The Printed Page

Archive for January, 2010

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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Again this year I’m supporting Book Wish Foundation’s holiday campaign. For every link to a Mailbox Monday post left here at The Printed Page through end of the January I will contribute .50¢ to Book Wish Foundation’s holiday campaign. So far links to Mailbox Monday have raised approximately $118 or 59 bricks.

Book Wish Foundation’s holiday campaign for 2009 asks book lovers everywhere to contribute one of the 5000 bricks we need to build a library for Darfuri refugees in eastern Chad. As of Jan. 23, we have raised 966 bricks. Please join the effort, even with a single brick, by visiting: Library Builder

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Roses by Leila Meacham (new-to-me author/publicist contact) (Claimed by Bonnie)

Spanning the 20th century, the story of Roses takes place in a small East Texas town against the backdrop of the powerful timber and cotton industries, industries controlled by the scions of the town’s founding families. Cotton tycoon Mary Toliver and timber magnate Percy Warwick should have married but unwisely did not, and now must deal with the deceit, secrets, and tragedies of their choice and the loss of what might have been–not just for themselves but for their children, and children’s children.

The Sheen on the Silk by Anne Perry (new-to-me author/publicist contact) (Claimed by Grace)

Arriving in the ancient Byzantine city in the year 1273, Anna Zarides has only one mission: to prove the innocence of her twin brother, Justinian, who has been exiled to the desert for conspiring to kill Bessarion, a nobleman.
Disguising herself as a eunuch named Anastasius, Anna moves freely about in society, using her skills as a physician to manoeuver close to the key players involved in her brother’s fate. With her medical practice thriving, Anna crosses paths with Zoe Chrysaphes, a devious noblewoman with her own hidden agenda, and Giuiliano Dandolo, a ship’s captain conflicted not only by his mixed Venetian-Byzantine heritage but by his growing feelings for Anastasius.

Trying to clear her brother’s name, Anna learns more about Justinian’s life and reputation—including his peculiar ties to Bessarion’s beautiful widow and his possible role in a plot to overthrow the emperor. This leaves Anna with more questions than answer, and time is running out. For an even greater threat lies on the horizon: Another Crusade to capture the Holy Land is brewing, and leaders in Rome and Venice have set their sights on Constantinople for what is sure to be a brutal invasion. Anna’s discoveries draw her inextricably closer to the dangers of the emperor’s treacherous court—where it seems that no one is exactly who he or she appears to be.

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What books came into your house last week? You have the choice of using inlinkz w/graphics or Mr. Linky. With inlinkz you can include a book cover if you’d like along with the link to your Mailbox Monday post (clicking on the image takes you to the blog post.) Duplicate links will not count toward the fundraising efforts.

Don’t forget to fill out either inlinkz or Mister Linky or leave a comment with a list of books if you don’t blog. If you’re interested in Read It Forward you will need to leave a comment in addition to filling out a link feature.

• 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.

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Read It Forward details

I’ve added a new page to The Reading Room – my 2010 reading list. Its a complete listing of all the books (eBooks included) that pass through my hands this year.

Title: Burn
Author/website(s): Ted Dekker & Erin Healy
368 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Publication date: January ’10
Genre: Suspense, faith-based
Review book or pleasure reading: Review book
New-to-me author: Yes & no (Ted – no; Erin – yes)
Would I recommend this book: You betcha
Would I read more from this author: The Bride Collector is sitting on the bookcase shelf right now. And sitting there it will be until my April tour date.
Journal notes: First off let me say if you don’t usually read faith-based fiction but love great suspense novels you need to read Burn. When faith is mentioned it is true to the story line and doesn’t stand out. Burn is one very, very good suspense story. I was first introduced to Mr. Dekker’s novels last year when I read The BoneMan’s Daughters. At that time I added Mr. Dekker to my auto-buy & favorite authors list. And reading Burn only confirmed that I’d made a smart decision. Burn was bit different due to a paranormal aspect but very interesting in concept. Mr. Dekker and Ms. Healy collaborated on Kiss which will soon be joining my Kindle library.

The past Janeal thought had burned away is rising from the ashes.

Years ago, the Gypsy Kumpania where Janeal Mikkado lived was attacked by outsiders. With her best friend about to be consumed by a fire, Janeal had two options: try to save her friend–at serious risk to her own life–or disappear with the million dollars that she had just discovered . . .

But the past is quickly coming back to haunt her. Both the best friend and the boyfriend that she was sure were dead have reappeared in her life, as has someone who knows about the money. There’s a debt to be paid for the money she found, but there’s an even greater debt she must face–and if the chaff isn’t burned from her own heart, it will consume her.

(Burn was provided to me by Amy at Phenix Publicity. I was not paid and this book is being passed along to the another book blogger through Read It Forward )

Madcap, touching, laugh-out-loud funny and thoroughly satisfying on all emotional levels, her latest London-set historical focuses on Hyacinth, the eighth sibling in Quinn’s bestselling Bridgerton family series (following When He Was Wicked). Too intelligent for her own good and best friends with Lady Danbury, one of society’s most outspoken grande dames, Hyacinth is in her fourth season on London’s Marriage Mart and again unimpressed by the male selection. Only Lady Danbury’s handsome, pockets-to-let grandson Gareth St. Clair can hold his own in a conversation with her and sometimes even leaves her in a speechless, stomach-flipping state. When Hyacinth offers to translate the diary of Gareth’s deceased Italian grandmother, the pair find themselves comparing notes, then exchanging kisses and finally burglarizing his estranged father’s house at midnight. But the diary also holds secrets that could jeopardize their new love. Practically bouncing with humor, this book will keep readers happily on edge, waiting to see how the final unmarried Bridgerton will fare in Quinn’s talented hands.

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Because a girl needs distraction when she’s lounging around recovering from knee surgery. Now you all know why I’m starting a new book every other day or so.

The past Janeal thought had burned away is rising from the ashes.

Years ago, the Gypsy Kumpania where Janeal Mikkado lived was attacked by outsiders. With her best friend about to be consumed by a fire, Janeal had two options: try to save her friend–at serious risk to her own life–or disappear with the million dollars that she had just discovered . . .

But the past is quickly coming back to haunt her. Both the best friend and the boyfriend that she was sure were dead have reappeared in her life, as has someone who knows about the money. There’s a debt to be paid for the money she found, but there’s an even greater debt she must face–and if the chaff isn’t burned from her own heart, it will consume her.

Title: The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel: A Novel
Author/website(s): Maureen Lindley / Eastern Jewel (Wikipedia)
285 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Publication date: September ’09
Genre: Historical fiction
Review book or pleasure reading: Review book
New-to-me author: Yes
Would I recommend this book: Probably
Would I read more from this author: Yes
Journal notes: I enjoyed reading this fictionalized version of Eastern Jewel/Yoshiko Kawashima’s life. Her story definitely won’t be for everyone as she lived by her rules and often on the darker side but I found her a very interesting character.

Peking, 1914. Eight-year-old Eastern Jewel, daughter of Prince Su’s last concubine, peers from behind a carved screen as her father makes love to a bound-footed servant girl. Overhead the gathering clouds foreshadow the end of peace, and the start of Eastern Jewel’s own tumultuous story Eastern Jewel is an intoxicating heroine – a feisty, rebellious woman who refuses to accept mutely the docile, subservient role that early twentieth-century Chinese society prescribes for her. Her early sexual curiosity sees her banished as a young girl to live with distant relatives in Tokyo, then forced into a passionless marriage in bleak, freezing Mongolia. Increasingly isolated, at night she is plagued by disturbing fantasies and unsettling dreams.But she is a bold, rebellious woman who refuses to be pinned down by anyone – least of all a man – and in the dazzling city of Shanghai she puts her thrill-seeking nature to work spying for the Japanese, spurning her Chinese heritage and everything she once held dear Based on the real-life story of Yoshiko Kawashima, a fascinating but contradictory heroine who battled to juggle her extraordinary public life with her private paper demons, “The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel” is stormy, vivid and an utterly intoxicating tale of sexual manipulation and self-discovery that spans three countries and a world war.

(The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel was provided to me through a banner ad at Shelf Awareness. I was not paid and this book is being passed along to the another book blogger through Read It Forward )

Title: The Day The Falls Stood Still: A Novel
Author/website(s): Cathy Marie Buchanan
298 pages
Publisher: Voice
Publication date: August ’09
Genre: Fiction
Review book or pleasure reading: Review book
New-to-me author: Yes
Would I recommend this book: DNF’d @ pg. 148
Would I read more from this author: Depending on subject matter/topic
Journal notes: Simply a story that didn’t appeal to me once I started reading.

Set against the backdrop of WWI and Niagara Falls, this debut tells the story of young Bess Heath and her struggle to navigate a quickly modernizing world. A child of privilege, Bess sees her fortunes change when her father loses his job. Cast into poverty, her family disgraced, Bess tries to hold things together while her sister slips into depression, her father drinks and her mother withdraws. After another tragedy strikes, Bess finds comfort in the love of Tom Cole, a river man with a mysterious connection to the falls. Overcoming the deep privation of the war and their own limited means, the two begin building a life together and renew their commitment to each other and their family. Based loosely on the history of Niagara river man William Red Hill, the book incorporates mock newspaper articles with limited success, but does integrate some detailed depictions of domestic life and fascinating natural history into an otherwise uneventful romance.

(The Day The Falls Stood Still was provided to me through a banner ad at Shelf Awareness. I was not paid and this book is being passed along to the another book blogger through Read It Forward )

Title: Shadow Princess: A Novel
Author: Indu Sundaresan
Release date: March ’10

In Shadow Princess, Indu Sundaresan picks up where she left off in The Twentieth Wife and The Feast of Roses, returning to seventeenth-century India a few years after Mehrunnisa’s death, as two royal princesses struggle for power.

The daughters of the emperor, Jahangir and Roshanara, conspire and scheme against one another in an attempt to gain power over their father’s harem. As royal princesses, they are confined in the imperial harem and not allowed to marry. However, this does not stop them from having illicit affairs or plotting who will be the next heir to the throne.

These royal sisters are in competition for everything: control over the harem, their father’s affection, and the future of their country. Unfortunately, only one of them can succeed. And despite their best efforts to affect the future, their schemes are eclipsed, both during their lives and in posterity, as they live in the shadow of the greatest monument in Indian history, the Taj Mahal.

With a flair and enthusiasm for history and culture, Sundaresan creates a story full of rich details that brings the reader deep into the world of the lives of Indian women and their struggles for power and the profound history of the Taj Mahal, one of the most celebrated works of architecture in the world.

Based on the life of a Qing dynasty princess, this engrossing debut gives the rebellious Eastern Jewel a sensuous, unsentimental voice that draws admiration despite remorseless selfishness. In 1914 Manchuria, the curious, headstrong eight-year-old is sent to live with her father’s blood brother Kawashima, who adopts her and renames her Yoshiko. She settles into her new life as a second-tier family member, at odds with the stepmother she secretly longs to please. Precocious, rebellious and beautiful, Yoshiko loses her virginity to her adopted grandfather at 15 and is seduced by her adopted father a year later; her further sexual adventures eventually leave her sterile. Inevitably, Kawashima marries her off, to a Mongolian prince. Unhappy in Mongolia, Yoshiko escapes to Tokyo, where she becomes a professional mistress, and then to Shanghai. As Japan and China tumble into war, one of Yoshiko’s new lovers recruits her as a spy; American reporter Jack Stone soon arrives to further complicate matters of loyalty and righteousness. This lush, challenging portrait of a woman who dared to make her own choices—bad though they were—in terrible, oppressive times also makes a steamy historical beach read.

Steeped in the intriguing history of Niagara Falls, this epic love story is as rich, spellbinding, and majestic as the falls themselves.

1915. The dawn of the hydroelectric power era in Niagara Falls. Seventeen-year-old Bess Heath has led a sheltered existence as the youngest daughter of the director of the Niagara Power Company. After graduation day at her boarding school, she is impatient to return to her picturesque family home near Niagara Falls. But when she arrives, nothing is as she had left it. Her father has lost his job at the power company, her mother is reduced to taking in sewing from the society ladies she once entertained, and Isabel, her vivacious older sister, is a shadow of her former self. She has shut herself in her bedroom, barely eating–and harboring a secret.

The night of her return, Bess meets Tom Cole by chance on a trolley platform. She finds herself inexplicably drawn to him–against her family’s strong objections. He is not from their world. Rough-hewn and fearless, he lives off what the river provides and has an uncanny ability to predict the whims of the falls. His daring river rescues render him a local hero and cast him as a threat to the power companies that seek to harness the power of the falls for themselves. As their lives become more fully entwined, Bess is forced to make a painful choice between what she wants and what is best for her family and her future.

Set against the tumultuous backdrop of Niagara Falls, at a time when daredevils shot the river rapids in barrels and great industrial fortunes were made and lost as quickly as lives disappeared, The Day the Falls Stood Still is an intoxicating debut novel.