RYOB Challenge 2009

This sounds like an interesting challenge. You just set a goal of how many of your own books you want to read during 2009. You don't even need to create a list beforehand, which works great for me since I am always changing my mind! And it will help me get through some of those books that I have been wanting to read for so long.

For more information and to sign up for this challenge click here. I am going to sign up to read 20 of my own books.

1. The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman--Completed 1/11/2009
2. Peony in Love--Completed 1/24/2009
3. The Triumph of Deborah by Eva Etzioni-Halevy--Completed 2/7/2009
4. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne--Completed 2/10/2009
5. This Side of Heaven by Karen Kingsbury--Completed 2/18/2009
6. Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas--Completed 2/28/2009
7. Bedlam South by Mark Grisham and David Donaldson--Completed 3/10/2009
8. The View from Mount Joy by Lorna Landvik--Completed 3/23/2009
9. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See--Completed 4/5/2009
10. Keeper of Light and Dust by Natasha Mostert--Completed 4/20/2009
11. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini--Completed 4/30/2009
12. The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner--Completed 5/10/2009
13. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay--Completed 5/17/2009
14. Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons--Completed 5/20/2009
15. Two Brothers-One North, One South by David H. Jones--Completed 6/16/2009
16. Cutting Loose by Nadine Dajani--Completed 6/25/2009
17. Beach Trip by Cathy Holton--Completed 7/10/2009
18. The Circle of Friends Book III...James by L. Diane Wolfe--Completed 8/2/2009
19. Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith--Completed 8/8/2009
20. Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas--Completed 8/15/2009

New Author Challenge 2009

This is my first challenge so I thought I would start out with one that I think is attainable for me. In the New Author Challenge you choose the number of new authors that you want to read during the year. Literary Escapism suggests 25 or 50, but I am going for 25. The challenge runs from January 2009 to December 2009.

Check it out and join in if interested!

1. The Triumph of Deborah by Eva Etzioni-Halevy--completed 2/7/2009
2. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne--completed 2/10/2009
3. Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas--Completed 2/28/2009
4. Bedlam South by Mark Grisham and David Donaldson--completed 3/10/2009
5. Keeper of Light and Dust by Natasha Mostert--completed 4/20/2009
6. Code to Zero by Ken Follett--completed 4/22/2009
7. The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner--Completed 5/10/2009
8. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant--Completed 5/1/2009
9. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay--Completed 5/17/2009
10. Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons--Completed 5/26/2009
11. Two Brothers-One North, One South by David H. Jones Completed 6/16/2009
12. So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger--Completed 6/8/2009
13. Cutting Loose by Nadine Dajani--Completed 6/25/2009
14. Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst--Completed 7/8/2009
15. Beach Trip by Cathy Holton--Completed 7/10/2009
16. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer--Completed 7/20/2009
17. The Circle of Friends III...James by L. Diane Wolfe--Completed 8/2/2009
18. The Last Bridge by Teri Coyne--Completed 8/17/2009
19. The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan--Completed 8/30/2009
20. The Light, the Dark, and Ember Between by J.W. Nicklaus--Completed 9/12/2009
21. The BoneMan's Daughters by Ted Dekker-Completed 9/15/2009
22. The Sari Shop Widow by Shobhan Bantwal--Completed 9/21/2009
23. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin--Completed 10/3/2009
24. The Next Thing on my List by Jill Smolinski--Completed 10/4/2009
25. The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter--Completed 10/7/2009

Teaser Tuesday

Check out Teaser Tuesdays from Should Be Reading.

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

Grab your current read.Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Please avoid spoilers!

My teaser is from Names My Sisters Call Me by Megan Crane:

'He was bearing drinks and looked delighted to discover he was the topic of conversation. He grinned at Lucas as he handed him the beer. "What were you expecting?"'

pg 104

Book Bloggers Christmas Swap 2008

What a neat idea! A secret santa gift exchange with book blogging pals! I love it!

Check out how to get signed up in this gift exchange at Things Mean a Lot.

The Christmas season is upon us so make sure you sign up by November 18th! I have never participated in a secret santa to this extent so I am looking forward to it!

Review: The Victoria Vanishes: A Peculiar Units Crime Mystery by Christopher Fowler

The following is a summary of The Victoria Vanishes by Christopher Fowler from Random House:

It’s a case tailor-made for the Peculiar Crimes Unit. A lonely hearts killer is targeting middle-aged women at some of England’s most well-known pubs—including one torn down eighty years ago. What’s more, Arthur Bryant happened to see one of the victims only moments before her death at the pub that doesn’t exist. Indeed, this case is littered with clues that defy everything the veteran detectives know about the habits of serial killers, the methodology of crime, and the odds of making an arrest. Now, with the public on the verge of panic and their superiors determined to shut the PCU down for good, Detectives Bryant and May must rise to the occasion in defense of two great English traditions—the pub and the Peculiar Crimes Unit.

That’s easier said than done. A lost funeral urn, the eighteenth-century mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, the Knights Templars, the secret history of pubs, and the discovery of an astounding religious relic may be enough to convince one of the pair to take back his resignation letter. But with Bryant consulting a memory specialist and May encountering a brush with mortality, do the Peculiar Crimes Unit’s two living legends have enough life left to stop a murderous conspiracy…and a deadly cupid targeting one of their own.

My Review:

I do not usually read mysteries, but I figured it was time to change my habits a little bit by expanding my reading genre. I received an Advanced Reading Copy of this novel and started reading it right away. I used to read mysteries when I was younger but kind of shyed away from them when I wasn't finding them intellectually challenging. Obviously, I have learned that the substance of the novel depends upon the author that you choose to read, and Christopher Fowler did not let me down.

This book is part of the Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery series and I did not read any of the previous books in this series. I do not think that I missed anything by not reading any of the previous installments.

Bryant and May are the lead detectives of the Peculiar Crimes Unit, which is an odd division of the London police department. The government has actually been trying to abolish the unit for years. Will the government finally accomplish it's task of shutting down this unit when one of the detectives decides that he should retire?

The women of London are being preyed upon in the local pubs and it is up to the Peculiar Crimes Unit to find the perpetrator. This was the mystery part of the novel, which unfolded quite nicely, and not in an obvious way.

Another enjoyable aspect of the book is how he included historical data regarding the London pubs. The governmental conspiracy, historical pubs, the peculiar crimes, bits of comedy here and there, and some of the personal information about the main characters really enhanced this book and gave it a good solid base. I truly enjoyed this mystery and look forward to reading more of these novels in the future!

Teaser Tuesday

Check out Teaser Tuesdays from Should Be Reading at http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/.

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Please avoid spoilers!

My teaser is from The Victoria Vanishes:A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery by Christopher Fowler

'A popular Maritime moto was "We anchor in hope", but by depicting sailors the sign-maker has misunderstood the meaning of the pub's name. You see? By decoding the tangled symbols of the past, we get close to the truths that history books miss.'

pg. 114

Open Secrets:A Memoir of Faith and Discovery

The following synopsis is from the Random House website:


In the tradition of Garrison Keillor, Open Secrets captures the friendships, rivalries, and rumors of small-town life by chronicling the lives of the citizens of a small Midwestern community through the eyes of a young minister.

Fresh out of divinity school and bursting with enthusiasm, Richard Lischer found himself assigned to a small conservative church in an economically depressed town in southern Illinois. It’s an awkward marriage at best--a young man with a Ph.D. in theology, full of ideas and ambitions, determined to improve his parish and bring it into the twenty-first century, and a community that is “as tightly sealed as a jar of home-canned pickles.” In Open Secrets, Lischer tells not only his own story but also the story of New Cana and its inhabitants. With charm, openness, and humor, Lischer brings to life the clash of cultures and personalities that marks his pastoral tenure, including his own doubts, as well as those of his parishioners, that a twenty-eight-year-old suburban-raised liberal can deal with the troubled marriages, alcoholism, teen sex, inadequate farm subsidies, and other concerns of the conservative, tightly knit community. But the inhabitants of New Cana--lovable, deeply flawed, imperfect people who stick together--open their arms to him in their own way, and the result is a colorful, poignant comedy of small-town life and all it has to offer.

My Review:

This was a very interesting book to read considering the fact that I belong to a small Christian church in a rural community. It was both bittersweet and comical at times to see the similarities between my church and the church in this memoir, which are obviously similarities in just about any small rural church out there.

The beginning of this book was very difficult for me. He really went into a lot of detail about his education to prepare for his ministry. Much of this information was very specific for a Lutheran education, so if you are not a Lutheran it may very well not hold your interest.

I did appreciate the honest assessment of how he felt when he arrived at the little church in New Cana. After receiving a theological education he had higher aspirations than ministering to the rural church that consisted of a few large families that essentially managed the community. It was evident that he was having a hard time adapting to his new church and pastoral duties. You could see him becoming more confident in his position when he had the opportunity to deliver a couple of sermons at another local church. This also gave his congretation a chance to be a little more appreciative of the gifts that he had to offer.

Our book club consists of ladies that I consider to have a very strong Christian faith. When we first looked at this book we unanimously thought that we would enjoy it. Although we enjoyed many of the little stories within the book, and his truthful assessment of himself, we really did not enjoy this memoir in general. This book was structured in a way that was difficult to read and follow along. A couple of our members our Lutherans, so I at least expected them to like it a bit more, but they did not.

This book does contain good information and I think it would be very valuable for a pastor of a small rural church, but I don't think that it is material worthy for a bookclub discussion. Our book club rates books on a scale from one to five, one being the lowest and five being the highest. This book received an average rating of a two from our club.