Glamourpuss by Sarah Weeks, Illustrations by David Small
Publisher: Scholastic Press | February 2015
Age: 3 – 5 years | 40 pages
A sassy, delicious picture-book gem from award-winning author Sarah Weeks and Caldecott Medal winner David Small.
Glamourpuss has it all. She has style. She has charm. And she knows how to strike a pose.
Glamourpuss is a very spoiled cat who lives with the Gazillionaires, Mr. and Mrs. Highhorsen. She is always the center of attention, has servants at her beck and call, and spends her days lounging and posing and being ‘glamorous’. Until one day when Mr. Highhorsen’s sister from Houston comes to visit and brings her dog, Bluebell, a prissy Chihuahua who dresses up and does tricks. Glamourpuss felt no one cared about her anymore.
The story is cute and entertaining. The rich vocabulary is accompanied by fun, pastel illustrations on every page. Glamourpuss is portrayed in the drawings as an old Hollywood beauty queen, which will go right over the heads of most youngsters but will probably entertain the adults. There is also a lesson to learn about making new friends and the old cat vs dog rivalry.
Rating: 3½ stars
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Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
© 2015 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
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A Rapid Review
The Dismantling by Brian DeLeeuw
Publisher: Penguin Audio | April 2015
Format: Audio Download | 10 hours | Rating: 4 stars
Audio Listening Level: Intermediate
Twenty-five-year-old med school dropout Simon Worth is an organ broker, buying kidneys and livers from cash-strapped donors and selling them to recipients whose time on the waitlist is running out. When a seemingly straightforward liver transplant has an unexpectedly dangerous outcome, Simon finds himself on the run.
Obsessed with guilt over the death of his sister, Simon is unable to devote the concentration needed to succeed in medical school and eventually drops out. Faced with mounting debt from his school loans and his inability to tell his father he is broke and a failure, he accepts a high-paid but illegal job as an organ transplant broker. He is currently working with Maria, a liver donor in exchange for cash, guiding her through the process to make it all appear legitimate. Simon only needs a few more deals and he will be debt-free … until everything goes very, very wrong.
This fast-paced psychological thriller had my interest from the start with the pace increasing as everything falls apart. Maria is not the person he thought she was and the deal may be exposed, putting everyone in danger. The plot is clever, timely, and compelling with enough changes in direction to keep the reader guessing all the way to the unexpected conclusion.
Audio production:
The story was easy to follow in audio format. Most of it took place in the present with some flashbacks and memories of the past. Narrator Robbie Daymond did a good job differentiating the voices of the various characters and expertly captured the tension and suspense while keeping the pace moving and the listener engaged.
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Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
© 2015 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
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Almost wordless: So nice to see the spring ephemerals brightening up the woodland paths last week.
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More Wordless Wednesday. © 2015 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
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Welcome to Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia of To Be Continued, a place where readers share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.
After several years of being on tour with different blogs as the monthly host, the Mailbox Monday Blog is now the permanent home for the meme.
Here’s what arrived last week…
New Arrivals
Fishbowl by Bradley Somer from AmazonVine.
A goldfish named Ian is falling from the 27th-floor balcony on which his fishbowl sits. He’s longed for adventure, so when the opportunity arises, he escapes from his bowl, clears the balcony railing and finds himself airborne. Plummeting toward the street below, Ian witnesses the lives of the Seville on Roxy residents.
The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan from Crown Books.
Inspired in part by Scottish myths and fairytales, The Gracekeepers tells a modern story of an irreparably changed world: one that harbors the same isolation and sadness, but also joys and marvels of our own age.
Pirate Hunters by Robert Kurson from Random House.
Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship
A thrilling new adventure of danger and deep-sea diving, historic mystery and suspense, by the author of the New York Times bestseller Shadow Divers.
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Still time to enter the giveaway for…
Losing Faith by Adam Mitzner
Filled with suspense, twists, and turns, Losing Faith will captivate legal thriller fans everywhere.
Enter on or before May 2nd. US and Canada only.
How was your week?
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© 2015 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
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Let the Reading Begin
Many of you are familiar with the Readathon, a twice yearly event which begins today at midnight GMT and continues for 24 hours.
Hundreds of readers are participating and posting on their blogs, twitter, Facebook and Goodreads.
I will be participating part of the day—unfortunately the Readathon coincides with my grand niece’s 1st birthday party so I will be out in the afternoon. But I have plenty of time to listen to audio in the car with an hour drive each way.
The Readathon begins for me at 7 a.m. here in Chicagoland when I will return with my opening post and cup of coffee. This is be my seventh Readathon. I have yet to make a full 24 hours, but it’s always been a great time.
I will be updating this post throughout the Readathon.
Rather than fill my feed with posts that some of you may not be interested in, I will use this one post for my updates and mini-challenges throughout the day and on twitter at #readathon.
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Hour 1 – Introduction
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
I live in the USA in a suburb of Chicago.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
In print I’m starting with Love is Red by Sophie Jaff. In audio I’ll be listening to The Year My Mother Came Back by Alice Eve Cohen. However, I have a tall stack of books and audio to choose from if I change my mind!
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
I’m usually pretty healthy with my snacks and nibble on fruits, veggies, nuts, cheese, granola bars, and cereal, but I also have a big bowl of Hershey Kisses—the original kind, individually wrapped in silver foil—that I just can’t resist.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
I’ve been blogging for about 10 years and have had a book blog since 2009. I’m an eclectic reader, gardener, bird watcher, amateur photographer and all around nature lover. I volunteer as a wildlife monitor and at a bird rescue shelter.
If you’ve visited here before, you already know I have a passion for birds. I share my photographs and stories in my Weekend Birding posts.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today?
Once again, I would like to read Read More! I say it every time but it’s true, I get easily distracted by all the challenges and visiting other blogs.
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Mid-Event Survey
1. What are you reading right now?
I’m listening to The Year My Mother Came Back by Alice Eve Cohen.
2. How many books have you read so far?
I finished listening to the last two hours of The Last Bookaneer by Matthew Pearl earlier today.
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
Love is Red by Sophie Jaff.
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
Most of the afternoon was an interruption! I was at a niece’s birthday party, but I listened to audio in the car on the drive there and back. My first half total was only 4 hours of reading, no challenges, and a few visits to other blogs. I just got back home and plan to read for the second half or until I fall asleep.
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
The amazing number of participants.
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Hour 14 Mini-Challenge: Bookish Brews
Snap a picture of your current beverage of choice AND your current read…
Yes, that’s a glass of wine. I finally get to sit down, relax, and read for a few hours.
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Hour 19 Mini-Challenge: Shelfie
Take a picture of your shelves…
There really is a bookshelf behind all those books on the floor.
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© 2015 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
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Losing Faith by Adam Mitzner
Today I have a special feature and the opportunity for one of my readers to win a copy of Losing Faith by Adam Mitzner. It’s a nail-biting legal thriller in the bestselling tradition of John Grisham and Scott Turow.
About the Book
Losing Faith
by Adam Mitzner
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: April 2015
Format: Hardcover | 368 pages
Aaron Littmann, the chairman of one of the country’s most prestigious law firms, has just been contacted by a high-profile defense attorney, whose client is Nikolai Garkov, a Russian businessman arraigned on terrorism charges for pulling the financial strings behind recent treasonous acts. The attorney informs Aaron that Garkov is looking to switch representation and will pay one hundred thousand dollars just to take the meeting. But Aaron doesn’t have any choice, as Garkov is ready to go public with the damning evidence that Aaron and the judge in the high-profile case — Faith Nichols — had a torrid affair during another recent case. Filled with suspense, twists, and turns, Losing Faith will captivate legal thriller fans everywhere.
About the Author
Adam Mitzner, author of Losing Faith, is a practicing defense attorney and the author of A Case of Redemption, a finalist for the ABA’s Silver Gavel Award, and A Conflict of Interest, one of Suspense Magazine’s Best Books of 2011. He lives in New York City.
Connect with Adam
Facebook | Goodreads | Webpage
Giveaway Information
Courtesy of the publicist, I have one copy of Losing Faith to give away to a reader with a mailing address in the US or Canada. To enter, fill out the form below on or before midnight, Saturday, May 2nd. For an extra entry, tweet or blog about the giveaway. The winner will be contacted by email and have 48 hours to respond.
[Giveaway has ended]
Winner: Stacy @ Stacy’s Books
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© 2015 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Source: Giveaway provided by FSB Associates.
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Almost wordless: Today is the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970, and why many of us are now enjoying a healthier planet—cleaner air, water, and the resurgence of many threatened wild animal species.
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