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 February host is Metroreader.
After a slow month in January it seems like everything arrived at once last week.
From TLC Tours for review:
Come and Find Me
by Hallie Ephron
Reformed hacker Diana Highsmith hasn’t left her house in over a year . . . not since she watched the man she loved fall to his death in the Swiss mountains. Now a grief-stricken recluse, she runs a thriving Internet security company from her home–meeting with clients in OtherWorld, an online virtual reality platform where she lives as her avatar, Nadia. The only two people Diana has seen live in the past twelve months are her sister, Ashley, and her UPS delivery guy. But when Ashley vanishes, Diana is forced to do the unthinkable: to brave both the outside and her own personal demons to find her missing sister.
From AmazonVine for review:
Stay Awake
by Dan Chaon
In these haunting, suspenseful stories, lost, fragile, searching characters wander between ordinary life and a psychological shadowland. They have experienced intense love or loss, grief or loneliness, displacement or disconnection—and find themselves in unexpected, dire, and sometimes unfathomable situations. Dan Chaon’s stories feature scattered families, unfulfilled dreamers, anxious souls. They exist in a twilight realm—in a place by the window late at night when the streets are empty and the world appears to be quiet. But you are up, unable to sleep. So you stay awake.
From the author for review:
Whole Latte Life
by Joanne DeMaio
Sara Beth Riley never dreamt she’d walk straight out of her life. Actually she’d never dreamt a lot of things that had happened this year … From being kidnapped by her own best friend, to throwing her wedding rings into the Hudson River, to calling an old love in France, to getting inked with said best friend, painting the passionate constellation of these choices into permanence. But mostly, she could never have dreamt what started it all. How could it be that her mother’s unexpected death, and the grief which lingered painfully long, turned her into the woman she was finally meant to become?
An assortment of audiobooks for review:
John le Carré’s Karla trilogy:
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Smiley Versus Karla #1)
The Honourable Schoolboy (Smiley Versus Karla #2)
Smiley’s People (Smiley Versus Karla #3)
These were originally published in the 1970s and are new to me.
In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6. Le Carré’s many virtues — his faultless deployment of atmosphere and language; his ability to convey the inner workings of an arcane, insular profession; his profligate sense of character; his profound grasp of the moral ambiguities endemic to life in “the secret world” — are fully evident here, and seem as fresh and compelling today as they seemed more than 25 years ago.
All I Did Was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosley
Seven years ago, Zella Grisham came home to find her man, Harry Tangelo, in bed with her friend. The weekend before, $6.8 million had been stolen from Rutgers Assurance Corp., whose offices are across the street from where Zella worked. Zella didn’t remember shooting Harry, but she didn’t deny it either. The district attorney was inclined to call it temporary insanity-until the police found $80,000 from the Rutgers heist hidden in her storage space.
One more thing…
I have three finished copies of The Snow Child to giveaway. Leave a comment on the giveaway post for a chance to win one.
The Big Year
In Theaters: October 14, 2011
On DVD: January 31, 2012
Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Three fanatical bird-watchers (Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, Jack Black) spend an entire year competing to spot the highest number of species as El Nino sends an extraordinary variety of rare breeds flying up into the U.S., but they quickly discover that there are more important things than coming out on top of the competition. Director David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada, Marley and Me) teams with screenwriter Howard Franklin to adapt author Mark Obmascik’s 1998 book of the same name.
Most birders only dream of being able to do a Big Year, an informal competition to see who can see or hear the largest number of species of birds within a single calendar year. As frequent visitors here already know, I love birds, and last weekend I finally got to see the movie The Big Year which is now out on DVD.
We follow the adventures of three very different birders all with the same goal, to see the most species in one year. The three keep running into each other as they race to the same birding hot spots whenever a rare bird is sighted. Steve Martin plays a wealthy businessman who is trying to retire from his stressful corporate days and compete in the Big Year. Jack Black is stuck in a job he doesn’t enjoy but can’t afford to quit and scrapes together every last dime to search for birds on his vacation days and weekends. Owen Wilson is the current record holder and he is defending his title at all costs.
The characters were likeable and the birding aspect was realistic. Avid birders do run off with a moment’s notice to see a rare or unusual bird. There really are e-lists and birding hotlines to track them. And it’s true that a big storm, as we see in the movie, can blow birds off course and deposit them on the wrong continent. Changes in food supply can also drive birds to migrate to new locations. For example, this year Snowy Owls are showing up in the US, which is very unusual. (And yes, I’ve been wandering the lakefront to find them, but I digress!).
The movie was also about relationships and personal growth. New friendships are forged between competitors and family members begin to understand or accept the passion of those in the competition. We see Owen Wilson’s character destroying his relationship with his wife while Jack Black’s character builds rapport with his father, who never understood about the birds.
This was a very enjoyable, low-key comedy. No, it wasn’t roll-on-the-floor hysterical, but it was fun. Sure, there were some completely unrealistic situations but they were funny and not stupid or slapstick. And no gross or off-color humor. This was a family movie. It received mixed reviews in the theater but I think it will do much better in the home market.
If you’re in the mood for an uplifting, entertaining comedy, with beautiful scenes of nature and sounds of birds, I recommend giving this movie a try. Even non-birders will like it.
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Synopsis from allmovie.
Here are a few more photos from my trip to the city last week. I was there to meet a friend for lunch but arrived a little early to walk up to the lakefront to look for the Snowy Owls that had been spotted in the area. No owls, but I passed a few pieces of public art that I couldn’t resist photographing.
Prominently displayed in Pioneer Court near the Michigan Avenue bridge is a 26-foot-tall sculpture of Marilyn Monroe in her famous pose from The Seven Year Itch. The sculpture, titled Forever Marilyn, arrived on Michigan Avenue last summer and will be here until spring.
The tourists have been loving this and can often be seen standing underneath while being photographed.
When the statue was first unveiled it got a lot of criticism by the local press and a few scathing reviews calling it tasteless, creepy and sexist. But that settled down after a few weeks and now it’s just another piece of art.
Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
D.C. Dead (Stone Barrington #22)
by Stuart Woods
Read by: Tony Roberts
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publish Date: December 27, 2011
Format: Audio CD | 7 hours and 44 minutes
Rating: 2½ of 5
Joining Stone on his trip to DC is his friend Dino, a New York homicide detective. They are needed in Washington to investigate the murder/suicide of a White House staffer accused of killing his wife. The president doesn’t believe the dead man was guilty of murder and wants Stone to find the truth and the real killer.
This was an escapist and fun story, but not very realistic and at times completely improbable. If you’re looking for a well-developed mystery plot, you won’t find it here. Stone and Dino spend time running around DC investigating a crime the FBI doesn’t seem to be able to solve, and having a bit too much casual sex along the way for my tastes. Oh, I don’t have a problem with sex in a story but this was no-romance, just-met-you, let’s-do-it sex. And then there was a sub-plot involving Holly that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.
At just under eight hours, this, the 22nd Stone Barrington novel, is a fast-paced quick read, or in my case, quick-listen. The narration was excellent, especially Tony Roberts interpretation of Dino. What a fun voice and there is no mistaking that Dino is from New York.
Die-hard Stone Barrington fans will probably like this book; however I don’t think this is a good introduction to the author who has written many excellent novels. For anyone unfamiliar with Stuart Woods I’d suggest one of my favorite titles, written back in the 80s, Under the Lake, or one of the earlier books in the Stone Barrington series.
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Source: Review copy.
The Snow Child
by Eowyn Ivey
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Publish Date: February 1, 2012
Format: Hardback | 400 pages
I just received my copy of The Snow Child last week and haven’t had a chance to read it yet. It’s been receiving wonderful advance reviews and I’m excited to get started on it.
My review should be up in the next week or so but I didn’t want to wait to post this wonderful giveaway. The publisher, Little, Brown & Company, has made available three copies for me to give to my readers in the US and Canada. Here is a little information about the book and the author:
About the Book
Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart–he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone–but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.
This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.
About the Author
Eowyn LeMay Ivey was raised in Alaska and continues to live there with her husband and two daughters. She received her BA in journalism and minor in creative writing through the honors program at Western Washington University, studied creative nonfiction at the University of Alaska Anchorage graduate program, and worked for nearly 10 years as an award-winning reporter at the Frontiersman newspaper. This is her first novel.
Connect with the author:
Visit Eowyn at her web site
Visit her blog
Follow @EowynIvey on Twitter
Visit Eowyn on Facebook.
Giveaway Information
The publisher has generously offered three copies for giveaway.
- Contest is open to those with an address in the US or Canada.
- To enter leave a comment. It is not necessary to be a subscriber or follower to enter but new subscribers are always welcome.
- For an extra entry, tweet the giveaway and leave the URL to the tweet in a second comment. (Click on the time stamp link of the tweet and copy the URL that appears in the address bar.)
- The deadline for entry is Wednesday, February 22nd. I will draw winners using random.org. They will be contacted by email and have 48 hours to respond with a mailing address.
Contest is Now Closed
Almost Wordless: What I thought was a large cat on my fence turned out to be a possum with insomnia.
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More Wordless Wednesday.
Laughing at Wall Street
by Chris Camillo
Genre: Finance, Non-Fiction
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publish Date: November 8, 2011
Format: Hardback | 240 pages
How I Beat the Pros at Investing (by Reading Tabloids, Shopping at the Mall, and Connecting on Facebook) and How You Can Too
Laughing at Wall Street is an investment book that is not based on complicated financial analysis, charts or statistics. It’s written in plain, easy to understand language without a lot technical jargon and geared toward the new investor.
I’ve read more than a few books on how to invest, pick stocks or analyze the market and most have been confusing or boring. This book isn’t like that. The author makes it interesting by explaining investing using a friendly, narrative style. He tells personal stories and gives examples to explain how he turned $20,000 into $2 Million in three years.
Studies have shown over and over that there is no correlation between financial knowledge and the ability to pick winning stocks. The secret is to be able to spot trends. The author gives us a few examples. After Michelle Obama mentioned on the Jay Leno show that her dress was from J.Crew, shoppers flooded the web page causing it to crash. That news should have been an alert to research the company as a potential investment. Months later, the stock did rise dramatically. And then there’s the story of Uggs boots. It seemed like every young girl was wearing a pair last winter. Even I should have seen that one coming. But I didn’t. The stock ultimately rose through the roof.
I’m sure a few readers are thinking that this is a nice idea but wondering where they will get the extra cash to invest. The author addresses that too. You don’t need a lot of money to get into the stock market and you should only use what he calls “Other People’s Money”.
OPM is money that under normal circumstances you would spend, but instead choose to save due to its future potential investment value.
I love this concept and it’s something I’ve been doing and didn’t realize someone had a name for it. For example, put aside the money you save by using coupons, or by brewing your own coffee, or by taking your lunch to work if you usually go out, or washing your own car, etc. Put this in a separate fund. This is the money you would risk in the stock market. He emphasizes that one should never jeopardize money you need to live on.
Towards the end of the book the author explains how to leverage your money by trading on margin. This is probably the only way to achieve a few million in three years. You need to have a little risk tolerance for this but he points out that the money he is using is OPM money, separate from retirement and other accounts. And even if you don’t push it that far, there is still a great return on the initial investment.
Today more than ever people need to take control of their financial future. The book is filled with practical advice and readers should come away with a firm grasp of the basics and be on their way to successful investing. I am now looking at the world around me differently, hoping to spot the next big trend! Recommended, especially for new or inexperienced investors.
Under My Apple Tree 