A Delightful Children’s Book
Genre: Children / Picture Book
Publish Date: June 2013
Format: Paperback | 21 pages
Nubs is the true story of a handicapped parakeet rescued from the home of a bird hoarder, a delightful, heart-warming tale told from Nubs’ perspective.
In the fall of 2012 over 500 birds were found in a suburban Chicago home. Conditions in the home were not healthy for humans or birds and it was condemned. The birds were removed to an emergency shelter and local volunteers cared for them until they could be adopted into ‘forever homes’.
This is the same shelter from which I adopted Charlie, my lovebird. Although she was not part of the flock removed from the hoarder’s home – she had been given up by her family – I would not have found her had I not seen the news stories about Nubs’ flock. So, thank you Nubs!
No Unwanted BirdS
Author Kristin Ludwig was one of the volunteer workers at the shelter who adopted Nubs. He inspired her to form No Unwanted BirdS, a nonprofit organization. Their mission is to educates bird owners around the world on how to responsibly care for their birds. This book is their first project and 100% of the author’s excess revenue will support the ongoing care of Nubs’ flock, who now live at the Washington Park Zoo in Michigan City, Indiana.
Nubs has his own facebook page and in true bird fashion, tweets on twitter. Nubs even made the local news where you can see a video of him and his story.
“Nubs’ story has important messages for us all: good things can come after bad, and every living thing deserves a fair chance at life. Nubs has no reason to trust humans, but he does. He has chosen, with whatever level of intelligence he possesses, to start again. We are so pleased to share his story, and invite you to ‘like’ our Nubs Facebook page to join us on our journey.” – Kristin Ludwig
Buy the Book
The book and Nubs T-shirts can be purchased directly from the Nubs Store.
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This post will be linked to Kid Konnection, hosted every Saturday by Julie at Booking Mama.
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Source: Purchased from No Unwanted BirdS.
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
I enjoy historical fiction and am eagerly anticipating reading the soon to be published The Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden. Thanks to the publicist, I also have a copy to give away to one of my readers with a US mailing address.
Following is a little information about the book and the author.
The Wedding Giftby Marlen Suyapa Bodden
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publish Date: September 24, 2013
Format: Hardcover | 320 pages
About the Book
When prestigious plantation owner Cornelius Allen gives his daughter Clarissa’s hand in marriage, she takes with her a gift: Sarah — her slave and her half-sister. Raised by an educated mother, Clarissa is not the proper southern belle she appears to be with ambitions of loving who she chooses and Sarah equally hides behind the façade of being a docile house slave as she plots to escape. Both women bring these tumultuous secrets and desires with them to their new home, igniting events that spiral into a tale beyond what you ever imagined possible and it will leave you enraptured until the very end.
Told through alternating viewpoints of Sarah and Theodora Allen, Cornelius’ wife, Marlen Suyapa Bodden’s The Wedding Gift is an intimate portrait that will leave readers breathless.
About the Author
Dr. Marlen Suyapa Bodden is a lawyer at The Legal Aid Society in New York City, the nation’s oldest and largest legal services organization. She has more than two decades’ experience representing poor people and low-wage and immigrant workers, many of whom are severely underpaid, if paid at all.
She drew on her knowledge of modern and historical slavery, human trafficking, and human rights abuses to write The Wedding Gift, her first novel.
On May 20, 2012, the University of Rhode Island conferred on Marlen an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Marlen is a graduate of New York University School of Law and Tufts University.
Giveaway Information
Giveaway is open to those 18 years or older with a US mailing address. To enter, leave a comment on or before September 28, 2013. For an extra entry tweet or blog the giveaway and leave the link in your comment. I will draw a random winner who will be contacted by email and have 48 hours to respond with a mailing address.
[Giveaway Has Ended]
Winner: Vicki @ I’d Rather Be At The Beach
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© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Almost wordless: Last week the little Cabbage White Butterflies were everywhere. As I watched them flit around I realized I had never bothered to photograph them before, and they really are quite pretty.
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More Wordless Wednesday. © 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
The 5th Wave
by Rick Yancey
Narrated by Brandon Espinoza and Phoebe Strole
Genre: Science Fiction / YA
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publish Date: May 7, 2013
Format: Audio, 12 hours | 41 minutes
Audio Listening Level: Easy – Intermediate
Rating: 3 of 5
Publisher’s Synopsis:
After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.
Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.
My Thoughts:
Comparisons to The Hunger Games, The Passage and Ender’s Game made me eager to read this, the first book in a new YA Science Fiction series. It started out good. Engrossing world building, and I’m a big fan of world building, had me glued to the headphones for the first two hours as Cassie described the state of the planet as it now existed. Earth was on the brink of the 5th Wave of attack in an alien invasion. And then the viewpoint shifted. And the plot changed. And then things got a little too whiney for me.
Before I read a book I only skim reviews to avoid spoilers so I wasn’t aware that the viewpoint would change between several characters. I was expecting a story about Cassie and hoping for a strong female character. Instead I got a recycled alien invasion story that devolved into a corny romance with too many metaphors and sappy similes, and an all child military complete with a stereotypical drill instructor that made me want to hit the fast forward button.
There was enough action and adventure to keep me listening and lots of questions about the aliens that I was hoping to find answers for. The overall arc of the story has a lot of possibilities and perhaps they will pan out in the upcoming books. Just not this one. It wasn’t horribly bad, just not as good as I expected, and I blame all the marketing hype for my disappointment.
There were two narrators in the audio production, Brandon Espinoza and Phoebe Strole, who alternated between male and female point of views. I find that technique effective and it helps me remember who’s speaking when the point of view shifts. Both are new narrators for me and both did a nice job with the voices especially Strole’s voice for Cassie adding personality and emotion.
I know this book is getting a lot of great reviews but for me it was just ok. Fans of dystopian YA that like adventure mixed with romance and a hint of a love triangle will want to give this one a try. If that’s not your type of book I don’t recommend it.
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Linked to the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril, VIII event.
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Source: Review copy provided by Penguin Audio.
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week.
Mailbox Monday is currently on tour, hosted by a different blog each month. Today’s linky is hosted at Beauty in Ruins as the scheduled September host is again MIA.
Here’s what arrived last week:
The Circle of Thirteen by William Petrocelli from Turner Publishing.
In 2082, a catastrophic explosion rocks the dedication ceremony of the new United Nations in New York City. Security Director Julia Moro is on the job, chasing after the misogynistic leader of Patria, a long-disbanded international terrorist organization.
Stay Up With Me by Tom Barbash from Harper Collins/Ecco.
A deeply humane, piercingly funny, and already widely acclaimed new short story collection that features men and women we all know or might be, nagivating a world made unfamiliar by a lapse in judgment, a change of fortune, by loss, or by love.
Game: A Thriller by Anders de la Motte from Atria Galley Alley.
Henrik “HP” Pettersson, a slacker with a lot of ego and very little impulse control, finds a cell phone of an unfamiliar make on a commuter train. Through insisting and slightly uncanny messages that refer to him by name, the phone invites him to play a game. HP accepts without hesitation.
What are you reading?
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© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are found in the Eastern US and Canada and are the most common Hummingbird in North America. I have seen many of them this week as they pass through the Chicago area on their way south. They spend their winters in Central America and to get there they must fly across the Gulf of Mexico, an amazing feat for this tiny bird.
The white tips on the tail feathers tell me the bird in the photo above is probably a female. Adult males have a bright red throat and emerald green wings and crown. The female lacks the red throat and has white underparts. Immature hummingbirds resemble females; males don’t get their coloring until the next season.
The female in the photo below was kind enough to pose for portrait before flying off into the flowers.
Interesting Note:
Hummingbirds are one of the few species where the male does not help to raise the young. Pairs are together long enough for courtship and mating and then he goes off on his own.
Saturday Snapshot was originated by Alyce at At Home With Books. For the summer it will be hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
And the Mountains Echoed
by Khaled Hosseini
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Riverhead and Penguin Audio
Publish Date: May 21, 2013
Format: Audio and Print – 14 hours, 400 pages
Audio Listening Level: Difficult
Rating: 4 of 5
Publisher’s Synopsis:
Crossing generations and continents, moving from Kabul, to Paris, to San Francisco, to the Greek island of Tinos, with profound wisdom, depth, insight and compassion, Khaled Hosseini writes about the bonds that define us and shape our lives, the ways that we help our loved ones in need, how the choices we make resonate through history, and how we are often surprised by the people closest to us.
My Thoughts:
This is a beautifully written story about relationships, actions and consequences. In a series of interconnected, emotionally charged stories, we journey through the years and across continents to eventually come full circle.
In 1950’s Afghanistan we first meet Abdullah and his little sister Pari. Their mother had recently died and Abdullah was more like a father to Pari than a brother. When their father remarried and made a fateful decision about Pari’s future, their lives were ripped apart with unforeseen consequences and wounds that could never be healed.
I read this for my book club discussion and while we all agreed it was a wonderful book, many commented on the lack of focus on any one individual character. As the stories skip over the years, many details are left to the imagination, and while I would have liked to know more about a few of these characters, it is the relationships between them that were emphasized.
I enjoyed the style which was more a series of vignettes than a novel with multiple points of view. The themes of family, loyalty, atonement and regret persist throughout. As our group discussed each of the individual scenarios, the common themes became apparent, with the individual stories fitting together like the pieces of a puzzle.
Audio Production:
I listen to a lot of audio and have a wide tolerance for narrators and productions, but this book was an exception for me. I had a horrible time following the audio version. There were three narrators, the author and another male and female, each reading separate chapters. I had trouble with the accents and words were often difficult to understand, a lot of them mumbled and slurred, requiring me to backup and listen again. It didn’t have the usual quality that I find in an audio production from a major publisher.
This would not be an easy book to listen to even without my issues with the narration. There are a lot of characters and the story covers a long time span, several generations and families, and can be a bit rambling at times. The story is not linear and some chapters cover many years and then jump back in time to begin the next chapter.
At about a quarter of the way through the book I abandoned the audio in frustration and switched to a print copy. My struggle to understand what I was hearing plus frequent backing up to re-listen was taking away from the enjoyment of the book. I understand the desire to use native speakers to add to the authenticity, but for me it made the book too challenging to listen to. My advice: If you are inclined to go with the audio, listen to a sample before you make your decision.
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Source: Review copy provided by Penguin Audio.
© 2013 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
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