May 15, 2012 / Leslie

First Chapter First Paragraph – Tuesday Intros

Welcome to First Chapter Tuesday, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.

I’m tired of looking through landscaping books. My front garden project is starting to take shape in my mind and I’m ready to start digging. The only way to do it is to “do it”!

This morning I looked through my stack of review books, glanced at the blurb and the first few paragraphs, and decided that The Taste of Tomorrow would be my next book.

The Taste of Tomorrow by Josh Schonwald

Publication Date: April 10, 2012
Publisher: Harper

What’s It About?

In The Taste of Tomorrow, journalist Josh Schonwald sets out on a journey to investigate the future of food. His quest takes him across the country and into farms and labs around the globe… a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse at what we eat today—and what we’ll be eating tomorrow.

First few paragraphs:

Prologue: Gastropub 2035

Imagine that you are extremely hungry. You want a burger and a beer, and you will be sating your appetite in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Also, please consider that the date of this beer and burger quest is not now, or next year, but July 25, 2035.

You choose to go to Moby’s, a pub on Tejon Street.

You sit down in a booth. You check out the menu on your 10G iPhone.

Moby’s has a Real Beef Burger special tonight – a quarter pound of grass-fed, free-range, antibiotic-free Hereford; char-grilled, topped with coarsely ground Balinese long pepper, slathered with white cheddar and homemade papaya ketchup, with a side of cassava fries and choice soup or salad. Sounds fine. It’s sixty dollars – it’s by far the most expensive thing on the menu.

The waitress, detecting your price point discomfort, notes that “its real meat”. She suggests another burger – that’s almost as good – and is only ten dollars. “We have cow meat, bison, chicken, and port – all fresh out of the bioreactor. We have an excellent meat-grower.”

Would you want to continue reading?

——————————–
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.

May 14, 2012 / Leslie

Mailbox Monday and It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Mailbox Monday

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. The May host is Marths’s Bookshelf.

This was a good week. I received several review books for upcoming tours, a contest win and an audiobook I’ve been looking forward to. I even received a book from Goodreads. I think that is the first book I’ve won from them in two years.

For review from HarperAudio:

The Shoemaker’s Wife
by Adriana Trigiani

A breathtaking multigenerational love story that spans two continents, two World Wars, and the quest of two star-crossed lovers to find each other again. The Shoemaker’s Wife is replete with the all the page-turning adventure, sumptuous detail, and heart-stopping romance that has made Adriana Trigiani one of the reigning queens of women’s fiction.

Two books for upcoming tours:

Beautiful Ruins
by Jess Walter

The story begins in 1962. Somewhere on a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea—blue as his eyes—and sees a vision: a slender blonde woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying. And it begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio’s back lot—searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel fifty years before.

Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
by Rachel Joyce

Recently retired, sweet, emotionally numb Harold Fry is jolted out of his passivity by a letter from Queenie Hennessy, an old friend, who he hasn’t heard from in twenty years. She has written to say she is in hospice and wanted to say goodbye. Leaving his tense, bitter wife Maureen to her chores, Harold intends a quick walk to the corner mailbox to post his reply but instead, inspired by a chance encounter, he becomes convinced he must deliver his message in person to Queenie–who is 600 miles away–because as long as he keeps walking, Harold believes that Queenie will not die.

A win from Quirk Books:

Bedbugs: A Novel
by Ben H. Winters

Susan and Alex Wendt have found their dream apartment. Sure, the landlady is a little eccentric. But the rent is so low, it’s too good to pass up. Susan soon discovers that her new home is crawling with bedbugs . . . or is it? She awakens every morning with fresh bites, but neither Alex nor their daughter Emma has a single welt. An exterminator searches the property and turns up nothing. The landlady insists her building is clean. Susan fears she’s going mad — until a more sinister explanation presents itself: she may literally be confronting the bedbug problem from Hell.

For review from Goodreads:

Redshirts
by John Scalzi

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting,and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory. Life couldn’t be better . . . until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations, and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

————–

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Share what you read last week and what you are currently reading.

I only finished one audiobook last week and half of a print book.

I’m still looking through all those landscaping books from the library that I mentioned last week and wandering around the garden centers looking at plants for the new perennial garden. This is going to be a lot more work than I originally planned on doing, but that seems to be the way most home improvement projects end up.

Finished Listening/Reading Last Week:

I finished and reviewed The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark.

After a few hours of listening I gave up on All I Did Was Shoot My Man. I just couldn’t stay interested and my mind kept wandering.

Reading/Listening This Week:

I’m reading a little of The Secret Garden each week this month for the read-a-long hosted by Book Journey.

I’m half way through Year of the Gadfly for an upcoming tour and I’m listening to The Shoemaker’s Wife.

What Are You Reading?

——————————–
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.

May 12, 2012 / Leslie

Weekend Birding: Pine Siskin

The Pine Siskin is a small finch with a short tail, long wings and a slender, sharply-pointed bill. Their coloring is heavily streaked with yellow on the wings. They are gregarious little birds that travel in flocks.

Pine Siskins usually visit my backyard feeders during the winter months when they migrate south from Canada in search of food. If food supplies are plentiful, they will stay in the pine forests in the north. This winter I saw quite a few of them but most headed back north last month.

One Pine Siskin is still hanging around my yard. I’ve seen him everyday this week. Eating at the sunflower and thistle feeders, playing in the bird bath and lounging in the apple tree.

They usually travel in flocks so I was surprised to find one on his own. Hopefully he didn’t miss the flight back and will be ok. He’s welcome to hang out in my yard this summer.

International Migratory Bird Day

Today is International Migratory Bird Day. I will be counting birds at a special event on a golf course today. Hopefully the weather will hold up, I’ll see lots of birds and get some great photos.

I will visit everyone’s photos later in the day after I recover from bird watching!

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.

May 11, 2012 / Leslie

Review – Audiobook: The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark

The Lost Years
by Mary Higgins Clark
Narrated by Jan Maxwell

Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Publish Date: April 3, 2012
Format: Audio, 8 hours | 6 minutes
Audio Listening Level: Intermediate
Rating: 3½ of 5

A priceless letter, believed to be written by Jesus to Joseph of Arimathea, has been discovered by biblical scholar Jonathan Lyons. The letter had not been seen since the 1500s when it was stolen from the Vatican.

Several days after revealing the existence of the letter to several experts, Jonathan is found shot dead in his study. His wife was found holding the murder weapon. But she suffers from dementia and was incoherent, unable to tell the police who shot her husband. The police, taking the easy route, assume she is killer. But there are others that would kill to possess the letter or to sell it in the underground black market. Their daughter, Mariah, must now solve the mystery, save her mother and find the rare letter which is missing from her father’s study.

I read my first Mary Higgins Clark novel in the 80s and after all these years she can still write an entertaining mystery story. It was light and enjoyable with a fairly well-developed cast of characters. The inclusion of a parent with Alzheimer’s is timely and relevant and may hit home for a lot of the author’s readers. It was handled well and brought up a few questions on how much stress authorities should place on a person with dementia.

I don’t know if there is any biblical accuracy to the letter, but that didn’t really matter. It was not meant to be controversial or heavy on religion, the letter was a plot device for the murder. The only problem I had with the story was that I figured out the murderer half-way through the book. But it was satisfying enough that I stuck around until the end to be sure I was correct.

Jan Maxwell’s voice was a pleasure to listen to with an evenly paced narration. At only eight hours in length, this was a quick listen while I multi-tasked around the house and garden. Although the plot was easy to follow, I rated the listening level intermediate because there are a lot of characters and each chapter changes the point-of-view, requiring a little extra concentration.

Fans of the author will enjoy this novel. This formula has worked well for her and this book is no exception. New readers looking for an escape into a pleasant mystery may find also find this to their liking.

May 10, 2012 / Leslie

Review – Audiobook: Unnatural Acts by Stuart Woods

Unnatural Acts:
A Stone Barrington Novel
by Stuart Woods
Narrated by Tony Roberts

Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publish Date: April 17, 2012
Format: Audio, 8 hours
Audio Listening Level: Easy
Rating: 3 of 5

Stone Barrington returns along with his side-kick Dino for another adventure in the 23rd book in this series.

Now back in New York, after a brief trip to Washington D.C. ( DC Dead), Stone is helping a hedge fund billionaire get his rebellious son out of some money troubles. The son has borrowed a significant amount from a loan shark and has been selling illegal drugs.

So what does Stone do to help his client? He passes the case off to a law firm Associate, Herbie Fisher. Most of the story and plot revolves around Herbie, who now wants to be called Herb. Herb is angling for a promotion to Sr. Associate. Several times it was mentioned that Herbie might be the new Stone Barrington. The story was more about Herbie than Stone, although Dino makes enough of an appearance to keep it interesting.

I enjoyed Tony Roberts narration, especially his voice for Dino. The book is easy to listen to and easy to follow with a simple, straight-forward plot. I’d go so far as to say there is little complexity at all, which makes it a good choice for escapist listening while multitasking. It’s fast-paced, light reading. Look elsewhere for a tightly plotted mystery, this one is just for fun.

As the 23rd Stone Barrington novel, these books are clearly aimed at fans of the series, although new readers should be able to pick up the main characters fairly quickly.