The Printed Page

I’m a very visual person and love beautiful, or interesting, cover art. It entices, and invites, me to stop and take a peek instead of walking right on by. Here’s a cover that caught my eye. Title: The Other Tudors: Henry VIII’s Mistresses and Bastards (Amazon UK link) Author: Philippa Jones Release date: June ’09

Everybody thinks they know the tale of King Henry VIII’s wives: divorced, beheaded died; divorced, beheaded, survived. But behind this familiar story, lies a far more complex truth. This book brings together for the first time the ‘other women’ of King Henry VIII. When he first came to the throne, Henry VIII’s mistresses were dalliances, the playthings of a powerful and handsome man. However, when Anne Boleyn disrupted that pattern, ousting Katherine of Aragon to become Henry’s wife, a new status quo was established. Suddenly noble families fought to entangle the king with their sisters and daughters; if wives were to be beheaded or divorced so easily, the mistress of the king was in an enviable position. While Henry VIII has frequently been portrayed as a womanizer, author Philippa Jones reveals a new side to his character. Although he was never faithful, Jones sees him as a serial monogamist: he spent his life in search of a perfect woman, a search that continued even as he lay dying when he was considering divorcing Catherine Parr thus leaving him free to marry Katherine d’Eresby. Yet he loved each of his wives and mistresses, he was a romantic who loved being in love, but none of these loves ever fully satisfied him; all were ultimately replaced. The Other Tudors examines the extraordinary untold tales of the women who Henry loved but never married, the mistresses who became queens and of his many children, both acknowledged and unacknowledged. Philippa Jones takes us deep into the web of secrets and deception at the Tudor Court and explores another, often unmentioned, side to the King’s character.

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What book cover caught your eye? Leave a post link and share with your fellow readers.

Title: Across the Endless River Author/website: Thad Carhart 301 pages Publisher: Doubleday Publication date: September ’09 Genre: Historical fiction Would I recommend it: Absolutely Journal notes: I really, really enjoyed Thad Carhart’s book Across the Endless River. Having read Sacajawea (Lewis & Clark Expedition) by Anna Waldo years ago I was excited to get my hands on this book. It actually hit my WL days before Anna offered me a review copy. Baptiste’s vivid descriptions of yesteryear bring life to his story. The reader is immersed in his childhood where he splits time between his schooling in St. Louis and his summers with his father hunting and trapping for a living. Baptiste details the manhood ceremony of his Indian brothers. Because his path has taken a different direction he is excluded from this rite of passage. He describes watching multitudes of buffalo roam the plains of rippling prairie grass that look like ocean waves. A buffalo hunt unfolds around the reader as horse and rider shy away from these large intimidating, stampeding creatures. His first visit to Paris brings immense awe and inspiration. It also brings home the realization that his is a life between two worlds – his Indian heritage and the white world. He is a man of both cultures yet not fully accepted by either. It was a most enjoyable journey through Baptiste’s eyes. My only regret is that it ended too soon. I wanted to spend more time with this very interesting man.

Born in 1805 on the Lewis & Clark expedition, Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau was the son of the expedition’s translators, Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau. Across The Endless River evokes the formative years of this mixed-blood child of the frontier, entering the wild and mysterious world of his boyhood along the Missouri. Baptiste is raised both as William Clark’s ward in St. Louis and by his parents among the villages of the Mandan tribe on the far northern reaches of the river.

In 1823, eighteen-year-old Baptiste is invited to cross the Atlantic with the young Duke Paul of Württemberg, whom he meets on the frontier. During their travels throughout Europe, Paul introduces Baptiste to a world he never imagined. Increasingly, Baptiste senses the limitations of life as an outsider; only Paul’s older cousin, Princess Theresa, understands the richness of his heritage. Their affair is both passionate and tender, but Theresa’s clear-eyed notions of love, marriage, and the need to fashion one’s own future push Baptiste to consider what he truly needs.

In Paris, he meets Maura Hennesy, the beautiful and independent daughter of a French-Irish wine merchant. Baptiste describes his life on the fast-changing frontier to Maura, and she begins to imagine a different destiny with this enigmatic American. Baptiste ultimately faces a choice: whether to stay in Europe or to return to the wilds of North America. His decision will resonate strongly with those who today find themselves at the intersection of cultures, languages, and customs

(Across the Endless River was provided to me by Anna of FSB Associates. I was not paid and the book is being shipped to another book blogger. )

UK Cover

Title: Deeper Than The Dead Author: Tami Hoag Publication date: December ’09 Genre: Thriller

US Cover

California, 1984. Three children, running in the woods behind their school, stumble upon a partially buried female body, eyes and mouth glued shut. Close behind the children is their teacher, Anne Navarre, shocked by this discovery and heartbroken as she witnesses the end of their innocence. What she doesn’t yet realize is that this will mark the end of innocence for an entire community, as the ties that bind families and friends are tested by secrets uncovered in the wake of a serial killer’s escalating activity.

Detective Tony Mendez, fresh from a law enforcement course at FBI headquarters, is charged with interpreting those now revealed secrets. He’s using a new technique-profiling-to develop a theory of the case, a strategy that pushes him ever deeper into the lives of the three children, and closer to the young teacher whose interest in recent events becomes as intense as his own.

As new victims are found and the media scrutiny of the investigation bears down on them, both Mendez and Navarre are unsure if those who suffer most are the victims themselves-or the family and friends of the killer, blissfully unaware that someone very close to them is a brutal, calculating psychopath.

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Jill at Breaking the Spine hosts Waiting on Wednesday. Stop by and check out the great books your fellow readers can’t wait to get their hands on. What book are you waiting for?

Yes you’re see things – Mailbox Monday is posted waaaaaaaaay early. Last week Renee suggested using Mister Linky so that visiting each others posts is easier and I’m all for easier. Because I’ve never used Mister Linky before and wanted to have time to work out any possible kinks before Monday I’ve posted my MM now. If you want to post early feel free to do so.

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

If you’re new to Mailbox Monday welcome! Thank you to everyone who stops by Mailbox Monday. Whether you comment or visit I appreciate your taking the time to drop in.

One of my vacation traditions is buying books to read while we’re lounging on the beach or by the pool. So I’ve gone on a major book buying spree as we’re leaving next month on our annual winter vaca. Though my hubby did remind that isn’t our typical two weeks in Mexico and when in heavens name did I think I’d have time to read?! Oh well I’m still buying and there’s no stopping me. Here’s hoping I get in a chapter a day. I’ll be posting my goodies right up until we leave. They’re all Kindle books and not available for Read It Forward, sorry gang.

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Breakneck by Erica Spindler (Kindle eBook – not available for Read It Forward)

Detective MC Riggio can’t wait to get married. She is desperately in love with her fiance Dan, and is counting down the days until the wedding. Best of all, her big Italian family have welcomed Dan with open arms, her mother ecstatic at the thought of more grandchildren. But MC never does marry Dan or have his children. A few weeks before the wedding day he is shot dead ? and MC’s world crumbles into pieces. Detective Kitt Lundgren is there to support her colleague. She knows grief only too well ? her only daughter has recently died ? and she knows that MC’s only concern now will be to find out who killed her fiance. So the two women work day and night to discover what happened to Dan. But there is a ruthless killer on the loose, a killer who knows no fear. And Kitt and MC have put themselves right in the firing line…

Pursuit of Honor by Vince Flynn (Kindle eBook – not available for Read It Forward)

Rapp had traveled to New York City to decide the fate of a man. He had debated the wisdom of handling it himself. In addition to the inherent risk of getting caught, there was another, more pressing, problem. Just six days earlier a series of explosions had torn through Washington D.C., killing 185 and wounding hundreds. Three of the terrorists were still at large, and Rapp had been unofficially ordered to find them by any means necessary. So far, however, the investigation had been painfully complicated and had yet to yield a single solid lead. The three men had up and disappeared, which suggested a level of sophistication that few of them thought the enemy capable of. The last thing Rapp expected, though, was that he would still be dealing with this other issue. In light of the attacks in Washington, he thought the fool would have come to his senses.

The Calligrapher’s Daughter by Eugenia Kim (Kindle eBook – not available for Read It Forward)

This debut novel, inspired by the life of the author’s Korean mother, is a beautiful, deliberate and satisfying story spanning 30 years of Korean history. The tradition-bound aristocratic calligrapher Han refuses to name his daughter because she is born just as the Japanese occupy Korea early in the 20th century. When Han finds a husband for Najin (nicknamed after her mother’s birthplace) at 14, her mother objects and instead sends her to the court of the doomed royal Yi family to learn refinement. Najin goes to college and becomes a teacher, proving herself not only as a scholar but as a patriot and humanitarian. She returns home to marry, but her new husband goes without her to study in America when she is denied a visa. As the Japanese systematically obliterate ancient Korean culture and the political climate worsens, so do Najin’s fortunes. Her family is reduced to poverty, their home is seized and Najin is imprisoned as a spy while WWII escalates.

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What books came into your house last week? Don’t forget to fill out Mister Linky or leave a comment with a list of books if you don’t blog. Please let me know what you think about using Mister Linky for MM posting.

• In the “Your name:” box, please enter either your name or your blog’s name.

• In the “Your URL:” box please enter the URL/link that will lead directly to the post you are submitting (also called the permalink). This is not the URL to the blog’s home page.

1. Celticlady 2. gautami tripathy 3. Esme -Chocolate & Croissants 4. Elysium 5. RAnn 6. Katrina (Bloody Bad) 7. Laura (I’m Booking It) 8. Booklogged (A Reader’s Journal) 9. Kim 10. Blodeuedd(Bookgirl of Mur-y-Castell) 11. Teddyree (The Eclectic Reader) 12. Snowbell 13. Kristen (BookNAround) 14. Mo 15. Bluestocking 16. Savvy Verse & Wit 17. Mary (Bookfan) 18. Kathy (Bermudaonion’s Weblog) 19. Cathy@Kittling: Books 20. Staci-Life in the Thumb 21. Stephanie (Reviews by Lola) 22. Karissa 23. Kristi -( Books and Needlepoint ) 24. Shelly (Write For A Reader) 25. Marie at The Burton Review 26. Library of Clean Reads 27. NotNessie 28. Robin 29. Caitlin (chaotic compendiums) 30. Kim (Metroreader) 31. Wendy’s Minding Spot 32. Jaime @ Confessions of a Bibliophile 33. Carol’s Notebook 34. Missy 35. (Carrie K..) Books and Movies 36. Toni -A Circle of Books 37. Rose City Reader 38. Nicola (Back to Books) 39. Katy (A Few More Pages) 40. Diary of an Eccentric 41. Okbolover 42. Wendi B ~ Wendi’s Book Corner 43. Icedream(Reading In Appalachia) 44. Wordsmithonia 45. Alita 46. Dana (MM giveaway) 47. Alita 48. Beth(bookaholicmom) 49. Black ‘n Gold Girl’s Book Spot 50. Vicki 51. Gina @ BookDragon’s Lair 52. Jo-Jo 53. Kathy Chick who loves Flick and Books 54. Andrea (So Many Books, So Little Time) 55. MariReads 56. Allison (Well-Read Reviews) 57. Anesthezea (I Heart Paperbacks) 58. Lexi 59. Avis (she reads and reads) 60. Michelle (The True Book Addict)

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Read It Forward details

Journal notes: Gravewriter and Loot the Moon are the first two books in the Billy Povich mystery series. I received Loot the Moon from the publicist. As I don’t like to read series out of order I requested Gravewriter from the library (no Kindle edition available). Both are good, solid mysteries though I enjoyed Loot the Moon more than Gravewriter.

Gravewriter is definitely written as the introduction book to this series as the author spends more time acquainting us with his characters, their history and flaws then pursuing any action packed mystery case. Billy is a member of murder trial jury yet he stealthy goes about uncovering the true perpetrator of said crime. Unfortunately he takes his sweet time which made Gravewriter a bit slow for me.

Now Loot the Moon is the opposite of Gravewriter except for the main characters. It starts with action and death – guns, murder, a car-jacking and an out-of-control vehicle accident. And who really was doing the driving and shooting is at the very core of this mystery. Solving this murder through investigative action seems to be theme of Loot the Moon. Billy is working for Martin as his case investigator, in addition to writing obits for the local paper, and very actively involved trailing this killer. I won’t say that it was a pure adrenaline ride but it most certainly kept my interest.

It’s not like I really need another series to capture my attention but Billy Jr, Billy Sr & Bo have most certainly gone and done that. Actually Billy Jr reminds me a bit of one of my other favorite male lead characters, Harry Bosch, from author Michael Connelly.  Billy and Harry are loners with work and personal issues of their own making. And now that AE is buried with the little boy downstairs who, or what, will become Bo’s next ‘security blanket?’

Title: Gravewriter (Billy Povich Mysteries, book 1) Author/website: Mark Arsenault 272 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Minotaur Publication date: November ’06 Genre: Mystery Would I recommend it: Yes

Set in Providence, R.I., this first in a series introduces down-on-his-luck obituary writer Billy Povich. Deeply in debt to loan sharks and still reeling from the death of his ex-wife, Billy finds distraction as a juror in the murder trial of a street punk who shot a career criminal in a daring prison break. What looks like a slam-dunk case of murder begins to unravel as Billy looks closer, and more bodies appear in his path.

Title: Loot the Moon (Billy Povich Mysteries, book 2) Author/website: Mark Arsenault 276 pages Publisher: Minotaur Books Publication date: October ’09 Genre: Mystery Would I recommend it: Yes

In this next electifying thriller from up-and-coming author Mark Arsenault, former journalist and beaten-down gambler Billy Povich returns to aid Martin Smothers, the Patron Lawyer of Hopeless Causes.

Martin’s old law partner, the well-respected superior court judge Gilbert Harmony, has been shot by a thief who dies in a car crash. The cops close the case, but Martin doesn’t believe a two-bit shoplifter would suddenly kill a judge—somebody must have paid him to do it.

The suspects range from a vengeful mobster to a jealous brother to the judge’s widow, and—oops—his mistress and her son. And as Billy comes closer to the truth, it isn’t long before the killer takes aim at him.

(Gravewriter is a library book which I’ve returned. Loot the Moon was provided to me by Anne of Minotaur Books. I was not paid and the book is being shipped to another reader. )

So I thought I’d offer a 2nd Cover Attraction post today. After Rebecca (thank you) pointed me in the direction of The Book Depository to buy The Secret Mandarin I was browsing the site and came across 4 different covers for The Piano Teacher. As we all know different publishers and editions generate a variance of covers and I found the ones selected for The Piano Teacher interesting. Title: The Piano Teacher Author: Janice Y.K. Lee Release date: January ’09 (US hardback release date)

Claire Pendleton, newly married and arrived in Hong Kong in 1952, finds work giving piano lessons to the daughter of Melody and Victor Chen, a wealthy Chinese couple. While the girl is less than interested in music, the Chens’ flinty British expat driver, Will Truesdale, is certainly interested in Claire, and vice versa. Their fast-blossoming affair is juxtaposed against a plot line beginning in 1941 when Will gets swept up by the beautiful and tempestuous Trudy Liang, and then follows through his life during the Japanese occupation. As Claire and Will’s affair becomes common knowledge, so do the specifics of Will’s murky past, Trudy’s motivations and Victor’s role in past events. The rippling of past actions through to the present lends the narrative layers of intrigue and more than a few unexpected twists. Lee covers a little-known time in Chinese history without melodrama, and deconstructs without judgment the choices people make in order to live one more day under torturous circumstances.

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I’m a very visual person and love beautiful, or interesting, cover art. It entices, and invites, me to stop and take a peek instead of walking right on by. Here’s a cover that caught my eye. Title: The Secret Mandarin (US Kindle link) / (Amazon Canada print edition link) Author: Sara Sheridan (to read the first few pages click here) Release date: September ’09 (currently not available in the US)

Desperate to shield her from scandal, Mary’s brother-in-law, the ambitious botanist Robert Fortune, forces her to accompany him on a mission to China to steal tea plants for the East India Company. But Robert conceals his secret motives – to spy for the British forces, newly victorious in the recent Opium War.His task is both difficult and dangerous – the British are still regarded as enemies by the Chinese and exporting tea bushes carries the death sentence. In these harsh conditions Mary grieves for her London life and the baby she has been forced to leave behind, while her fury at Robert intensifies.As their quest becomes increasingly treacherous, Robert and Mary disguise themselves as a mandarin and man-servant. Thousands of miles from everything familiar, Mary revels in her new freedom and the Chinese way of life – and when danger strikes, finds unexpected reserves of courage.The Secret Mandarin is an unforgettable story of love, fortitude and recklessness – of a strong woman determined to make it in a man’s world and a man who will stop at nothing to fulfill his desires. .

*** This book currently isn’t available to US residents unless we order from Canada or the UK which might be spendy but not a problem. Drat I don’t like waiting but then again it’s not like our neighbors to the North or across the pond haven’t faced the same dilemma with US releases. So I have some choices: I can order from Amazon Canada (where the book will ship from the UK), directly from Amazon UK or I can wait somewhat impatiently for a US Kindle version to come out. I wonder how long it will be before my impatience gets the best of me? I’ll admit I did write to Ms. Sheridan’s publicist but haven’t heard back. *sigh* And its not like I don’t have books already whispering my name.

What book cover caught your eye? Leave a post link and share with your fellow readers.

For the past several months I’ve been posting Cover Attractions on Wednesdays as a book event here at The Printed Page. I’m making a slight change to this posting. I will be posting my last weekly Cover Attraction today, then I will be posting book covers whenever. There will no longer a set day of the week for Cover Attractions.

For the past several months I’ve been posting Cover Attractions on Wednesdays as a book event here at The Printed Page. I’m making a slight change to this posting. I will be posting my last weekly Cover Attraction tomorrow, then I will be posting book covers whenever. There will no longer a set day of the week for Cover Attractions.

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

If you’re new to Mailbox Monday welcome! Thank you to everyone who stops by Mailbox Monday. Whether you comment or visit I appreciate your taking the time to drop in.

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Children of Dust: A Memoir of Pakistan by Ali Eteraz (new-to-me author/FSB Associates) (Claimed by Karissa)

Ali Eteraz’s Children of Dust is a spellbinding portrayal of a life that few Americans can imagine. From his schooling in a madrassa in Pakistan to his teenage years as a Muslim American in the Bible Belt, and back to Pakistan to find a pious Muslim wife, this lyrical, penetrating saga from a brilliant new literary voice captures the heart of our universal quest for identity.

Children of Dust begins in rural Islam at the lowest levels of Pakistani society in the turbulent eighties. This intimate portrayal of rustic village life is revealed through a young boy’s eyes as he discovers magic, women, and friendship.

After immigrating with his family to the United States, Eteraz struggles to be a normal American teenager under the rules of a strict Muslim household.

In 1999, he returns to Pakistan to find the villages of his youth dominated by the ideology of the Taliban, filled with young men spouting militant rhetoric, and his extended family under threat. Eteraz becomes the target of a mysterious abduction plot when he is purported to be a CIA agent, and eventually has to escape under military escort.

Back in the United States, with his fundamentalist illusions now shattered, Eteraz tries to find a middle way within American Islam. At each stage of Eteraz’s life, he takes on a different identity to signal his evolution. From being pledged to Islam in Mecca as an infant, through Salafi fundamentalism, to liberal reformer, Eteraz desperately struggles to come to terms with being a Pakistani and a Muslim.

Astonishingly honest, darkly comic, and beautifully told, Children of Dust is an extraordinary adventure that reveals the diversity of Islamic beliefs, the vastness of the Pakistani diaspora, and the very human search for home.

The Queen’s Mistake: In the Court of Henry VIII by Diane Haeger (new-to-me author/Kindle eBook – not available for Read It Forward)

When the young and beautiful Catherine Howard becomes the fifth wife of the fifty-year-old King Henry VIII, she seems to be on top of the world. Yet her reign is destined to be brief and heartbreaking, as she is forced to do battle with enemies far more powerful and calculating than she could have ever anticipated in a court where one wrong move could mean her undoing. Wanting only love, Catherine is compelled to deny her heart’s desire in favor of her family’s ambition. But in so doing, she unwittingly gives those who sought to bring her down a most effective weapon-her own romantic past.

The Queen’s Mistake is the tragic tale of one passionate and idealistic woman who struggles to negotiate the intrigue of the court and the yearnings of her heart.

Evidence of Murder by Lisa Black (Kindle eBook – not available for Read It Forward)

Eight months ago, forensic investigator Theresa MacLean lost her fiancÉ in a bank robbery gone wrong, and she’s had trouble concentrating on her work ever since. But now a particularly difficult case may just be what she needs to regain her focus by demanding all her skill, intelligence, and attention.

Jillian Perry has been found dead in the woods, leaving behind a husband of three weeks and a young daughter. The police can’t determine how she died—her body shows no visible marks, and the autopsy reveals nothing suspicious—and the leading theory is that she purposely wandered into the forest and succumbed to the freezing weather. But something doesn’t feel right to Theresa, and she can’t let it go.

To complicate matters, a former boyfriend of Jillian’s unexpectedly petitions for custody of the daughter. Obsessed with Jillian, he also suspects foul play in Jillian’s death, and now he and Theresa believe Jillian’s daughter may be in danger of meeting a similar fate. With a child’s life at stake, Theresa must search for evidence of murder—evidence that doesn’t seem to exist—before it’s too late.

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What books came into your house last week? Don’t forget to leave a link to your Mailbox post or a list of books if you don’t have a blog.

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Read It Forward details

Title: Stained Glass (Father Dowling Mysteries, book 29) Author/website: Ralph McInerny 279 pages Publisher: Minotaur Books Publication date: October ’09 Genre: Mystery Would I recommend it: I DNFd at pg. 31 Journal notes: There’s something about the writing style that doesn’t appeal to me. The best description I can come up with is ‘old fashioned’. I keep getting images of Miiss Marple, Murder She Wrote, and Agatha Christie. I find this a bit odd because I’ve never read the books or watched the TV series yet that’s what floats through my mind. Simply not to my reading tastes.

Tough times and the unsolved murders of anyone with ties to the Deveres—a family of wealthy parish patrons—back Father Dowling up against a wall in his struggle to save his church from the chopping block.

With too many churches and not enough people to fill them, the Archdiocese has to make some cuts, and many of them, including the proposed closing of St. Hilary’s, are dangerously close to the bone. Father Dowling rushes to drum up support from church officials and parishioners, including the Deveres, who don’t want to see the stained glass windows they donated go anywhere other than the church they were meant for, but they can hardly be of help when those closest to them start turning up dead.

Church politics, long-kept family secrets, and a determined killer come together to put St. Hilary’s—a church that countless characters and devoted readers have come to love—and its parishioners in peril in Stained Glass, the latest in Ralph McInerny’s treasured mystery series.

(Stained Glass was provided to me by Anne of Minotaur Books. I was not paid and the book is being shipped to another reader. )