Top Ten Tuesday

I’ve been busy today, so I’m kind of getting in under the wire, but I love this topic!

Today’s topic is Top Ten Bookish Web Sites, Apps, Organizations, etc. Fun!

1. Goodreads – I’ve been on Goodreads for years, and I don’t know what I’d do without it. I’m a HUGE fan of organization and keeping lists, and this site makes me so happy. I love being able to track everything I read and set up any kinds of “shelves” I want. I also love being able to add friends there, because the things they’re reading often spark my interest and become things I read! (That link takes you to my profile. Feel free to add me as a friend!)

2. Paperback Swap – This site is amazing for the cheapster I am. I’m a homemaker, so I don’t have much of a budget for buying books, and if I’m patient, this site always comes through for me. You list books you want to trade and make a wishlist of things you want. When your books are claimed, you mail them out, media mail, and get a credit when the book’s received. You then use your credits to get books mailed to you. So for the cost of a media mail package, you’re getting a new book. It’s saved me hundreds of dollars over the years I’ve used it.

3. NetGalley – Like lots of other book bloggers, I freaking LOVE NetGalley. They have a Kindle option, which most publishers use, so I can read ARCs of books, for free, on my Kindle. It’s such a sweet deal. I’m in love.

4. Fantastic Fiction – I kind of feel like this is my own little secret. Click on a letter, find an author, and find everything they’ve ever written, in order of publication and/or in series order. It’s incredible. I use it at least once a day and don’t know where I’d be without it. Never leave me, Fantastic Fiction! Never!

5. Shelf Awareness – Industry news, bookstore news, signups for free galleys. What’s not to love? Thanks to Sarah for alerting me to this early this year!

6. What Should I Read Next? – This is new to me, but I love it already. Enter the names of authors you like and get more suggestions. Excellent!

7. BookPage – I love picking up BookPage at my library, and I really love that I can get the same content on the web site.

8. Free stuff for the Kindle – A must-have link for any Kindle owner. Sure, there are some duds, but you’ll discover lots of great stuff for free, including games. I check this a couple times a week. And don’t forget that classics published before 1923 are almost always free for the Kindle!

9. Square Books and Lemuria – Okay, technically they don’t fit this meme, but they’re two of the BEST indie bookstores in all of America, and they’re both right here in Mississippi. Square Books is in my beloved college town of Oxford (Hotty Toddy! Go Rebels!) and is just pure bookstore perfection. The square in Oxford is one of the most delightful places in the world. You can’t go to Oxford without visiting Square Books, and its sister store for kids, Square Books Jr. And Lemuria is right here in Jackson. It’s upstairs in Banner Hall and is one of the coolest places in the metro area. You can find anything there, and they have tons of author signings and readings. And right downstairs is Broad Street, one of my favorite restaurants! Perfect!

10. Calibre – If you have a Kindle and you’re not using Calibre, you’re seriously missing out. Go get it.

Check out more top 10 posts this week at The Broke and the Bookish!

Review: Summer and the City by Candace Bushnell

Title: Summer and the City
Author: Candace Bushnell
Category: fiction
Publisher: Balzer + Bray, 2011
Page count: 416
Source: my library
Star rating: 2 out of 5

I tried really hard to write a long review of this. I did. And I loved the first book in the series, The Carrie Diaries. But I couldn’t muster enough give-a-care to write a full review. Here’s the lowdown: feminism is awesome, men are horrible, life is only about having sex and getting ahead of everybody else. Ugh. Miserable.

Somebody’s stomping her literary footsies! *wah!*

Bloggers are stupid and they suuuuuck!!

There’s a piece at SantaCruz.com that’s getting a lot of attention from bloggers today. Usually I’m one to stay far away from a topic when bloggers get worked up  en masse, but this one caught my attention.

Daniela Hurezanu took herself a little trip to BookExpo America earlier this month and got her Serious Bidness panties all bunched up. A quick Google search reveals that Daniela is a book translator. Her short piece at SantaCruz.com bemoans the dearth of Important Literary Fiction on display at BEA. She reacts with bosom-clutching horror at the “outrageous combination of colors” on children’s books, too. I’d hazard a guess ole Daniela doesn’t know much about children or how their fascinating little brains are hard-wired to learn and grow as a direct result of all those bright, offensive colors. But what do I know? I’m just a dumb old “mommy blogger”.

Oh, yes. The heft of Daniela’s wrath is directed at folks just like me. Here’s the whole cheery paragraph in question from the post, titled “Book Expo’s Sorry Turn”:

BEA is a major event for the publishing industry also because there are many other concurrent events that are organized around it. Such an event was the Book Blogger Convention, which took place the day after BEA ended. Book blogging has become a subculture whose members are mostly women between 20 and 50 years old, often known as “mommy bloggers” because they are housewives who blog about romance novels, horror/vampire stories and paranormal novels. Many of them have hundreds of followers on Twitter, and the result is that they have the power to establish new trends. And the publishing industry has started to take them seriously. They receive review copies from publicists, and the authors court them assiduously. At the Book Bloggers reception I met many girls in their early twenties who already have hundreds of followers on Twitter. As far as I could tell, I was the only person at the convention who doesn’t tweet. All these 20-year-old bloggers form a community that is replacing the traditional book reviewers; they know each other, read each other’s blogs and blog about the same books. So, in a paradoxical way, this subculture is even more limited in its interests than the mainstream media. Though, in theory, the Internet is a space of infinite diversity, in practice many communities reproduce the patterns that exist outside cyberspace. The main difference between the new book bloggers and the old book reviewers is that the former don’t have any literary “prejudices.” They are children of pop culture and the mass media, and have transferred their interests onto the realm of books. Their electronic chatter will soon cover whatever is left of book reviewing.

Well, Daniela, you’ve opened yourself a little can of worms. You’re going to be getting all kinds of responses and posts dedicated to you, so here’s one more.

I’m a book blogger, but I don’t have hundreds of followers. I’m not doing this in order to get more followers. I do have hundreds of followers (800+ if we’re counting) on Twitter, but the vast majority of those are because I’m a kick-ass, spunky conservative chick who loves to make fun of pretentious liberals like you. Any followers I have because of my thoughts on books are purely a happy addendum to that group.

I’m 34 and happily blessed to be a mommy, but I’m not a mommy blogger (my kid is off limits on the Internet; there’s little that makes me more uncomfortable than bloggers with hundreds or thousands of followers parading their kids around to strangers). I blog about the books I read, not to bring attention to myself or to get swag from publishers, but because I love to read and I love to write. I’m an aspiring author, and if you don’t understand how writing frequent blog posts can help one’s writing in general, then you don’t know much about writing.

I’m also pretty highly educated, Daniela. It’s grotesque to get into an education pissing contest on the Internet, but I’m smarter than you’ve pegged me to be. I have an English degree (from one of the toughest English programs in the nation), a history degree, and an elementary education degree. I’ve been a professional journalist and a teacher, both of the elementary and high school variety. Right now, as a stay-at-home-mom (your nose just crinkled in disgust at that, didn’t it, Daniela?) I keep my mind sharp by devouring all the news I can on politics, theology, and culture, and I read a lot. A Lot. I read young adult books, cozy mystery books, theology books, books about contemporary trends and issues in Christianity, books about womanhood, cookbooks, gardening books, and lots of those garishly-colored kids’ books. Having a smart and eager-to-learn preschooler necessitates that. (I’ll give you a moment to recover from the thought of all those hideous things in my house.)

If the book industry “takes me seriously,” as you are so repulsed by, it’s because they like to see my thoughts on the books they’re publishing. Publishing, like any other industry, owes a lot to word of mouth marketing. It costs publishers next to nothing to send me a book for free. But if five or 10 of my readers are convinced to buy their product because of my recommendation, then I’ve made money for them. Works out to be pretty cushy, eh? I refuse to be a slobbering fangirl about a book just because I got it for free, either. I’m honest, which is all that’s asked of me or any other blogger.

The last bit of Daniela’s screed bears repeating:

The main difference between the new book bloggers and the old book reviewers is that the former don’t have any literary “prejudices.” They are children of pop culture and the mass media, and have transferred their interests onto the realm of books. Their electronic chatter will soon cover whatever is left of book reviewing.

Oh my word, how sanctimonious can you be? No literary prejudices? Daniela, do you think we’re all stupid? Do you think we can’t recognize a good book from a bad one? Do you think we’re not smart enough to be discerning just because we have icky blogs? Oh, honey. Again with the Giant Snob Elitism. I’ll tell you what kind of books I can discern to be not worth the paper they’re printed on, or my time: literary fiction (totes ur fave!), which is full of such miserable, unhappy, amoral characters that they kind of make me want to slit my wrists and slowly bleed to death in my whirlpool tub. Discernment, for the win.

I’m not a child, nor am I a child of pop culture or the mass media. I’m a grown woman who was raised to be a discerning reader by parents who were and are discerning readers. My interests have not be “transferred onto the realm of books.” My interests have ALWAYS lain primarily with books. And that is true of just about every book blogger I read, whether she’s 17 and in high school or 55 and experiencing the empty-nester phase of her life. Blogs are good things, Daniela. Smart people blog. It takes a smart person to be able to read a book and then discuss it intelligently. Sorry you don’t – or can’t – understand that.

Review: Too Rich for A Bride by Mona Hodgson

Title: Too Rich for A Bride
Author: Mona Hodgson
Category: Christian ficion
Publisher: WaterBrook, 2011
Page count: 306
Source: ARC from the publisher
Star rating: 3 out of 5

I’m doing my best to explore the world of historical fiction and give it a chance. I’ve never been much interested in it, but I’m willing to learn!

This book is the second installment in the Sisters of Cripple Creek series, but works fine as a stand-alone. I haven’t read the first book, Two Brides Too Many, but this book gives enough back story so as not to be confusing.

Ida Sinclair is a young woman living in Portland, Maine, in 1896. She’s attending the Merton School of Business and has desires and plans to be a businesswoman, a career still unusual for women of that time period. She holds a job at the school, doing clerical work, but her dreams are bigger than that. Near the end of her education there, amid the jeers of her male classmates, Ida thinks she finds a kindred spirit in her professor. But, Ida quickly learns, he isn’t interested in giving her a job or helping her career unless she agrees to become his mistress. Giving up on her dreams of finding a job in New York City, Ida joins her sisters in Cripple Creek, Colorado. She’s heard about Mollie O’Bryan, a woman conducting business on her own terms. Ida is determined to learn from and work for Mollie.

Ida gets her wish, but this, of course, would not be Christian women’s fiction without a love interest. Ida finds herself pursued by two men: Colin Wagner, a lawyer; and Tucker Raines, a preacher. Ida does indeed find success in business, but like many women, she also finds herself falling in love and thinking ahead to marriage and family. Ulimately, Ida must make a choice between business and love.

If the book falls flat for me in any way, it’s the “women can do anything men can do” attitude. I’m a pretty traditional woman, and while I do believe women are strong, brilliant, and capable of a lot, I also understand the time period in which this book is set, and I find Ida’s drive and ability to be so successful in business a bit suspect. It just didn’t ring true for me in the end. I would have appreciated it more had it been more historically accurate.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah’s book blogger program, Blogging for Books. My thoughts are my own and were not influenced in any way by the book’s author or publisher.

Review: Eggsecutive Orders by Julie Hyzy

Title: Eggsecutive Orders
Author: Julie Hyzy
Category: cozy mystery
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime, 2010
Page count: 310
Source: purchased by me
Star rating: 5 out of 5

Here I go, throwing around my opinion: Julie Hyzy is the queen of the cozy mystery. There, I said it! I love cozies and have my favorite authors (LOVE me some Heather Webber), but Julie’s just got the format down pat: suspense, crimes that don’t gross you out, romance, humor, and lots of heart. Writers like Julie Hyzy are why I’m doing my darnedest to become a cozy mystery author myself. If a previous book taught me how not to write one, Julie teaches me how to do it right.

Okay, enough fangirling.

White House Executive Chef Olivia (Ollie) Paras has gotten herself in some major scrapes in her job. She’s been targeted by killers for getting too close to the action and knowing too much, and she’s solved crimes along the way. She runs the White House kitchen and has an interesting staff in Cyan and Bucky. And things are going well with her CIA boyfriend, Tom, who’s part of the elite Presidential Protection Detail. Readers love Ollie and cheer for her and her motley staff.

In this latest installment, Hyzy throws Ollie right into the action. We learn that a White House dinner guest has died after eating Ollie’s food the night before, and suddenly Ollie and her team are under scrutiny and aren’t allowed into their kitchen until things are cleared up. It was a risky move for Hyzy to keep her staff out of the kitchen for most of the book, but it works. Ollie’s mother and grandmother are in town and provide comic relief and a glimpse into Ollie’s past, showing us how she’s become who she is. For the first time, Ollie’s and Tom’s relationship is tested when Tom is told by his superior that his number one job during the crime’s investigation is to keep Ollie from meddling and doing her amateur sleuthing.

There’s intrigue from a handsome older Greek man who woos Ollie’s visiting mother, and the Chinese government is possibly involved in the crime. Ollie has a reporter she can’t stand breathing down her neck. And she’s having to deal with all of this while not being allowed in her White House kitchen where she feels most herself.

The whodunit aspect of this book surprised me right at the moment of the big reveal. I honestly didn’t see it coming, just as I’ve never figured out the culprit in Hyzy’s other books. And as always, Washington, DC, comes alive, from the correct details about the layout of Arlington Cemetery and its visitors’ center to the delightful descriptions of the White House Egg Roll that happens every year at Easter.

I’ve got the next book in the series, Buffalo West Wing, but I’m going to make myself wait a while before reading it, because the fifth one won’t be out for a while. Gotta prolong the enjoyment!

Review: So Not Happening by Jenny B. Jones

Title: So Not Happening
Author: Jenny B. Jones
Category: young adult
Publisher: Thomas Nelson, 2009
Page count: 326
Source: Paperback Swap
Star rating: 5 out of 5

I love the euphoric feeling I get when I read a book by a new-to-me author and love it completely and totally. I think I’ve found a new favorite and can’t wait to gobble up everything else that author has written. Sometimes the book I loved turns out to be a fluke, but other times, as in the case of Jenny B. Jones, my initial reaction was right and I’ve found a new bookish BFF. I loved Save the Date and was thrilled to learn that it was not Jenny’s first work!

So Not Happening is a different kind of story, but still just as engaging, funny, sweet, and thought-provoking, I was very happy to learn. I read it in a few days while sick on my couch with a terrible sinus infection and a wicked case of bronchitis, and it made me happy and kept my mind off how awful I was feeling! And isn’t that one of the best things about a good book?

Bella Kirkwood has it all. She lives in New York City and her father is a plastic surgeon to the rich and famous. She has a great best friend, a dreamy boyfriend, and an advice column for her ritzy all-girl school’s blog. But Bella’s world unravels after her parents divorce and her mother meets a man online. He lives in Oklahoma, which, to Bella, may as well be another planet. To Bella’s horror, her mother marries her online suitor and moves the two of them to Truman, Oklahoma.

Bella is a fish out of water. Her stepbrothers are weird, and it’s clear one of them hates her. The house is old and small and looks like it hasn’t been updated since the 70s. Add to that the fact that Bella’s new stepfather seems to have a dark secret, and the kids of Truman High wouldn’t know Prada from Payless, and Bella is downright miserable.

But there’s hope. Bella meets some kids who seem nice, and she starts to fit in at her school. And despite making a huge mistake that costs her a lot of her reputation, there are a few kids who stick by her. She ends up on the school’s newspaper staff and has a hard time ignoring the fact that her hard-working and demanding editor, Luke, is pretty hot.

I’ve whined and complained for ages that there’s not any contemporary romance in YA that has a twist of a mystery. So imagine my happy surprise when I realized that’s exactly the path this book took. Bella and Luke work together to solve a mystery surrounding the football team, growing closer in the process. It’s like a cozy mystery for teens, and it thrilled me to bits.

Jenny B. Jones is an excellent story-teller and writer. Now knowing she can do mystery, too, just makes me like her even more. I can’t wait to devour the next two books in this series, and get everything else she’s ever written!

Photo Friday

My husband and I did a little re-decorating in our bedroom a few weeks ago. I’d gotten tired of the blue curtains that were too similar in color to the blue walls and blue comforter. I went on a days-long, stressful hunt for the perfect curtains, and found just the right ones at Walmart, of all places. The magnolia painting, precisely what I wanted, was on sale at Kohl’s. We took off the comforter for summer and are just using the white duvet. The room makes me happy now, and every time I walk in there, I think, “It looks like grownups live here!”

I’ve reacted strongly lately against the current trends in home decorating, which seem to fall into two camps only: mid-century modern; or beachy, with lots of white, oatmeal, turquoise, burlap and sticks. Well, I don’t like either of those styles. I am very much a traditional, Southern girl. I like warm colors, rich fabrics, cozy spaces, and lots of dark wood, books, color, and the hum of a life lived together comfortably. That’s far more vibrant and lasting to me than a white porcelain bird under a clear glass cloche, sorry!

Review: Sprinkle with Murder by Jenn McKinlay

Title: Sprinkle with Murder
Author: Jenn McKinlay
Category: cozy mystery
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Page count: 215
Source: Paperback Swap
Star rating: 3 out of 5

I waffled between giving this book two or three stars, and I finally settled on three, for story alone. Or maybe we should fudge and say 2.5.

The story is cute and clever. Mel and Angie have just opened a cupcake bakery, Fairy Tale Cupcakes. Their business partner is their longtime best friend, Tate. The three of them are inseparable, having the kind of friendship only lifelong friends can have. They quote old movie lines at each other and get together regularly for classic movie nights.

Other characters are interesting too. There’s Joe, Angie’s district attorney brother whom Mel’s had a crush on since high school. Olivia, a rival baker, is just as campy as she needs to be. And Mel’s mother is meddling but well-meaning, if a bit clueless.

Mel and Angie are hired to bake the cupcakes for Tate’s upcoming wedding to Christie, a fashion designer. This is where the book takes its first stumble, because I doubt anyone believes there’s a market for couture high fashion in Scottsdale, Arizona. You’ve got to have a believable setting for certain kinds of jobs, and Arizona just doesn’t work for fashion design.

Christie is murdered, and Mel is fingered for the crime, because one of her cupcakes was in Christie’s hand at the time of her death, and it’s found to be poisoned. Mel sets out to clear her name and finds herself the target of the real killer in the process.

So yes, I enjoyed the story. I want to read the next one in the series. But there are some major problems with the writing that kept me cringing, reading awkward sentences aloud to my husband, and marking pages for this review. Here are a few.

Mel looked at her and noticed that her large brown eyes looked flat-out scared.
Well, no, they didn’t. Eyes don’t look scared. A person’s facial expression makes her look scared.

If everyone was looking at her, then they weren’t looking at whoever really did it. And if they weren’t going to, then someone had to, and since it was her neck in the noose, it looked like it was going to be her.
I’m sorry, but what?!

They looked at her with the grim inevitability of prison walls.
Again, what?

Joe’s brows lowered over his eyes like storm clouds on the horizon.
No, they didn’t.

His gaze met hers, and the blue depths were amused.
Again, no. Do I sound like a broken record? I’ll stop.

These and other clunkers are first the fault of the author for writing them, but I have to chastise McKinlay’s agent and editor, as well. And a lot of the blame goes to Berkley, which publishes some of the best cozy fiction around. There’s no room in professional, published writing for these kinds of missteps. Too many cliches can nearly ruin a book, as these almost did. Readers are smart and expect the authors whose books they buy to be smart as well. I’ll give McKinlay one more chance with her sequel, and hope this book’s problems were just first-book problems, but after that, no more chances from me. I expect more from a book once it’s reached publication.

Review: Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

Title: Demonglass
Author: Rachel Hawkins
Category: young adult
Publisher: Hyperion, 2011
Page count: 359
Source: my library
Star rating: 5 out of 5

Oh, Rachel Hawkins, *fists of fury* at you! How could you leave us hanging again?!

SPOILERS ahead, so don’t read this unless you’ve read Hex Hall, which I highly recommend you do right now!

Sophie has discovered she’s a demon, even though she’s always thought she’s a witch. Demon is far worse in Prodigium world, and far more dangerous. Turns out she’s one of only two known demons in the world, her absentee father being the other one. Plus, she discovered at the end of Hex Hall that her mega crush, Archer Cross, is a member of The Eye, who are hell-bent on killing her. And then there’s the whole thing about watching her friends die at the hands of her grandmother, Alice, a demon who went very, very bad when raised by a coven of witches at Sophie’s school, Hecate Hall.

So, pretty much, you could say things aren’t going so well for ol’ Soph.

Her father shows up at Hecate Hall and insists on taking her to Thorne Abbey in England, the new site of the Council that oversees the witchy world, for her protection. Sophie will go as long as her best friend, the vampire Jenna, goes as well. The two set off for a summer in England, hoping things will be quiet and safe. Yeah, right. Rachel Hawkins does not write “quiet and safe,” friends.

The Eye find out where Sophie is, and Sophie finds out some terrible news about things happening at Hecate Hall, where the fall term of school is beginning soon. There’s also the little matter of Archer showing up again, too. Sophie never knows who to trust with her life or her secrets.

Sophie grows a lot in this story, coming into both her own powers and her confidence. Her friendship with Jenna is tested, for understandable reasons, and the two must figure out how to navigate Sophie’s emerging powers while still remaining friends. Cal, the Hecate handyman with astonishingly delicate and life-saving powers, is a revelation. Hawkins says that teenagers are Team Archer and grown women are Team Cal. So true. I hope Sophie and Cal end up together, though I know it’s not likely.

This is another excellent offering from Rachel Hawkins, and I can’t wait for more. I’m only mad that the series’ third and final installment doesn’t come out until March 2012. So unfair.

Book of the Month: May

I’ve gotta get out of this reading slump!

Easy! I loved Jen Lancaster’s If You Were Here and it was definitely my favorite of the month!

Here’s my book list for May:

Sons and Lovers – D.H. Lawrence
Princess for Hire – Lindsey Leavitt
Definitely, Maybe (short story) – Heather Webber
If You Were Here – Jen Lancaster

Books for May: 4
Books for 2011: 24

In June I’m continuing to read from a short stack of books and stuff on the Kindle. Working through my to-read list a short stack at a time is proving to be a wise choice!