Review: The Rapture by Liz Jensen

35070348

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Doubleday (August 11, 2009)
  • ISBN-10: 0385528213
  • Source: Publisher
  •  

    Sixteen-year-old Bethany Krall is a patient at Oxsmith Adolescent Secure Psychiatric Hospital.  She was committed two years ago after brutally murdering her mother.  Bethany’s last psychologist was forced to take a mysterious health-related leave of absence.  She has been reassigned to Gabrielle Fox, a wheelchair-bound art therapist.

    Bethany claims to have the ability to predict natural disasters.  These visions occur immediately following electo-convulsive therapy.  Bethany’s claims have been ignored up until now.  Gabrielle begins to make note of some of the predictions and when a few come true, she feels the need to report it to someone.  When Bethany begins seeing visions of “the end”, Gabrielle knows she has little time to act.

    Gabrielle meets Frazer Melville, renowned physicist, and mentions Bethany’s “gift” to him.  She is desperate to understand the likelihood of such natural disasters occuring.  At first, like the others, Frazer is skeptical.  But a devastating disaster occurs and he can’t help but be convinced.   In a strange turn of events, Gabrielle and Frazer start a romantic relationship. 

    Gabrielle and Frazer are eventually able to convince experts of Bethany’s ability.  They form a team and quickly determine the impending cause of the end, a natural disaster so catastrophic it will have world-wide repercussions.  But will they be able to stop it? And if they can’t,  how can they save themselves?

    Jensen does an outstanding job with this apocalyptic thriller. Bethany’s character is so brute and abusive,  yet I felt sympathy for her.  She is obviously unable to control her “power” and is forced to be a victim to her “disease.”  Gabrielle certainly has her own demons to contend with.  She’s still healing, physically and mentally, from the car-accident that took away her mobility.  As the first person narrator, Gabrielle’s character is the one with the most depth.

    My only complaint would be the tempo of the book.  There was a bit of a lull in the middle of the book and I’m afraid this may dissuade some readers from completing it.  The middle segment of the book isn’t fluff, though.  It provides the reader with information that adds definition to each of the characters and delves a bit more into Bethany’s history. The ending does not dissappoint and definitely suggests a sequel.

    I should also note that while the title refers to a Christian/Biblical theme, I would not label this as Christian fiction.  Religion is definitely an underlying theme but is not at all pervasive.

    Also be warned that this book will haunt you for some time. It is a cautionary tale about what could happen to civilization if we are not careful about how we treat our planet. I literally could not get this book out of my mind after completing it.  I dreamed about it, I think of it several times throughout the day.  So, I do suggest that you pick up and read it, but be prepared for a lasting relationship!

    Posted in Doubleday, Literary Fiction, Review, Thriller | 17 Comments

    Teaser Tuesday, October 20

    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 The Raptureby Liz Jensen:

    In the morning we watch the news. The pall of dust is clearing to reveal a choked wasteland desolate as a hundred thousand Ground Zeros, dwarfing anything I have seen or could have imagined, a smoking , smoldering bleakness that stretches for kilometer upon kilometer, with odd pockets of normality on which the sun shines: a playing field, a rind of park, a sparkling lake sprinkeled with painted paddleboats.

    What is your teaser this week?

    Posted in Teaser Tuesday | 7 Comments

    Read-a-thon Update: Charities I’m Reading For!

    During April’s Read-a-thon, I decided I wanted to read for a charity.  That charity was Books For Soldiers, a non-profit corporation who provides books to American soldiers deployed overseas.  I pledged to donate $5 per book I read.  I read five books and a gracious friend of mine matched my donations.  Therefore, I was able to donate $50 to this cause.

    For this round of the read-a-thon, I couldn’t decide which charity to read for.  So, I’m picking two: First Book and Reading is Fundamental.  Following is some information about each of these charities.

    FB_logoMission: First Book provides new books to children in need addressing one of the most important factors affecting literacy – access to books.

    Inspiration: Kyle Zimmer, a corporate lawyer by day, tutored children at an inner-city soup kitchen by night. She discovered that the children she tutored had no books to read. That year, Kyle left her day job, and she and two friends founded First Book to provide new books and resources to the children who needed them the most. They delivered 12,000 books to local communities in the Washington DC area the first year.

    Motivation: Kyle discovered that fully 80% of preschool and after-school programs serving low-income populations have no age-appropriate books for the children they serve. Millions of children spend thousands of hours every week in programs and schools that are starving for resources necessary to improve educational quality.

    Empowerment: By providing new books to children in preschools and after-school programs, mentoring and tutoring programs, shelters and day care centers and beyond, First Book provides resources to empower teachers and administrators. With access to high-quality books, educational materials and more, these caring leaders can better teach, plan curriculum and impart a love of learning, elevating the quality of the programs and opportunities available to children in need.

    Achievement: Now, nearly 20 years later, First Book has delivered more than 65 million books to programs serving children in need across the United States and Canada. Learn more about the honors and awards received by First Book.

    hm_botrif2

    Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. prepares and motivates children to read by delivering free books and literacy resources to those children and families who need them most.

    Founded in 1966, RIF is the oldest and largest children’s and family nonprofit literacy organization in the United States. RIF’s highest priority is reaching underserved children from birth to age 8. Through community volunteers in every state and U.S. territory, RIF provides 4.5 million children with 16 million new, free books and literacy resources each year. 

    All RIF programs combine three essential elements to foster children’s literacy: reading motivation, family and community involvement, and the excitement of choosing free books to keep.

    RIF’s accomplishments are due in part to the generous support of the U.S. Department of Education, corporations, foundations, community organizations, and thousands of individuals.

    Do you see why it was impossible for me to choose between these two charities!? 

    For each book I read, I will donate $5 to each of these charities. While I’m not openly soliciting people to pledge me, if you would like to, please send me an email (jennsbookshelfATgmailDOTcom) or post a comment below.

    Posted in Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon | 11 Comments

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

     

    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

    Horrid Henry and the Mummy’s Curse by Francesca Simon
    Spoon by Robert Greer

    Currently Reading

    Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
    Burning for Revenge (The Tomorrow Series #5) by John Marsden (audio)
    Dracula The Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt
    The Rapture by Liz Jensen

    Books to Complete This Week

    The Widow’s Season by Laura Brodie
    Damnable by Hank Schwaeble
    The God of War by Marisa Silver

    What are you reading this week?

    Posted in It's Monday What Are you Reading This Week | 9 Comments

    In Which My Son and I Review Horrid Henry & the Mummy’s Curse

    Mummy

  • Reading level: Ages 9-12
  • Paperback: 112 pages
  • Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (July 1, 2009)
  • ISBN-10: 1402217765
  • Source: Publisher
  • As with the other Horrid Henry books, Horrid Henry and the Mummy’s Curse is made up of four hilarious stories about Horrid Henry’s antics.

    My ten-year old, John, and I decided to do a joint review of the title story The Mummy’s Curse.

    In Horrid Henry and the Mummy’s Curse, Henry is doing what he does best-being horrid and getting into trouble.  Since he is unable to share his toys with his younger brother, Perfect Peter, Henry has been banned from playing with Peter’s toys. Typically, that’s not a problem for Henry.  Who wants to play with Peter’s childish, baby toys?  Well, that changed when Peter won a “Curse of the Mummy” kit from the museum.  It came with a plastic body to mummify, mummy wrapping gauze,  a curse book, amulets, and removable mummy organs!  What little boy wouldn’t love this !?

    Perfect Peter soon finds Horrid Henry in his room and threatens to tell on him. But Henry convinces Peter that he’s not stealing his toy, but trying to protect him from the Mummy’s Curse, the curse that turns people into a mummy.  At first Peter doesn’t believe Henry, but he is convinced after a hilarious exchange with his Mom:

    “Mom, ” said Peter, “Henry says you are a mummy.”

    Mom looked puzzled.  “Of course I’m a mummy,” she said.

    “What?” said Peter

    “I’m your mummy,” said Mom,  with a smile.

    Peter too a step back.

    “I don’t want you to be a mummy,” said Peter

    “But I am one,” said Mom.  “Now come and give me a hug.”

    “No!” said Peter

    “Let me wrap my arms around you,” said Mom

    Peter is certain his Mom has been mummified. He asks Henry to help him remove the curse.  Henry insists they must wrap Fluffy, the cat, in the sacred bandages (toilet paper) so he can be a messanger between this world and the next.   Peter, too, must be wrapped and remain silent for thirty minutes. Henry begins chanting the “sacred spell”

    “By the powers of Horus, Morus, Borus and Stegosaurus!”

    But before the spell can be completed, Henry is discovered by his Mummy, I mean, Mom.  He is grounded from the TV for a month, but since Peter no longer wanted anything to do with his mummy kit, Peter had free reign!

    My Review:

    Francesca Simon, author of the Horrid Henry series, does another outstanding job with this one! Each of the four stories are long enough to tell a good story, but short enough to keep the attention of my two boys.  They love to hear about what sort of trouble is getting into next.  My oldest, John, is still convinced he’s Perfect Peter and his younger brother, Justin, is Horrid Henry.  Justin doesn’t seem to mind!

    As I’ve mentioned in the past, the Horrid Henry books are perfect for any child, boy or girl, in the 7-10 age range. But they are particularly great for reluctant readers. The stories and characters engage them and the text isn’t challenging.

    So, like in the past, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend this, or any of the Horrid Henry series!

    John’s Review:

    I think Henry is a little crazy for telling Peter that their Mom was a Mummy!  He acts like Justin (John’s younger brother), telling you things that are not true.   Horrid Henry was so good at convincing Peter that he was telling the truth. When his Mom said that she was a mummy, she really meant a “Mommy” so that was a little confusing.  Henry was so rude to wrap up Peter and Fluffy!

    I liked this story because I think mummies are interesting.  But I don’t think Henry’s punishment was good. It was a good punishment for Henry to lose his TV privileges, but it wasn’t fair that he still got to play with the mummy kit!  If I had done something like this to Justin (I wouldn’t Mom, I promise) I would definitely get in a lot more trouble! I’d like lose my privileges for a MONTH!

    Stay tuned for more reviews from John!  He’s starting to receive his own review requests, so he’s pretty excited!

    Posted in 7-10 years of age, 8-12 years of age, Sourcebooks | 23 Comments

    Guest Post: Robert Greer, Author of Spoon

    Photo credit: Elizabeth Gorman

    Photo credit: Elizabeth Gorman

    Please welcome Robert Greer, author of Spoon, as he discusses his vision for the novel.

    My novel Spoon is as much a coming-of-age novel about a nineteen-year-old rancher’s son, TJ Darley, as it is about a mysterious loner’s clairvoyance and the changing landscape of the ranching community in the modern West. In the novel, loner Arcus Witherspoon, aka Spoon, befriends a Montana ranching family down on their luck. He helps the Darleys struggle against an attempt by a coal company to take over their land and along the way also guides their son toward manhood. Although the novel is best defined as a literary piece, I set Spoon in motion with an element of suspense. Perhaps, I suspect, because my skills as a writer hover around that sensibility. In a sense, I hoped to combine two things I have been trying to master for years into a single form: a novel of suspense and a literary novel. In Spoon, I paint a picture of a loner. A half-Indian, half-black cowboy adrift in the West, searching for his family roots. Spoon is a man who, it turns out, has the tenacity and wisdom to help others during his journey. The novel is not a Western in the genre sense of the word, but it is certainly a novel of the West and, as such, I have tried to make the story take in the broad western panorama that I suspect many people have in their minds when they think of the West. I imagine that there is a little bit of Arcus Witherspoon in me since I own a working cattle ranch in Wyoming and I admit up front that there is also some plot-related bias toward a rancher’s perspective in the book. In the end, however, as with all novels, the book is about people and characters, and they are ultimately the ones who navigate readers down any storytelling road.

    Thank you, Robert, for taking the time to stop by.  For more information about Greer and his other pieces of fiction, please visit his Web site.

    Posted in Author Guest Post, Literary Fiction | 2 Comments

    Review & Giveaway: Spoon by Robert Greer

    Spoon_CBSD

    • Hardcover: 256 pages
    • Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing (October 1, 2009)
    • ISBN-10: 1555916899
    • Source: Publisher

    Young TJ Darley was driving down a Montana highway when he sees a hitchhiker.  The man, half Indian and half Black, wore an expensive hat but no boots.  TJ slows down and picks him up. The man introduces himself as Arcus Witherspoon, or Spoon for short. He’s on a mission to discover his family roots.

    When TJ and Spoon arrive at the Darley family farm, TJ convinces his father to give Spoon a job.  The Darley’s have been struggling to keep the farm running and and desperately need the extra help.

    Spoon soon reveals  he is clairvoyant. Despite the obsurdity of the claim, for some reason TJ believes him.  Spoon predicts trouble for the Darley’s farm.  A drought is on the way.  Meanwhile,  family continues to get pressured by Acosta Energy, a coal company who wants to destroy the land by mining. Spoon and the Darley family family stand their ground, a decision that soon becomes life endangering.

    Spoon continues his struggle to find his roots.  At the same time, TJ is desperately attempting to find himself as well.  His parents have planned for him to attend college and leave the farm, but is this really what he wants?  Spoon ultimately turns out to be a story of growth and discovery for both of these characters.

    Greer has created a very compelling character driven novel of the American West  that intoxicates the reader with it’s very detailed and descriptive text. I’m typically not a fan of this type of fiction, but something about Spoon’s character pulled me in. Spoon was a very dynamic character with several layers of complexity. I wanted to learn more about this man, and Greer slowly reveals that throughout the novel.  That is my only complaint, I wish the pace was a bit faster.   In the end, I recommend this book to any fan of character driven novels or those about modern day American West.

    About the Author:

    Robert Greer is author of the popular CJ Floyd mystery series: The Devil’s Hatband, The Devil’s Red Nickel, The Devil’s Backbone, Resurrecting Langston Blue, The Fourth Perspective, The Mongoose Deception, and
    Blackbird, Farewell, as well as two medical thrillers and a short-story collection entitled Isolation and Other Stories. He is a practicing pathologist and professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, and he owns a cattle ranch in Wyoming. Please visit his author website, www.robertgreerbooks.com.

    On to the giveaway!  I have five copies of Spoon available!  To enter, answer the following question: Who is your favorite book character?

    For extra entries, blog or tweet about it, but be sure to include a link to your post or tweet!  Contest will end next Friday, October 23rd.  US and Canadian residents, only.  No P.O. Boxes.

    Posted in Literary Fiction, Review | 22 Comments

    Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-a-thon!

    deweys-readathonbutton

    The 24 Hour Read-a-thon is a little over a week away and I’m ecstatic! I participated in April and had an absolutely wonderful time!

    I learned a great deal during the last read-a-thon. Here are just a few of them:

    • Choose your books carefully! Don’t choose a book with an overly heavy topic.  I picked a pretty heavy book last year.  It was very powerful, yet I couldn’t really get into the books that followed. It stuck with me and definitely hindered my “performance.”
    • Don’t attempt to write reviews of all the books you’ve read.  Your brain will go into a state of hibernation shortly after the completion of the read-a-thon.  You will be unable to forumulate a review that makes any sort of sense.

     

    So, without further ado, my planned reads for the Read-a-thon!

    RAT

    I have a good mixture of YA and Middle Grade Fiction.  To switch things up a bit, I will be adding a few of the Sookie Stackhouse books in between.  And I’m pretty certain I will add at least one or two spooky horror books to the pile!

    So, will you be participating in the read-a-thon!? If so, what are you reading?

    Posted in Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon | 22 Comments

    In Which My Son Battles Lord Vader..

    This past Saturday, my boys pulled out their Star Wars costumes and dressed up to attend the release party of LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary at one our local Borders. My oldest son dressed as a Storm Trooper and my youngest was a Jedi.

    The party was fabulous! We only stayed for about an hour, but the boys had a blast nonetheless.  There was a LEGO Star Wars trivia game, and picture opportunities with Storm Troopers, a TIE fighter pilot, and Darth Vader himself. 

    Well, both of my boys decided to challenge Vader to a battle.  My oldest son’s battle is pictured below.

    John Battles Darth Vader

    Unfortunately, due to the crowd, I was unable to get a picture of my youngest son’s duel.  I can say he had an unfair advantage.  Due to his height, he was able to aim a little low!

    There were a few professional photographers at the event. Pictures of my boys fighting Vader should be posted on a Lego blog in the near future.  As soon as I track it down, I will be sure to post those as well!

    Needless to say,we had a blast!  Thanks to Borders and DK Books for this great event!

    *Edit: I found the Lego blog post and found another picture of my son fighting Darth Vader!

    JJ&Vader

    Posted in Blog Post | 22 Comments

    Teaser Tuesday, October 13

    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 Spoon by Robert Greer:

    “Yet even in the darkness, I could feel Spoon’s presence, imagining him breathing, see his insicive, deep-set eyes and weathered brown skin.  He was there all right, and I had the strange sudden sense that he’d become a guidepost for me.”

    Check back on Friday for my review of Spoon, a guest post by Robert Greer and a giveaway!

    What is your teaser this week?

    Posted in Teaser Tuesday | 8 Comments