Science fiction is one of my favorite genres. A lot of what I read is science or science fiction, and time travel stories are my favorite.
When I saw that Alyce of at home with books was hosting the 2011 Time Travel Challenge, I had to add one more challenge for the year.
The Rules:
Decide how many time travel books you want to read and then read them before the end of 2011 – that’s it! (The challenge goes from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011.)
Sign up with Mr. Linky and you’re done.
Alyce has put together a very nice list of time travel books to get you started. There are a few gems there. A couple of my all-time favorites are Replay by Ken Grimwood and Time and Again by Jack Finney. Another favorite of mine, but not on the list, is the often overlooked Lightening by Dean Koontz.
My goal is to read six books. Tentative selections are:
1. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
2. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
3. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
4. Blackout by Connie Willis
5.
6.
These titles are subject to change on a whim as can happen if I stumble across something more enticing, but the number of books will remain at six.
I’ll be creating individual pages for my challenges and logging the books as I read them.
These adorable little Goldfinches are year-round visitors to my yard. In the summer the males have bright yellow and shiny black plumage. The female, on the right, remains a more subdued shade of yellow. They love sunflower seeds and nyjer thistle. Here they are in their summer feathers eating sunflower seeds.
In the winter they form large flocks and will swarm thistle feeders and seed socks. Both the male and female turn a dull shade, almost greenish, but these are the same birds. They are very agile and acrobatic clinging to plants and weeds to pluck the seeds from dead flowers and hanging sideways from the feeder.
A few interesting facts from All About Birds:
- American Goldfinches are the only finch that molts its body feathers twice a year, once in late winter and again in late summer.
- Goldfinches move south in winter following a pattern that seems to coincide with regions where the minimum January temperature is no colder than 0 degrees Fahrenheit on average.
- Goldfinches are among the strictest vegetarians in the bird world, selecting an entirely vegetable diet and only inadvertently swallowing an occasional insect.
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I’m participating in Saturday Snapshots this weekend. Head on over to At Home With Books to see more great photos.
I’ve decided to participate in a few challenges this year. There were a lot more I would have liked to join, but I know I will only read so many books in one year so I limited myself to these.
What’s in a Name 4 Challenge
The What’s In A Name Challenge is hosted by Beth Fish Reads.
Between January 1 and December 31, 2011, read one book in each of the following categories:
1. A book with a number in the title
2. A book with jewelry or a gem in the title
3. A book with a size in the title
4. A book with travel or movement in the title
5. A book with evil in the title
6. A book with a life stage in the title
Audio Book Challenge
The Audio Book Challenge is hosted by Theresa’s Reading Corner.
The Challenge will run from January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011. Choose your level of participation:
Curious: 3 Audio Books
Fascinated: 6 Audio Books
Addicted: 12 Audio Books
Obsessed: 20 Audio Books
I’m choosing “Fascinated: 6 books”.
The Women of Science Fiction Book Club
Hosted by Dreams and Speculations.
The reading schedule consists of twelve science fiction novels plus an anthology. We have an entire month to read each book and prepare for review and discussion which will be held on the last day of the month. Anyone is invited to participate for one month or all twelve months, you do not need to have a blog. The short stories from the anthology will be discussed on the 15th of each month.
I am planning on reading and discusing at least 6 of the books plus the anthology.
Perpetual Challenges
I plan on reading 2 or more books from each of these challenges in 2011.
Reagan Arthur Books Challenge hosted by Kathy/Bermuda Onion and Julie/Booking Mama.
The basic idea of the challenge is really simple — to read Reagan Arthur Books. Reagan Arthur Books is a new imprint from Little, Brown & Company.
Amy Einhorn Challenge hosted by Beth Fish Reads.
This is a no-pressure challenge to read through the Amy Einhorn Books imprint in any order with no time limit.
Photo taken in my backyard garden, summer 2009. I’m tired of snowy pictures right about now.
More Wordless Wednesday.
Rescue
A Novel
by Anita Shreve
Genre: Women’s Literature
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publish Date: November 30, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
Rating: 4 of 5
Peter Webster, a young EMT trainee, rescues a woman from a terrible car accident. Sheila Arsenault is young and beautiful and troubled. She is running away from her problems and was drunk when she crashed her car.
Peter was instantly attracted to Sheila. He visited her after the accident to see if she was alright and even though he knew it was probably not something he should do he continued to see her. It wasn’t long before they became involved in a passionate love affair and Sheila became pregnant. Soon they were married and raising a baby, but Sheila’s drinking and destructive ways did not end. Peter could not trust her with the baby, Rowan, and so he told her she had to leave.
Fast forward to the present and Peter is raising a rebellious teenager on his own. He was so busy working to earn enough to provide a good life for Rowan he didn’t notice she had changed from a sweet young girl to an angry teenager. A teenager that is now drinking, engaging in risky behavior and making Peter second guess his decision to raise her by himself.
As in all her books, Anita Shreve makes us think. This time it’s about family and choices, honesty and consequences. Peter and Sheila seemed all wrong for each other. As I read I kept asking what, other than the physical affair, does he see in her. Perhaps as an EMT trained to help people he thought he could ‘save’ her. But I found it odd that later, when she continues to have problems and needs his help and support, he abruptly gives up rather than try and convince her to go into rehab. He sacrificed his marriage for what he thought would be best for his daughter.
The book was very readable; quick and easy, the type of story you could breeze through in one sitting. It wrapped up quickly; not a bad ending but I was wanting a little more. While I liked the book it was not my favorite Anita Shreve novel. And that’s not a criticism, because she has too many great books to compare it to. Perhaps it was the subject matter that I didn’t find as interesting as some of her other books. In the end it was a little too “Lifetime TV” for me. However, I think many fans will thoroughly enjoy this one and it would make a great book club selection with many discussion possibilities.
Source: Book provided by the publisher for review.
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GIVEAWAY [Closed]
If you would like to win my copy of the book, a gently read ARC, leave a comment telling me which Anita Shreve book is your favorite or if this will be the first one you read. (If you’re curious, my favorite is still Eden Close, her first book.)
Contest is open to US and Canada addresses only, enter by January 14th. Be sure to include your email address. The winner will have 48 hours to reply.
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Congratulations to the winner, Judy H.
Three Seconds
by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellström
Genre: Thriller, Crime Fiction
Published: by SilverOak, January 2011
Format: Hardcover, 496 pages
Rating: 5 of 5
A drug deal involving police informant and Polish mafia infiltrator Piet Hoffman goes wrong resulting in a murder. Piet is on a secret assignment to take control of the drug distribution network in Aspsås prison. To accomplish the takeover Piet, an ex-con, must go undercover inside the prison by being arrested for drug possession.
When Detective Inspector Ewert Grens of the Swedish police begins investigating the murder case he runs into a series of roadblocks. Someone high up in the government doesn’t want him to solve this case. As Grens begins to uncover the lies and corruption, Piet’s handlers fear they will be exposed and deny his existence. He becomes trapped in prison, exposed as an informant and his life is in danger.
The story starts out fast with little background or set-up. We are quickly introduced to many characters. Their development takes place as the story unfolds. Piet, our informant, is married and has two small children. The marriage seems happy, their life appears ‘normal’, except his wife does not know that his job is a front and he works for the police. She thinks he has a security firm. As I read, I kept asking myself what would make a man agree to do this kind of job when he has so much to lose. Ewert Grens, the police inspector, is driven to find answers. He will not back off the investigation, and it isn’t until late in the book that we understand why.
The authors do a great job building suspense and tension. The pace was intense and quick moving. Details are not glossed over and we are given much insight into the illegal drug trade, corruption and a good look inside the Swedish prison system. More sensitive readers may find some parts rather graphic. When dealing with drug trafficking, mobsters and prison inmates it can be quite violent, gritty and dark.
Throughout the story our view of good guys and bad guys gets turned upside down. There is much corruption within the police department and among elected officials. The authors extensively researched their material speaking with police, prison personnel and explosive experts to name a few. The factual portions of the novel read like a social commentary on the prison system and the police department. To quote the authors:
Our books are 50% true and 50% fiction. The way the police system works In Three Seconds is correct, we spoke to a number of police officers/handlers to tell us how they worked with their best informants. Simply put, the background in our book is true and the plot is fiction. – Roslund & Hellström
Three Seconds was a #1 best seller in Sweden and the winner of an award for Best Swedish Crime Novel of the year in 2009.
Highly recommended especially for readers who enjoy thrillers and crime novels.
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Source: ARC provided by Barnes & Noble First Look for discussion group and review.
Mailbox Monday is touring through blogs. For the month of December it will be hosted by Lady Q at Let Them Read Books. Next month the tour moves to Rose City Reader where it will be hosted for the month of January.
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.
New books that came into my home last week:
Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family by Condoleezza Rice from Read It Forward.
Condoleezza Rice is a person of broad and deep accomplishment. At various times she has excelled as an expert diplomat, brilliant political scientist, and trained concert pianist. Her achievements run the gamut from helping to oversee the collapse of the Soviet Union, to working to protect the country in the aftermath of 9-11, to becoming only the second woman – and the first black woman ever — to serve as Secretary of State.
The Other Life by Ellen Meister from Putnam Books for review.
Happily married and pregnant, Quinn Braverman has an ominous secret. Every time she makes a major life decision, she knows an alternate reality exists in which she made the opposite choice-not only that, she knows how to cross over. But even in her darkest moments-like her mother’s suicide-Quinn hasn’t been tempted to slip through…until she receives devastating news about the baby she’s carrying.
Two Lethal Lies by Annie Solomon, a win from Books and Needlepoint.
On the run since his daughter was born, Mitch Turner has concealed a truth so dangerous, its discovery could jeopardize both their lives. But when a series of shocking murders hits their newfound home, the trail leads straight to Mitch. With the police out for blood and his daughter ripped from his arms, he has nowhere to turn–until a beautiful stranger offers her help.
Under My Apple Tree 