they'll go on making you laugh and sigh and smile and wanting to share them with your friends. She was a wonderful writer with a great sense of humour and a genius for creating characters who live on long after the last page is read.

Jennifer Kloester

Giveaway Details

Sourcebooks has graciously offered a giveaway of one copy of Georgette Heyer by Jennifer Kloester.

If you would like to win a copy of this book please leave a comment about what intrigues you about the this book or this great Guest Blog.

As part of your comment, you must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner.

For an additional entry, blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. Provide a link to this post in your comment.

I will be using random.org (or a monte carlo simulation in excel) to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is only open to US and Canadian residents (Sorry!).

No P.O. Boxes.

The deadline for entry is midnight on Friday January 18th, 2013.

Please make sure to check the fourth week of January to see if you are a winner.  I send emails to the winner, but lately I've been put in their "junk mail" folder instead of their inbox.

Good luck!

Mistletoe Cowboy by Carolyn Brown

I have a great love for Christmas romance novels.  I had never read any of Carolyn Brown’s previous novels, but I jumped at the chance to review her Christmas cowboy romance.

Sage Presley is having a bad Christmas.  While away at an art show, her Grandma has decided to sell the family ranch to a stranger and move to Pennsylvania to take care of her older sister.  Sage rushes home in a blizzard to talk her Grandma out of the absurd idea, only to find herself snowed in with sexy cowboy Creed and her Grandma gone.  Sage soon finds out that her Grandma has her best interests at heart.  Will she be able to convince her Grandma to kick Creed out, or will she want Creed to stay?

The story was very cute, especially with the addition of puppies and kittens.  My only criticism would be that it seemed a bit slow in the middle with repetitive times . . . which would be the reality it you were caught in a blizzard.  I finished this book on Christmas Eve and it was a perfect Christmas read.

Book Source:  Review Copy from Sourcebooks.  Thank-you!

Reading with the Kids . . .a few books we read in 2012

We read every night to the kids.  Having a mother that loves to collect books and family members and friends that also like to give them, the kids have a lot of books.  We also go to our local library, and my eldest son (in first grade) brings home books from school to practice reading.  We read a lot of books.  Each kid is allowed two books a night.  Kile now reads one of the books and we read the other for him.  Penelope is two and often picks small books so we are guilty of reading her extra books.  We usually read kid picture books, but we also have been reading chapter books for the past two years.  The chapter books that we read this year include the following.

 

On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

By far, the boys enjoy the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder more than any other chapter books.  I know I am very enthusiastic about them, but they love the on their own merit.  They especially love Pa and all of the things that he builds.

On the Banks of Plum Creek was especially exciting to the boys as it is set in Minnesota.  Their grandparents live in Minnesota and that is where my husband is from originally.  They thought it was very cool that Laura and Mary lived in a sod house in the ground and found it hilarious when a cow stuck its foot through the roof.  They loved when Pa built the new house.

They identified with all of the feelings encompassed in the book.  Kile looked nervous when Laura disobeyed Pa and went swimming by herself.  Similarly he was torn up when Laura had to give her beloved doll Charlotte away.    When Pa got trapped away from home by a blizzard at Christmas, both boys were very worried.  And they were both disturbed by the invasion of the grasshoppers.

I believe that is why the Little House books are timeless.  They are great historical fiction, showing the hardships faced by families settling the frontier in the nineteenth century, but they also show universal feelings shared by all children as they grow up.  What it means to be good and why parents give you rules seemed to hit home with this book.

Overall, we loved On the Banks of Plum Creek.  We are reading Farmer Boy right now, and the boys love it even more as it focuses on Almanzo. 

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

Kile is very impressed that I still have the scholastic book order slip in this book from when my Mom purchased it for me when I was in elementary school.  The story of Wilbur the pig and his friend Charlotte the spider is timeless.  I love the start of the book, “Where’s Papa going with that ax?” asked Fern.  And so Fern goes to save Wilbur’s life and to love him.  The boys loved how Fern had a pet pig and were sad when he moved on to the Zuckerman’s farm.   They perked up at the introduction of the animals and Charlotte.  I enjoyed reading this book again and got a little teary at the bittersweet ending.  The boys handled it better than me.  Daniel was willing to let Wilbur meet his end in addition to another character if it meant bacon for breakfast.

 

Pirate School:  The Curse of Snake Island by Brian James

The boys LOVE pirates and Kile had a pirate birthday party earlier this year.  Aunt Jenn gave him this book and both boys enjoyed it.  It was a quick read with plenty of pictures.  Pete and his friends live aboard the ship called the Sea Rat.  They are learning to be pirates, but first mate Rotten Tooth is always trying to foil their plans.  They decide to prove their worth as pirates by discovering treasure on Snake Island.  Will they be able to get past the scary snake guarding the treasure?

Victorian Challenge Nov/Dec and Wrap-Up

I have been very neglectful of the Victorian Challenge. What I didn’t anticipate when I started the challenge was that I would be going back to work full time in May and developing a brand new environmental engineering technology degree at our local technical college. Between my new job and my family, I haven’t been able to devote myself to this challenge as I originally intended too. That is why you will note that I lost steam and the ability to keep up after May for the challenge. I had some great guest blogs the first half of the year that died off the second half. I sincerely apologize for all of those that signed up for this challenge.

I will not be hosting this challenge for 2013. What I will most likely do is either host a summer challenge in 2014 (my first summer off) or will focus on Victorian authors in summer months. What would sound best to you? Would you be interested in the future?

November was Lewis Carroll month and December is Louisa May Alcott month. I am thoroughly enjoying listening to Little Women, a digital audiobook with Christina Ricci as the narrator. I will post my review hopefully in the next week or two. What are your favorite novels by Carroll and Alcott? I myself was obsessed with Louisa May Alcott as a youth. I loved reading her biographies and especially her novels Little Women and An Old Fashioned Girl. I’ve read Rose in Bloom, Eight Cousins, etc., but strangely, I have never read Little Men or Jo’s Boys, even though I bought myself a copy of each as a youth with hard earned dollars. I have them both on my night stand and hope to get to them soon.

What was your favorite Victorian read this year? Who is your favorite Victorian author? Does Alcott’s Little Women or Dickens’s A Christmas Carol make it on your yearly Christmas reading list? Please share your thoughts.

Thank-you for being a part of this challenge. Please post any last entries or wrap-up posts below. If you don’t finish up this month, you can continue to add to this post in the future.

Post your  reviews below in the following format Laura’s Reviews (Little Women).

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James

In a book club I used to belong to in Milwaukee, one member was a fan of P.D. James and picked one of her novels for her selection. I had never read James up to that point, but I soon discovered she is a fantastic and well known British mystery author. I’ll admit that I was surprised to learn that she had written her own follow up to Pride and Prejudice, Death Comes to Pemberley. I love all things Jane Austen, and was not surprised to learn that P.D. James is a fan of the superb Jane Austen herself.


In Death Comes to Pemberley, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy have been married for six years and have two cute boys. Elizabeth’s beloved sister Jane and husband Charles Bingley live nearby. Darcy’s sister, Georgiana has two suitors for her hand in marriage and life is looking perfect right before their annual Lady Anne’s Ball. Perfect until the moment that a carriage speeds to the front of Pemberley and discharges a screaming Lydia Wickham. A murder has taken place in Pemberley wood and Mr. Darcy has to take charge to find the culprit.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I thought it was an intriguing mystery and loved revisiting some of my favorite literary characters. I thought that James was very faithful to the characters and I also enjoyed how some of Austen’s characters from other novels were brought into play. I relished how the mystery followed early nineteenth century investigation and trial procedures. CSI this was not, but they managed to get to the heart of the matter.

I have seen mixed reviews on this book with many fellow Austen fans not enjoying it. Did you enjoy this novel, why or why not? I want to know!

I will admit that although I enjoyed this book, it does not replace authors Stephanie Barron with her Jane Austen mysteries or Carrie Bebris with her Mr. and Mrs. Darcy mystery series as my favorite Austen mystery writers. I have sadly fallen behind on both of their series and need to catch up!

Book Source: The Kewaunee Public Library