Awards and a little help…

I am so thrilled. I have 2 new awards, The PROXIMIDADE award from Melody and ‘I love your blog’ from Alice. Thanks girls, you are the best
 
Something about the awards:
 The PROXIMIDADE award:
“This blog invests and believes in the Proximity – nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into the body of their award.”
 
The ‘I love your blog” Award:  means I love your blog
 
I have to pass these on to 8 bloggers, I mean really, 8? I want to give it to everyone. It’s excruciating to choose.
 
But still…
Back to you Melody and
Back to you Alice
Huwie
Sammy
Fab
Elizabeth
Dawn
Kathy
 
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Now onto something else.

I would once again like to draw your attention to the Gorilla Wildlife direct blog. I have this blog in my Google reader and I am always amazed by the kind of dedication these rangers show for this cause.
 
This is something I copied from the blog.

Having spent a lifetime fighting poaching and habitat destruction, I am convinced that it is inadequate funding that is the major challenge that we must overcome in order to secure the world’s endangered species and wilderness places.

To achieve this, we have come up with a new approach to raising funds for conservation. Using the internet, we bring supporters and conservationists together through online diaries or blogs to enable individual donors around the world to communicate directly with the people that they
are funding.

You could fund the conservation of the Gorilla’s or you could find a suitable project to fund, there are too many going on, Just take a look at their site. Or you could just spread the word.

There is a lovely review of ‘Gorillas in the mist’ on Nymeth’s blog. Do check it out here if you haven’t.

Review: A Duke to die for by Amelia Grey

Title: A Duke to die for
Author: Amelia Grey
Pages: 384
Release Date: April 2009

Published by: Sourcebooks Casablanca, an Imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.
Genre: Regency Romance

From the dust jacket: When the rakish fifth Duke of Blakewell’s unexpected and shockingly lovely new ward arrives, she claims to carry a curse that has got each of her previous guardians to an untimely end. As she tries to persuade her to manage her own fortune, and he tries to find her a suitable husband, they become scandalously entangled. When several potential deadly accidents befall the Duke, Henrietta is the only one who can help him…

Blake becomes a Duke and inherits a large fortune after his father’s accidental death just 2 years back. But still his rakish ways continue. He is more interested in card parties, frolicking with women and horse racing than he is in managing his estate and settling down.

Into this happy-go-lucky life of the Duke’s, enters a 19 year old charming, beautiful and intelligent Henrietta. She claims his father was the last guardian on a list her father had prepared before his death. And as Duke’s father is dead, he should take a position of her guardian. For a man who is not used to take care of his own responsibilities and who does not loose an opportunity to take every beautiful girl to his bed, Henrietta comes as a shock. Blake is immediately attracted to her and wants to shirk off her responsibility and the only way he thinks fit is to find her a suitable husband. Meanwhile Blake and Henrietta try to control their immense attraction and liking for each other.

I really liked the London season shown in this book. One could picture the colorful gowns, the candlelight’s, the gentlemen in their evening coats and the overall glittering high society atmosphere very well. It was fun to read about the things a gentleman had to do to go on a date with a woman he wished to court.

Amelia and Blake were both likable characters, especially Amelia. She was young but had spunk and was not afraid of speaking her mind. Yet, there was certain vulnerability in her which was endearing. The scenes between Blake and Henrietta were nicely developed. But I wish there was more book space given to them. The other characters were okay but weren’t as interesting to read about. Even the scenes where the balloon venture was discussed with Gibby were not really that interesting. I couldn’t care less what happened to Gibby and his money even though I like him instantly.

The scenes between Blake and his cousins Race and Morgan were not that great. Firstly I thought they were the villains in the story. I kept thinking on the same line almost throughout the book. Here is a paragraph at the beginning of the book,

“Blake was friendly enough with his two cousins, but an unspoken rivalry had always simmered just below the surface of their relationships.

To the ton, the three grandsons of Lady Elder always appeared united; taking up for each other if need arose. But when they were alone, it wasn’t unusual for one to try to best the others, be it at shooting, racing, or fencing, though they never admitted to the competition unless it was to gain the favor of a young miss.”

I might have read a little too much into the above, but because of these very sentences I could not warm up to Morgan and Race.

All in all, I found ‘A Duke to die for’ to be a descent book, but not be listed in the top romantic books I have read. A descent enough read. I would certainly try another Amelia Grey novel.

This review was originally published at ijustfinished.

Read Meghan’s review here. She liked the book more than I did.

Disclaimer: The sentences quoted above are from an ARC.

Why do you blog?

After reading Amy’s and later Stephanie’s blog I realized that every blogger could definitely write a lot on ‘Why do you blog?’. For me the second most important question is ‘why do you blog about books?’ I started replying on Stephanie’s post but the comment kind of got out of hand. So I’ll post it here instead.

I started blogging more than 2 years ago. I used to read a handful of blogs even before I started blogging. One day, sitting in the office and getting bored because of the lack of work, I thought ‘Why not write a blog’? My post was something along the lines of ‘Why a blog?’ or some such crap. I am a very impulsive person and I honestly didn’t know what I was going to write or how long I was going to maintain the blog.

But within minutes I got my first comment. I really cannot tell you how excited I was. I got more than 20 comments on the first day itself from complete strangers. That was my motivation. The 20six community, where I started my first blog, had the best community ever. I mean really, THE best.

I shifted to wordpress after a year when 20six wasn’t really working for me. I blogged about everything under the sun. I blogged about my personal life, social issues, meme’s, latest movies, mostly about my personal life. And it was fun. But sometime last year I realized I had nothing left to blog about anymore. My personal life isn’t that happening either. I mean how many times do you blog about your boyfriend, your parties and your outings?

Then I joined Booking through Thursday and I really enjoyed it because I always enjoyed writing about books. But I kind of didn’t want to write more about books because I thought no one would be interested. Even most of the people I know personally are not interested in books. BTT led me to various blogs where I noticed people wrote about books, everyday. Honestly it was a shock, a good one.

I thought I could do it too. If I write about something I really LOVE, I wouldn’t have to come up with new topics to write about everyday. Then after a while I discovered ARC’s and stuff, but honestly you cannot maintain a blog just for that for long. You’ll get tired. Because even if you do get books it IS a lot of work. I love reading blogs, books or otherwise. I love to participate, to be able to offer comfort and to rejoice with someone, to feel connected. As far as books are concerned, 90% of the books I have bought in the last 7-8 months have been book blogs recommendations.

Even today, when I blog about books most of the time, I wouldn’t call my blog a 100% book blog. I do like to write about what’s happening in my life from time to time. It’s part of the healing and sharing process for me. And I won’t ever let that go.

Again, I don’t think this post makes a lot of sense. I mean every blogger is going to have more or less the same answer. But seriously, whether you have a book or a technical or a personal blog, why do you blog? What keeps you going?

Review: Cutting Loose by Nadine Dajani

Title: Cutting loose
Author: Nadine Dajani
Publisher: Forge Books (September 30, 2008)
Buy the book here

All I can say is ‘WOW, what a book!!!‘

When I received this book in mail, my only intention was to scan the book, read a couple of pages and then keep it aside for future reading. I mean I do have a TBR pile and I would feel kind of guilty reading this book immediately. But honestly, once I read the first couple of pages I couldn’t stop. It was just that good.

3 woman-Ranya, Zahra and Rio. All 3 of them are from different backgrounds, have different problems and different ways of handling them. Somehow all land in Miami working together for the same firm.

Ranya is a rich woman from Middle East settled in Montreal with her parents. Just after one month of marriage she discovers that her husband is gay. Instead of going back to her parents she runs away to Miami to sort out her life. Zahra comes to Miami to be with the only person she has really loves, Georges. Although he has no idea about her feelings, she stays with his firm for many years just to be close to him and hopes that he would one day feel the same for her. Rio rises from the slums in Honduras, Latin America and builds a life for herself as an editor in chief of a magazine owned by the same company Zahra and Ranya work in. Rio is in love with Georges brother who is a Casanova and she knows they have no future together.

When these 3 women cross paths, I somehow imagined all of them forming everlasting friendships and helping each other find their destiny. But surprisingly that is not the case. All 3 of them have different stories but somehow their fate is connected to each other.
 
Ranya has to decide what do with her life. As a rich girl who never had to suffer even for a single day in her life, even finding a job is a huge challenge. Zahra has to take her life in control and think about her choices. Does she want to live in a city she hates and work in something that she does not love, just for a man who is pining for another woman? Will Rio will be able to leave the only thing she loves and the only thing she thinks is her biggest accomplishment, her magazine?

As the story progresses, all three of them find the courage required to cut loose their ties from the past, enter into a whole new and challenging territory, leaving something that is painful but familiar behind.
 
Call it woman’s fiction or multicultural fiction or even chick-lit, Cutting Loose has a great story, fantastic characters and beautiful writing. What more could you want in a book?

About the author: (From wikipedia)
Nadine Dajani is a Canadian author. She is the eldest of three children of Bassam Dajani, a mathematics major turned entrepreneur, and Haifa Naffa. She penned short stories throughout elementary and high school but did not pursue any formal journalistic or creative writing training. Fashionably Late, which she started writing at 25, was her first attempt at adult fiction. She has folowed that with a second novel Cutting Loose in 2008 and a third is under preparation tentaviely titled Cubanista.

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Dajani moved to Canada with her family in 1987. Dajani undertook studies in Commerce at Concordia University in Montreal, majoring in accounting. Upon receiving her Certified Management Accounting designation in 2002, she relocated to the Cayman Islands to work in the offshore banking industry. Nadine is also a travel writer, whose articles have been published in Atmosphere magazine.

Also take a look at S. Krishna’s review.

I am adding this book in Orbis Terrarum Challenge. The author was born in Lebanon.

Author confession: Kim Hanks

Today I welcome author Kim Hanks to my blog. He has an interesting post about what happens when he is invited to book clubs and conferences.
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Since the publication of save the best for last, I did not expected being invited to a number of local book clubs and authors conferences. It is contrary to the nature of a common man to join a book club or any literary conference [why me, I didn't have the answer, either] so I receive several calls, emails requesting these genial discussions on convenient evenings. There is always a kind of cheerful interaction, which helps us do away with the social discomfort that I sometimes enjoy seeing people laughing together, tossing drinks though it’s their first meeting.

I like suits and I always wear them, were necessary. The host invites me in and I sit down in a comfortable in an armed chair and smile. As we introduce ourselves, I tend to listen carefully, to their lyrical voices. To my surprise, people in these conferences [men and women] always seem to be attractive and intelligent; unfortunately they’re all unpublished authors who think of writing better books than the new York bestsellers. Anyway, its good to have that spirit And, of course, when it’s my turn to start reading [my book] so many questions interrupts the reading as they want me to explain every twist and turn in the certain paragraph.

At the end of the meeting, some people contact me privately, asking. How can I create a character with finger to the size of a sausage without seeing my neighbor having one? Not only I start answering the question, but I also battle blocking my laughter’s, and I’m always frank cautioning them that if you don’t fear to be sued, then go ahead and write about someone without his/her consent. It is best to admit, the first meeting of the local author’s conference has been fan to me and I just can wait to meet these amazing people in the next meeting.
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Thanks Kim for gracing my blog today.

Save The Best For Last by Kim Hanks

Today I am featuring a book by author Kim Hanks. There was supposed to be a review here as part of pumpupyourbookpromotion, but the book has not reached yet. But please do have a look at the blurb. It is very interesting. It has words like evil and haunted and supernatural powers in it.

Zwick Lamps, a secret admirer to Whitney Barnes, got targeted by a genius son of the past evil family that had lived in green oasis town.  However, it was once before that Zwick had finally discovered his supernatural powers that were only known by the isolated woman Tabitha, a misfortuned lady whose husband died on their wedding day.
 
In the aftermath of a fire rampage, Zwick is framed and prosecuted while Karl Hamilton got convicted and beheaded as per the capital punishment for misdemeanors in the town.  Though all along elites had thought that their town was safe, unfortunately they realized the evil bangle was using Karl’s body which raised many tensions of people as the entity haunted the town, it seemed unstoppable, untouchable, and above all powers as the bicentenary of its ancestors came closer for sacrifice.

Also do visit Kim Hanks website. He is only 21 years old. And this is what he has to say about his book.

Dearly Readers,

Save the best for last is my debut novel .which critics have compared to an example of hugely popular genres and reality in the novelists craft, and describing it as a strong, thrilling and a multilayered fantasy adventure written with a hand that is both sure and lights; the unforeseen twists, struggle and drama is logical within its inherent concept. This is the first book of the series.

Much love,
Kim Hanks

So what do you think?

Memoirs of a fortune teller: Review

I have not read a single book in almost 2 weeks. I just cannot concentrate enough. I picked up ‘Breaking Dawn’ yesterday but even that couldn’t hold my interest.
So today I have a guest review (with a little tweaking by me) from none other than my younger sister. Let’s call her Glitter (I don’t know why but she likes that name).

I have 2 books by Gary Turcotte. This is the first one.

Title: Memoirs of a fortune teller
Author: Gary Turcotte
Pages: 125
Outskirts Press

Memoirs of a fortune teller, as the title suggests, is a memoir of a fortune teller called Mary Ann. Except that this book is not a memoir. It’s fiction.

Mary Ann travels around the country with a circus. She can see people’s future or past just by touching them or their belongings. But what she cannot do is look at her own future or tune into a specific time in a person’s life.

As she reads people, the fortune and future of some people gets tied together to her own. Mary Ann’s reading unfortunately puts her own life in danger.

She pens down all that she has read and experienced in a journal.

This book is one quick read and does not skirt around topics or scenes. I read the entire book in just 3 hours. But all the readings by Mary Ann are really very disturbing. Not one person has a happy past. Something or the other has gone wrong with them. There is an abrupt change in the story which made me go back and re-read that part, but it’s a good change. Overall the book is very entertaining and captivating.

There is also a sequel to this book titled ‘Vigilante witch Hunter’, but this book is complete in itself.

This book was provided by Bostick Communications.

I could concentrate enough to read quite a lot of posts from my google reader but I cannot comment now. May be after a couple of days. Please be patient with me for not responding or not visiting.

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Review: Dragon’s keep by Janet Lee Carey

Title: Dragon’s Keep
Author: Janet Lee Carey
Genre: Young Adult
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Harcourt Children’s Books; 1 edition (April 1, 2007)
Source: Review Copy
Rating: 4 out of 5

My thoughts:
I always wanted to read a fairy tale for adults. So I picked up Dragon’s keep with an eagerness you wont find me picking other books with. And I’ll tell you right away what a lovely fairy tale it is. Well, okay, it is for young adults though. I just wanted to clear that.

Dragon’s keep has everything a fairy tale should have. A princess, an island with a castle, a curse, a witch, a villain and dragons. Oh and yes, a handsome warrior too.

600 years ago Evaine, the younger sister of King Arther from England marries someone below her status and is banished from England forever. She comes to Wilde Island for refuge. According to Merlin’s prophecy, the 21st princess of the Wilde Island will restore the name of the Pendragon and end the war between humans and dragons with the wave of a hand.

But ending the war is difficult when the princess is a 14 year old girl and the dragon’s occasionally feeds on the people from the Island. The King trains many people over the years to fight the dragon. But these trained knights are no match to a huge flying dragon who spits fire.

Also Princess Rosalind has a secret. She has a dragon claw. Her overprotective mother hides Rosalind’s hands from the world by forcing her to wear golden gloves. Her mother does not want people to know that Rosalind has a claw that resembles the claws of their most dreaded enemy, the dragon. She has her mind set on getting Rosalind married to Price Henry of England and so finding a cure for the dragon claw is always the top priority.

One day a convoy from the Queen of England comes to the Wilde Island to judge Princess Rosalind as a future match for Prince Henry. oops…..I am going to spoil the story a bit here. Or maybe I won’t. Let me skip the spoiler, however minor it is.

After a certain turn of events, Princess Rosalind is abducted by the dragon and taken to his cave, the dragon’s keep. Here the princess cannot escape from the dragon’s clutches even if she could. Her entire life changes in the matter of a single moment. The time she spends with the dragon’s eventually helps her in ending the war between the dragon’s and the humans, literally with the wave of her hand.

Janet Lee Carey’s writing is beautiful and even poetic at times. The first half although interesting is a little slow, but the second half is amazing.

Dragons keep is a fairy tale with a fitting dramatic and happily ever after ending. Read this book if you like fairy tales, adventure, fantasy and a good story.

BTT: The best book you have never read…

We’ve all seen the lists, we’ve all thought, “I should really read that someday,” but for all of us, there are still books on “The List” that we haven’t actually gotten around to reading. Even though we know they’re fabulous. Even though we know that we’ll like them. Or that we’ll learn from them. Or just that they’re supposed to be worthy. We just … haven’t gotten around to them yet.
What’s the best book that YOU haven’t read yet?

If I was asked this question last week, I would have said ‘Anne of green gables’. I wanted to read this book for ages and I knew I would like it. But somehow I never got around to reading it until last year. And obviously I loved it
 
Even now there are way too many books in my TBR pile or on my wish list that I want to read but never get around to.
The first book that comes to my mind is ‘A tree grows in Brooklyn’. I know I am going to love this one. 
 
But honestly I cannot mention just one book. I have a huge list of books that I want to read and know will be fabulous.
Some of them are-
Little woman
Purple Hibiscus
Lost World
 
Sometimes you just cannot read books from your TBR pile because of the huge pile of review copies staring accusingly at you. That’s why I guess we have a ‘Read from your own TBR pile’ challenge
 
But it’s also satisfying to know that you have some really good books in your TBR pile just waiting to be read.