Introducing Tales of A (Formerly) Reluctant Reader!

Posted on January 11, 2010 by Jenn

TFRR

It is with much pride and joy that I announce a new feature to Jenn’s Bookshelves, Tales of A (Formerly) Reluctant Reader.  This feature will be run soley by John-John, my ten-year-old son. As fans of Jenn’s Bookshelves know, John was a former reluctant reader.  That is, until he found several books that got him excited about reading!  The point of this feature will be to showcase those books!

John will also be doing a “Challenge the Reluctant Reader” spin on his feature.  If you would like to see if your book would in fact engage a reluctant reader, let us know! John will read and review the book.  His review will list specific parts of the book that did, or did not engage him.  And of course, since he is my son, all reviews will be done in good taste!

If you have a book that you think would interest a reluctant reader, please submit a review request by filling out my Review Request Form. If you would like to “Challenge the Reluctant Reader” please mention that in your form. Or, if you are a reader and have book suggestions, please comment below.  Please note that John will do his best to follow-through with all challenge requests.

Please check back tomorrow when John reviews The Snow Day from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler!

Posted in Tales of A (Formerly) Reluctant Reader | 16 Comments

The Party’s Over! Bloggiesta Wrap-Up

Posted on January 11, 2010 by Jenn

blogiesta

I had a very productive Bloggiesta! Ok, so I didn’t get all of my tasks completed, but that’s only because I added new ones!  Here were my initial goals:

  1. Clean up images (Not completed)
  2. Fix Formatting: (Not completed)
  3. Write Reviews: (Wrote 1!)
  4. Reply to Comments Completed!
  5. Launch Tales of a (Former) Reluctant Reader Completed! Button has been created (after literally spending hours obsessing over it!) and TFRR will launch later this week!
  6. Clean up Google Reader Completed!

 

 

In addition to the goals listed above I also:

  • cataloged review copies I’d received
  • helped out a bunch of bloggers on Twitter with their #bloggiesta questions
  • Helped a dear friend Geri launch her own blog, One More Funny Notion!

 

 

Overall, I *only* devoted about 10 hours to Bloggiesta.  Hopefully, with better planning (and perhaps a babysitter or two!) I plan on participating a bit more during the next Bloggiesta.  So, thank you Natasha for yet another outstanding Bloggiesta!!

Posted in Blog Post | 7 Comments

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week?

Posted on January 11, 2010 by Jenn

 

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? This is a weekly event to list the books completed last week, the books currently being reading, and the books to be finish this week. It was created by J.Kaye’s Book Blog, so stop by and join in!

Books Completed Last Week

Snow Angels by James Thompson

Currently Reading

Tripwire (Jack Reacher, No. 3) by Lee Child (audio )
The Secret of Joy by Melissa Senate

Books to Complete This Week

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Boys without Names by Kashmira Sheth

What are you reading this week?

Posted in It's Monday What Are you Reading This Week | 19 Comments

Review: Snow Angels by James Thompson

Posted on January 11, 2010 by Jenn

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  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Putnam Adult; 1 edition (January 7, 2010)
  • ISBN: 0399156178
  • Source: Publisher

    •  

    A Somalian immigrant is found brutally murdered in a cold, dark snow field in Finland.  The case is assigned to Kari Vaara, the lead detective of the local small town police force.  The body is that of Sufia Elmi, a black movie actress.  Racism is a big problem in Finland, and it’s up to Kari to determine if Sufia’s death is the result of a hate crime or something much more.

    Kari’s character is a complex one.  He’s the only one of his siblings who didn’t leave town as soon as the opportunity arose.  One must wonder if he still feels guilty for the tragedy that struck his family when he was a child. Kari is forced to confront his past in order to deal with present.

    Kari is married to Kate, a young American woman who moved to Finland to manage a local ski resort.  Kaamos, ten days of complete darkness, have just begun.  Kate, pregnant with their first child,  is struggling to deal with the subzero temperatures and the vast differences in the Finnish and American cultures. Kate’s feelings of isolation are beginning to have an effect on Kari and their marriage as a whole.

    Thompson does an outstanding job with setting and characters in  Snow Angels.   While laying out the storyline, Thompson also educates the reader on the culture and customs of Finland.  His writing creates vivid images of the frigid Arctic setting and the emotionally cold individuals who inhabit it.  While Snow Angels is labeled as crime fiction, Thompson makes a statement social issues in the Finnish culture. We see a dark side of Finland, one I have never experienced before.

    And while this exploration into the social norms of natives are explored, Thompson also unveils a very brutal crime.  The pace of the storyline is perfect.  There wasn’t one segment of the book in which I felt was dragging on.  And just when I thought I knew the identity of the murderer,  the direction changed completely, leaving me guessing until the very end.

    Snow Angels is the first in a new series.  I impatiently await the second, scheduled for release in 2011.

    Warning: Mild profanity, scenes of a sexual nature

    Thriller & Suspense Reading Challenge

    Posted in Challenges, Crime Fiction, Mystery/Suspense, Penguin, Review, Thriller | 14 Comments

    Bloggiesta: Let’s Get This Party Started!!

    Posted on January 8, 2010 by Jenn

    blogiesta

    It’s the beginning of the new year.  What a perfect time to do a little blog maintenance!  Natasha from Maw Books Blog is once again hosting Bloggiesta, your excuse to spend the entire weekend working on your blog (like you needed one!).

    To assist you in improving the look of your blog, ten mini-challenges have been established:

    Be sure to check out these great challenges. If you participate and comment, you will be eligible to win some great publisher-sponsored prizes!

    I participated in Bloggiesta last year and, admittedly, came up with some pretty elaborate goals for the weekend.  I’ve learned my lesson this go round and come up with six fairly easy goals:

    1. Clean up images: When I moved to self-hosting from my blogger blog, I lost a lot of images.  I’m going to go through all my old posts and fix the images.
    2. Fix Formatting: Yet another thing that didn’t transfer over well from Blogger was the formatting.  Several posts have wonky spacing, etc. that needs to be corrected.  So, while I go through all my old posts to fix the pictures, I will fix the alignment as well.
    3. Write Reviews: We’re barely in to 2010 and I’m already behind on my reviews.  I plan to write at least five this weekend.
    4. Reply to Comments: I love it when my followers leave comments! I did have a process of going through posts weekly and responding to comments, but this process has fallen by the wayside! 
    5. Launch Tales of a (Former) Reluctant Reader: This is my ten-year-old son’s new feature in which he, as a former reluctant reader, will spotlight books that got him excited about reading.  I still (HELP!) need a button for this feature and need to schedule the posts, but I’m really looking forward to this project!
    6. Clean up Google Reader: I can admit that I’m subscribed to way too many blogs.  I can’t remember the last time I cleared my reader down to zero (without marking all as read).  So, it’s time to unsubscribe to those blogs I don’t really follow anymore.

     

     

    Sound easy enough?  I hope so, because I also have to take down the Christmas tree and do all sorts of work around the house!

    Posted in Blog Post | 9 Comments

    Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge: Come Up With 10 Post Ideas

    Posted on January 8, 2010 by Jenn

    blogiesta

    It happens to the best of us.  Life takes over your blog gets neglected.  One way to prevent this is to come up with posts in advance and store them in your drafts until needed.

    Problogger lists an excellent idea: mapping out future blog posts based on previous posts.

    1. Set-up:  Get a piece of paper and draw five circles vertically along the paper.   In the circles, write the titles of your last five blog posts.
    2. Extend Your Posts: Take each post and brainstorm ways the post can be extended.  Answer a comment left on a previous post. Expand upon your answer. Expand upon an idea or opinion that you may have briefly mentioned in the previous post.  For each idea draw a line out from the circle, draw a square (or use a different color) and write the idea inside of it.
    3. Extend Further: This step is optional.  Expand upon the topics you have come up with and you’ll end up with even more post ideas!

    Now to the challenge part!  You have three  options:

    * upload an image of your mental mapping onto your blog.  Comment on this post and include a link to your post.
    * Create a new post based on your mental mapping. Comment on this post and include a link to your post.
    * Leave a comment listing at least five of the ideas that you came up with as a result of your mental mapping.

    Individuals who complete this challenge will be entered to win a publisher-sponsored prize.

    Posted in Uncategorized | 65 Comments

    Book Spotlight: Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

    Posted on January 8, 2010 by Jenn

    Wench-671x1024

    Situated in the free state of Ohio, Tawawa House offers respite from the summer heat. A beautiful, inviting house surrounded by a dozen private cottages, the resort is favored by wealthy Southern white men who vacation there, accompanied by their enslaved mistresses.

    Regular visitors Lizzie, Reenie, and Sweet have forged an enduring friendship. They look forward to their annual reunion and the opportunity it affords them to talk over the changes in their lives and their respective plantations. The subject of freedom is never spoken aloud until the red-maned, spirited Mawu arrives and voices her determination to escape. To run is to leave behind the friends and families trapped at home. For some, it also means tearing the strong emotional and psychological ties that bind them to their masters.

    My thoughts so far:

    I’m halfway through my reading of Wench and I can’t help but state how drawn I am to the characters already.  Each of the women have a compelling story and a specific reason for not opting to run when the opportunity presents itself.  The storyline itself is heart-wrenching and powerful.  Never before have I read fiction about slavery that haunts me so.  When I’m not reading the book, I can’t get my mind off of the characters and their brutal histories. When I am able to devote some time to reading it, I instantly become absorbed in each of the women’s lives. I guarantee this novel is going to garner a lot of well-deserved attention and praise.  Please come back on January 25th for my full review of this novel.

    Wench

    About Dolen Perkins-Valdez

    Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s fiction and essays The Kenyon Review, African American Review, PMS:  PoemMemoirStory, North Carolina Literary Review, Richard Wright Newsletter, and SLI:  Studies in Literary Imagination.  She is a 2009 finalist for the Robert Olen Butler Fiction Award.  A graduate of Harvard and a former University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Dolen splits her time between Seattle and Washington, DC.  She is a faculty member of the University of Puget Sound where she teaches Creative Writing.  Wench is her first book of fiction.  You can visit Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s website at www.dolenperkinsvaldez.com, her blog at www.dolen.blogspot.com or connect with her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/dolen.

    Posted in Blog Post, blog tour, Historical Fiction | 8 Comments

    A Belated Happy New Year!

    Posted on January 7, 2010 by Jenn

    Happy New Year, everyone! Life caught up with me and I didn’t get a chance to do a 2009 wrap up post!

    I still wanted to write a short post about new things coming up on Jenn’s Bookshelves:

    • Reading more books from my TBR piles!  This year, I vow to be a bit more selective when accepting review copies.  My poor TBR piles are about to collapse and I need to pay some attention to them!

     

    • My son, John-John, will be launching a new feature entitled “Tales of a Reluctant Reader” in which he will focus on books that interested him, as a reluctant reader.  I still need a button for this feature.  Anyone willing to help out? Also, if you are a publisher or author with a book geared for reluctant readers, John-John is accepting review requests! Simply fill out the Review Request Form.

     

    • I was recently diagnosed with pigmentary dispersion syndrome.  It’s a mild form of glaucoma.  Basically (if you don’t want details skip the rest of this!) the pressure build-up in my eye is causing the pigment to fleck-off and drift into the black part of my eye.  In addition, I also have a small rupture close to my optic nerve.  I go back to the dr. on the 18th for more tests and to discuss my options.  More than likely, I will have a procedure in which they use a laser to create a small “vent” to help alleviate the pressure.  If this doesn’t work, I will have to use eye drops to alleviate the pressure.  What does this mean? Lots of dr. appointments and not a lot of free time.  So, publishers and authors, if I have agreed to review your book, please be patient with me.

     

    Ok, I think that wraps it up!  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and once again, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

    Posted in Blog Post | 6 Comments

    Teaser Tuesday: January 5th

    Posted on January 5, 2010 by Jenn
    Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

    Just do the following:

    • Grab your current read
    • Open to a random page
    • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
    • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
    • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

    My teaser this week comes from Snow Angels by James Thompson:

    “The snow is about three feet deep and she’s sunk about half that distance into it.  She managed to thrash enough to make a snow angel.”

    What is your teaser this week?

    Posted in Teaser Tuesday | 2 Comments

    I’m Getting My Game On..AGAIN!

    Posted on January 4, 2010 by Jenn

    Six months ago, I joined three teams of bloggers who participated in the Game On Diet Challenge. Somehow, I got wrangled into doing it again!  But seriously, I did need to get into a better lifestyle after the holidays. 

    Here’s a bit of information about the challenge:

    The Game On! Diet is the brainchild of Krista Vernoff, head writer and executive producer of tv’s Grey’s Anatomy and Az Ferguson, winner of the Body-for-Life Challenge. When Krista returned to work after having her baby, she called on Az to help her lose the baby weight. He made her a workout regimen and eating plan that she, well, didn’t follow at all. So Az went back to the drawing board. Knowing that Krista had a VERY competitive nature, he decided to present her with a healthy lifestyle plan in the form of a game, that she could play with a team, and that she could play to win. This appealed to her very much. Rather than the focus being on losing weight, the focus is on winning points, a far more tantalizing prospect.

    So how do you earn points? You can earn a maximum of 100 points a day for doing the following:

    1) Eating 5 balanced meals a day, every 2-4 hours — 6 points per meal

    2) Exercising for at least 20 minutes a day — 20 points

    3) Sleeping for a minimum of 7 hours per night — 15 points

    4) Drinking 3 liters of water a day — 10 points

    5) Adopting a healthy new habit that you practice every day — 10 points

    6) Dropping one unhealthy habit — 10 points

    7) Communicating with your team members every day — 5 points

     

    You earn penalties (points lost!) for:

    1) stepping on the scale more than once a day

    2) unsanctioned snacking (you can have as much celery and cucumber as you want throughout the day, plus 100 free calories of whatever once a day, no other snacking)

    3) Colluding with the opposing team to get them to break a rule

    4) Drinking alcohol (see exception below)

    5) changing the healthy or unhealthy habit during the course of the game (you have to pick those and stick to them).

     

    It’s not about total deprivation as you get:

    1) One day off a week, when you don’t have to follow any of the rules
    2) One meal off a week when you can eat what you want and have one unit of alcohol
    3) each day you can have 100 calories of anything as a bonus treat

    Once again, the habit I would like to break is logging on to email/Twitter as soon as I get home from work. The good habit I would like to start is actually sitting down at the table and enjoying dinner with my family! Usually I plop down in my reading chair or the couch and eat dinner in front of the TV.

    Following are the teams participating in this round:

    Ding Dongs:
    Ti of Book Chatter (@TiBookChatter)
    Amy of My Friend Amy (@MyFriendAmy)
    Jill of Rhapsody in Books (@RhapsodyBooks)
    Molly of My Cozy Book Nook (@MyCozyBookNook)
    Julie of Booking Mama (@BookingMama)

     

    Ho Hos:

    J.T. of BiblioFreakBlog (@BibliofreakBlog)
    Jen of Devourer of Books (@DevourerOfBooks)
    Pam of Bookalicio.us (@BookaliciousPam)
    Sandy of You’ve GOTTA Read This (@YouveGottaRead)  She caved! Sandy’s on Twitter!
    Laurie (no blog or twitter, but she emails updates to us)

    Twinkies:

    Dawn of She Is Too Fond of Books (@TooFondOfBooks)
    Natasha/Vasilly of Classic Vasilly (@Vasilly)
    Candace/Beth F of Beth Fish Reads (@BethFishReads)
    Jennifer of The Literate Housewife Review (@LitHousewife)
    Jenners of Find Your Next Book Here (@MrsFligs)
    ME!

    Today is our official starting day.  It’s cold here, so I’m having a hard time drinking the required 3 liters of water! I will not fail my fellow Twinkies, however.  Wish me luck, I’m going to need all the help I can get!

    Posted in Game on Diet | 6 Comments