tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15592767174450917882024-03-04T23:55:34.571-08:00Madeleine's Book and Photo BlogMadeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-7240002148562483242013-05-11T20:39:00.000-07:002013-05-11T20:39:52.342-07:00" Z : A NOVEL OF ZELDA FITZGERALD " by Therese Anne FowlerHaving been away from blogging a long time, this post is to tell everyone that I am back. However I have been reading away :)<br />
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I am presently reading " Z " and am 1/4 into this novel/autobiography and have nothing but admiration for Miss Fowler's prose and character development!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeK9sd0TQJocu2YXIyscyRv44ITUNwjzXY_l91q40T3MeVSZOgehMGVw-ee6vsiiIzopqmrHVEbky23zC8pDpyIBECJidbZ9r41RYyHUp3PwbcxCPAWueWxBGjbmOPJcJLWBmPyZTW2FM/s1600/1367767563299.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeK9sd0TQJocu2YXIyscyRv44ITUNwjzXY_l91q40T3MeVSZOgehMGVw-ee6vsiiIzopqmrHVEbky23zC8pDpyIBECJidbZ9r41RYyHUp3PwbcxCPAWueWxBGjbmOPJcJLWBmPyZTW2FM/s1600/1367767563299.jpg" /></a></div>
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" Z " is a timely read, the movie "THE GREAT GATSBY" will soon be showing, the cast is superb as is the story. Here are a couple of pics I like:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWb_0I_6MlIJ3vJe8prYDDwKyA_ZPXmkM_MYj2Ro7xRd09zk0VRLqk3gi90vMEg1-mqEk59XICf7Mhttl9cgSNfe_HRaMYkVtslulEEyqN-slUeGqDk3ZgRznmqhuDlQzt07yBMd_7zXA/s1600/1367735541301.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWb_0I_6MlIJ3vJe8prYDDwKyA_ZPXmkM_MYj2Ro7xRd09zk0VRLqk3gi90vMEg1-mqEk59XICf7Mhttl9cgSNfe_HRaMYkVtslulEEyqN-slUeGqDk3ZgRznmqhuDlQzt07yBMd_7zXA/s1600/1367735541301.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3bkXdn0oxdNhgLwvhxAwJxui0pB6i_Cskepbch8m_Nve16Ac2Kg_us8sQV7Un7OP18PiSTehgJkvDfd24EIvOZ14rIR_DcQzAGzqJ5b3yBoQ4h_UoET3bhdhtujMVUVz1vW_8lO9nOMY/s1600/1367735540855.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3bkXdn0oxdNhgLwvhxAwJxui0pB6i_Cskepbch8m_Nve16Ac2Kg_us8sQV7Un7OP18PiSTehgJkvDfd24EIvOZ14rIR_DcQzAGzqJ5b3yBoQ4h_UoET3bhdhtujMVUVz1vW_8lO9nOMY/s320/1367735540855.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3xYcYhs_aINfgSpIuRxBCySuewATow25lbrxVP_TPCsOdz7jMsL8RKSoiimUAC6HFCA65ODwoBbwqQEKoWBfXf3NL6nSXz5ISgfT_NxqnbbKL2EdaPwX62ms3y3Ig5r9gYpwNyTWgfvs/s1600/1367735540421.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3xYcYhs_aINfgSpIuRxBCySuewATow25lbrxVP_TPCsOdz7jMsL8RKSoiimUAC6HFCA65ODwoBbwqQEKoWBfXf3NL6nSXz5ISgfT_NxqnbbKL2EdaPwX62ms3y3Ig5r9gYpwNyTWgfvs/s1600/1367735540421.jpg" /></a></div>
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<br />Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com6Virginia, USA37.4315734 -78.65689420000001131.0335944 -88.9840427 43.8295524 -68.329745700000018tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-4660484416795681032013-05-06T09:08:00.001-07:002013-05-06T09:08:47.342-07:00THE AVIATOR'S WIFE by Melanie Benjamin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Read in February 2013</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilyxLiCmXFvXXcFUwBRW2pgDjscPVeqGEdclgH30eZrKMjDE4S0csCnjx2SFyG05xGAJJ8SmMQV9A7Wzt4YdTdEf4jGBNivh0QShH6cG9f1VaWiMZuYhL169t1s7oJZ73VlZeg4BHLuY0/s1600/images1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilyxLiCmXFvXXcFUwBRW2pgDjscPVeqGEdclgH30eZrKMjDE4S0csCnjx2SFyG05xGAJJ8SmMQV9A7Wzt4YdTdEf4jGBNivh0QShH6cG9f1VaWiMZuYhL169t1s7oJZ73VlZeg4BHLuY0/s400/images1.jpg" width="270" /></a></div>
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****1/2</div>
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Synopsis:</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.796875px;">Talented historical novelist Benjamin has a knack for picking intriguing, if somewhat obscure, women in history and making them utterly unforgettable. Told from the perspective of Anne Lindbergh, wife of the famed aviator Charles, her third novel (after TK) doesn't disappoint. When Anne first meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh in 1927 he's a hero, world-famous after completing his cross-Atlantic flight; Anne is a simple college girl living in the shadow of her radiant older sister Elisabeth. To everyone's surprise, then, it's Anne who catches Charles's eye. And so begins their enthralling journey together. Intimately depicting their marriage of duty and partnership in the air, as well as the horrific kidnapping and murder of first child Charles Jr., this is less love story than voyeuristic glimpse at one of the 20th century's most captivating men through the eyes of the woman who knew him best. In true Benjamin style, it's Anne who captures us all in this exquisite fictional take on an iconic marriage.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoyunaIy4ws8Dmd7os1mHT3DO2SDD_ZKJDuCp9RcEE54rwmVDBkWwqS2ChDDbCnnk4TKcFWWZihOgoBMHP1TKxkax1mXQRfJscBZpYAyg0vbo1cml0L0lxG7KiqgCIzvO4Qg3ApVFnFMk/s1600/images2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoyunaIy4ws8Dmd7os1mHT3DO2SDD_ZKJDuCp9RcEE54rwmVDBkWwqS2ChDDbCnnk4TKcFWWZihOgoBMHP1TKxkax1mXQRfJscBZpYAyg0vbo1cml0L0lxG7KiqgCIzvO4Qg3ApVFnFMk/s400/images2.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Charles and Anne Lindbergh</div>
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An interesting read, well researched, I liked it a lot.</div>
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Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com1Virginia, USA37.4315734 -78.65689420000001131.0335944 -88.9840427 43.8295524 -68.329745700000018tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-37320928966841602802013-05-06T08:55:00.003-07:002013-05-06T08:57:10.354-07:00THE PARIS WIFE by Paula Mclain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizFqwKhuO692vReHYGCYOJsDmpm9j_oMCmxmDiyPq0ikR2NWB12EGxN8JwbZzi29lYdB2TOVsNaT0x_JZkAAMsnpHbtsOsk0ZQRJJb7QtNIKRfkBBDKnDTltGL1IfT7PgtP7XxO8gUr8A/s1600/the+paris+wife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizFqwKhuO692vReHYGCYOJsDmpm9j_oMCmxmDiyPq0ikR2NWB12EGxN8JwbZzi29lYdB2TOVsNaT0x_JZkAAMsnpHbtsOsk0ZQRJJb7QtNIKRfkBBDKnDTltGL1IfT7PgtP7XxO8gUr8A/s400/the+paris+wife.jpg" width="261" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.796875px;">Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and </span><nobr id="yui_3_8_1_1_1367854822466_1775" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.796875px;"><a class="FAtxtL" href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/paris-wife-paula-mclain/1100038755?ean=9780345521316#" id="FALINK_3_0_2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(243, 91, 0) !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-bottom-width: 1px !important; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; color: rgb(243, 91, 0) !important; cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px !important; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">volatile</a></nobr><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.796875px;"> group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.796875px;">Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking, fast-living, and free-loving life of Jazz Age Paris. As Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history and pours himself into the novel that will become </span><i id="yui_3_8_1_1_1367854822466_1779" style="border: 0px none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.796875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Sun Also Rises,</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.796875px;"> Hadley strives to hold on to her sense of self as her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Eventually they find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.796875px;">A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, </span><i id="yui_3_8_1_1_1367854822466_1781" style="border: 0px none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.796875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Paris Wife</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.796875px;"> is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5P8UEmrNs9qMCdLWElwZFaG4MfvWhDFsdzPNL8b8EUJeRI4t_C2QRDwdpyjYBgNN9R6NgKRdUvx1zYhT2tTGRVzSJn6AdRe1N_qRfD6vzo0Ve-ROLxoDw6rATIj-fKM4Zvrk2F7Uk5yA/s1600/hadley+and+ernest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5P8UEmrNs9qMCdLWElwZFaG4MfvWhDFsdzPNL8b8EUJeRI4t_C2QRDwdpyjYBgNN9R6NgKRdUvx1zYhT2tTGRVzSJn6AdRe1N_qRfD6vzo0Ve-ROLxoDw6rATIj-fKM4Zvrk2F7Uk5yA/s320/hadley+and+ernest.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Hadley and Ernest Hemingway</div>
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A good read, a look into Hadley and Ernest Hemingways beginings, I liked the writing style.</div>
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Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com2Virginia, USA37.4315734 -78.65689420000001131.0335944 -88.9840427 43.8295524 -68.329745700000018tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-37764988247901024302013-05-06T08:37:00.002-07:002013-05-06T08:37:58.239-07:00ET TE VOICI PERMISE A TOUT HOMME by Eliette Abecassis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Read in January 2013</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp-J0BLoDrKjqsiJRwbQ9wk9dcEBsPNbjQ5VJY4UpcVaLiwjmBEhYRYfQbSbLW3c73o6_NWNP5BaJPyYuD2Dlg5w2_oDbWcqEFD2Iry3-_Zd_0HW-vPxbuplQrK2JDZW4UNjoji6lyZvA/s1600/e+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp-J0BLoDrKjqsiJRwbQ9wk9dcEBsPNbjQ5VJY4UpcVaLiwjmBEhYRYfQbSbLW3c73o6_NWNP5BaJPyYuD2Dlg5w2_oDbWcqEFD2Iry3-_Zd_0HW-vPxbuplQrK2JDZW4UNjoji6lyZvA/s320/e+a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Une vertigineuse exploration de la condition d'épouse et de mère juive. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">If you read french I highly recommend this novel.</span></div>
Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com0Virginia, USA37.4315734 -78.65689420000001131.0335944 -88.9840427 43.8295524 -68.329745700000018tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-33523553129325273162013-05-06T08:22:00.005-07:002013-05-06T08:24:18.707-07:00ASTRAY by Emma Donoghue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijrT8um11DfyZPS9qPm305MqV-_znXbm8vc4eTIpxLGVnhZ64yj-s8wUIflJKVIrr4-kiiAvlfuRRMgPEma3fmRPwyrZu8jioOPXv5HkSTpZjUmE1LAk32bxGBNyr3uAgIyYwrnBvNO3c/s1600/astray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijrT8um11DfyZPS9qPm305MqV-_znXbm8vc4eTIpxLGVnhZ64yj-s8wUIflJKVIrr4-kiiAvlfuRRMgPEma3fmRPwyrZu8jioOPXv5HkSTpZjUmE1LAk32bxGBNyr3uAgIyYwrnBvNO3c/s320/astray.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.796875px;">The type of historical fiction in which an author takes actual people…and puts thoughts into their heads and words into their mouths can seem presumptuous, especially when the author is less intelligent and interesting than the person whose thoughts he is trying to imagine. This is not the case with Donoghue: her work…is sensitive and intuitive, and her narrative voice moves fearlessly between centuries and between genders…Donoghue displays a ventriloquist's uncanny ability to slip in and out of voices…As [she] points out in her afterword, many of these characters stray not only across geographical boundaries but across those of law, sex or race. Donoghue reveals them all, in their places of exile, with gentle yet devastating truth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.796875px;">I love most of what Emma Donoghue </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.796875px;">writes, this includes " ASTRAY ".</span></div>
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Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com0Virginia, USA37.4315734 -78.65689420000001131.0335944 -88.9840427 43.8295524 -68.329745700000018tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-14163301455912915212013-05-05T09:39:00.000-07:002013-05-05T09:40:13.445-07:00LA REPARATION by Colombe Schneck<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">French read</span></div>
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Read in January 2013</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2RFipagP2wxtnHJPwWv8yXsemyW21n4NQadTG2nIpcqt9mETiiyqaB_VDQof_JeiJ4GMRNnuhJjSDVMNJexgJsZ86tyJuaTyszAJGPQuSjZ7O_IVTv2up3Pv0jFIj-rVa9-roQW42kCE/s1600/la+reparation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2RFipagP2wxtnHJPwWv8yXsemyW21n4NQadTG2nIpcqt9mETiiyqaB_VDQof_JeiJ4GMRNnuhJjSDVMNJexgJsZ86tyJuaTyszAJGPQuSjZ7O_IVTv2up3Pv0jFIj-rVa9-roQW42kCE/s400/la+reparation.jpg" width="253" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">*****</span></div>
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« Je me suis d'abord trompée.Je me disais c'est trop facile, tu portes des sandales dorées, tu te complais dans des histoires d'amour impossible, tu aimes les bains dans la Méditerranée et tu crois qu'une fille comme toi peut écrire sur la Shoah ? Car c'est bien de cela qu'il s'agit. La petite Salomé, dont ma fille a hérité du beau prénom, mon arrière grand-mère, mes oncles et tantes, mes cousins, vivaient en Lituanie avant la guerre. Ils appartenaient à une communauté dont il ne reste rien. »Que s'est-il vraiment passé dans le ghetto de Kovno en 1943 ? Et pourquoi cette culpabilité en héritage ?Dans ce roman-vrai, Colombe Schneck remonte le temps et fouille les mémoires. Jusqu'à la découverte d'une vérité bouleversante.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Biographie de l'auteur</span></h3>
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Colombe Schneck, née en 1966, est journaliste et écrivain. <i>La réparation</i> est son cinquième roman.</div>
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Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com0Virginia, USA37.4315734 -78.65689420000001131.0335944 -88.9840427 43.8295524 -68.329745700000018tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-80884189380640379552013-05-05T09:24:00.001-07:002013-05-05T13:08:01.267-07:00THE YELLOW BIRDS by Kevin Powers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Read in January 2013</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">*****</span></div>
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<div class="content box" id="yui_3_8_1_1_1367769907876_1242" style="border: 0px none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.796875px; margin: 0px; max-height: 100%; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; zoom: 1;">
<div class="simple-html" id="yui_3_8_1_1_1367769907876_1241" style="border: 0px none; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<b id="yui_3_8_1_1_1367769907876_1276" style="border: 0px none; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">A novel written by a veteran of the war in Iraq, <i style="border: 0px none; font-family: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Yellow Birds</i> is the harrowing story of two young soldiers trying to stay alive.</b><br />
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"The war tried to kill us in the spring." So begins this powerful account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. Bound together since basic training when Bartle makes a promise to bring Murphy safely home, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for.</div>
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In the endless days that follow, the two young soldiers do everything to protect each other from the forces that press in on every side: the insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly detached from the world around him and Bartle takes actions he could never have imagined.</div>
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With profound emotional insight, especially into the effects of a hidden war on mothers and families at home, <i style="border: 0px none; font-family: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Yellow Birds</i> is a groundbreaking novel that is destined to become a classic.</div>
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<b style="border: 0px none; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Winner of the 2013 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award<br />2013 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Winner<br />Winner of the 2012 Guardian First Book Award<br />2012 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction<br />One of the <i style="border: 0px none; font-family: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">New York Times Book Review</i>'s Top 10 Books of 2012</b></div>
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I liked this book a lot: 5 stars</div>
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I will not review the books I have read since January 2013, for lack of time...however I will post them and add how much I liked them.</div>
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I will begin reviewing as of May 2013</div>
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Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-1995505857699699502012-09-27T07:29:00.000-07:002012-09-27T07:29:18.595-07:00MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN "movie"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfYEe9YwpgE0pnruEy1IuP2FFwdLD64OgQhy1BPPAr58vERFxC0uR6wy28FRatHdmNmgB63Le4Z8mUqCvyAsDKzYoBSD-2zrYJOKW67Yq72YXWUI5Bosybcu_x4_R7zhccxHiU5GmZoCY/s1600/midnight.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfYEe9YwpgE0pnruEy1IuP2FFwdLD64OgQhy1BPPAr58vERFxC0uR6wy28FRatHdmNmgB63Le4Z8mUqCvyAsDKzYoBSD-2zrYJOKW67Yq72YXWUI5Bosybcu_x4_R7zhccxHiU5GmZoCY/s640/midnight.jpeg" width="442" /></a></div>
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Coming October 26 !!! Can't wait !</div>
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Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-15303388478562819812012-09-15T07:43:00.000-07:002012-09-15T07:43:34.721-07:00BOOKER PRIZE Short list<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJM5XlxagmrrwwDBhzGh2-VUTwnrNFrwcm89y_DswKoBoGGGlcXdbIzdLBtBZosnwY2to2GZ4PZN9j0_aIsWVDuRAvqjPcFZFv-37QBCw9fqDAVJBNs6nhAb6KCZXXsUHs5S_qLqUJkLg/s1600/booker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJM5XlxagmrrwwDBhzGh2-VUTwnrNFrwcm89y_DswKoBoGGGlcXdbIzdLBtBZosnwY2to2GZ4PZN9j0_aIsWVDuRAvqjPcFZFv-37QBCw9fqDAVJBNs6nhAb6KCZXXsUHs5S_qLqUJkLg/s400/booker.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-15220092403369694492012-09-06T08:04:00.001-07:002012-09-06T08:05:41.154-07:00A PERSONAL MATTER by Kenzaburo Oe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMaFYoSDPlRKtPmvStVm43YcxpzbDati9XqgQRHy_56GfZbxp2VhNHCEgD-tOnODrEbMU65kJ801rFB_1eWYYsSqkGNQT-OusGUSbA6RhqX2emloInt037T8SpWYD0Xdk33Vmwkv0UyNU/s1600/A+Personal+Matter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMaFYoSDPlRKtPmvStVm43YcxpzbDati9XqgQRHy_56GfZbxp2VhNHCEgD-tOnODrEbMU65kJ801rFB_1eWYYsSqkGNQT-OusGUSbA6RhqX2emloInt037T8SpWYD0Xdk33Vmwkv0UyNU/s400/A+Personal+Matter.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">4.5 out of 5</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><ul style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0em;">Print Length: 214 pages</li>
<li style="margin: 0.5em 0em;">Publisher: Grove Press (May 16, 2011)</li>
<li id="sold-by-merchant" style="margin: 0.5em 0em;">Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.</li>
<li style="margin: 0.5em 0em;">Language: English</li>
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</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Synopsis:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i>A Personal Matter is the story of Bird, a frustrated intellectual in a failing marriage whose Utopian dream is shattered when his wife gives birth to a brain-damaged child.</i></span> </div><div><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">My view:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I liked this novel a lot. There are similarities between the novel's protagonist and Kenzaburo Oe's personal experience with the birth of his son, born handicapped. This is where the novel leaves Kenzaburo Oe's real experience as a father and the protagonist portraying a father.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">The father in the novel experiences many difficulties accepting his son's defect, which leaves the reader wandering throughout the novel what his ultimate decision will be concerning his son...his options are many...</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Concerning Kenzaburo Oe's feelings towards</span><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> his son, we find a loving father who loved and accepted his child from the moment of his birth. Not to be confused with the novel. A good thing to know and remember when reading A PERSONAL MATTER.</span></div><br />
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Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-54459113620555809082012-09-01T17:33:00.000-07:002012-09-01T17:33:25.361-07:00BI-LINGUAL BLOGSo as not to have 2 blogs, which did not work for me previously, on the left side you will find my French language reads and on the right side my English language reads.<br />
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I will review only the English language books unless someone wants me to do the French ones to.<br />
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I will make a mention when the French books become available in English translation, which many will.Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-40594546887699040162012-08-21T09:09:00.003-07:002012-08-21T09:14:25.815-07:00UNDERGROUND TIME by Delphine de Vigan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmEBwRac2SiWVdDqVkFImz7ZX-IXOPbkaZxcISd3zF5sCJMOehcH1IN-UMdw4DqcqUjQ86HOTDPKUEAQkaVCqug72Yyyrg0LoBu3NgB2m9MNJSFTlETGYFZKdX3cX7iPSlq05K56quxHE/s400/underground.JPG" width="255" /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">4.5 out of 5</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><ul style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li style="margin: 0.5em 0em;">Print Length: 273 pages</li>
<li style="margin: 0.5em 0em;">Publisher: Bloomsbury USA</li>
<li id="sold-by-merchant" style="margin: 0.5em 0em;">Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.</li>
<li style="margin: 0.5em 0em;">Language: English</li>
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</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Synopsis:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.78333282470703px;"><i><span style="color: #666666;">Every day, Mathilde takes the Metro to her job at a large multinational, where she has felt miserable and isolated ever since getting on the wrong side of her bullying boss. Every day, Thibault, a paramedic, drives where his dispatcher directs him, fighting traffic to attend to disasters. For many of the people he rushes to treat, he represents the only human connection in their day. Mathilde and Thibault are just two figures being pushed and shoved in a lonesome, crowded city. But what might happen if these two souls, traveling their separate paths, could meet?</span></i></span> </div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.78333282470703px;"><i><span style="color: #666666;"><br />
</span></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.78333282470703px;"><span style="color: #666666;">My view:</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.78333282470703px;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20.78333282470703px;">First of, I love her prose, her </span><span style="line-height: 20.766666412353516px;">dimensional</span><span style="line-height: 20.78333282470703px;"> characters, both so important to a enjoyable read.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20.78333282470703px;">This is the story of Mathilde, a highly successful corporate woman, her employer's right hand. What happens when she has been so successful for many years not fearing for her job, important to the supports of her children </span><span style="line-height: 20.766666412353516px;">which</span><span style="line-height: 20.78333282470703px;"> she is raising as a single mother following the early death of her husband. No</span></span></span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.78333282470703px;"> one is indispensable, a fact easily forgotten after years of success and security. </span></div><div><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20.78333282470703px;">This is Mathilde's story, her employer's sudden changes, </span><span style="line-height: 20.766666412353516px;">irritability</span><span style="line-height: 20.78333282470703px;">...which remains unexplained,</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20.78333282470703px;">except for her, who's life is slowly becoming a difficult road.... </span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20.78333282470703px;"><br />
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</span></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.78333282470703px;">Delphine de Vigan is a very successful French author, she published in English "</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Underground-Time-Novel-Delphine-Vigan/dp/1608197123/ref=la_B004MYMYQ8_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1345563586&sr=1-6" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.78333282470703px;">UNDERGROUND TIME</a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.78333282470703px;">" and</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.78333282470703px;"> "</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/No-Me-Delphine-Vigan/dp/1599904799/ref=la_B004MYMYQ8_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1345563377&sr=1-2" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.78333282470703px;">NO AND ME</a><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20.78333282470703px;">" and soon to come out the price winning "RIEN NE S'OPPOSE A LA NUIT" not yet published in English. </span></div><br />
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Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-92020599303177034792012-08-01T09:04:00.003-07:002012-08-01T09:10:14.460-07:00THE CHAPERON by Laura Moriarty<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqd64tXM8XPIYKcNGN2DOAsuZK2RTki93thhxyUg0KuGEhdADXCQ170ZDkHHkyYR67PaGnAmXXRgU-auDohnWxLmoNMN1Yo4cUzps3rpY46d-m9KP_8PKHbrYjgqN9559l-h29mzUfYvU/s1600/chaperone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqd64tXM8XPIYKcNGN2DOAsuZK2RTki93thhxyUg0KuGEhdADXCQ170ZDkHHkyYR67PaGnAmXXRgU-auDohnWxLmoNMN1Yo4cUzps3rpY46d-m9KP_8PKHbrYjgqN9559l-h29mzUfYvU/s400/chaperone.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">4.75 out of 5</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><ul style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin: 1.12em 0px 1.12em 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 20px;"> 377 pages</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 20px;">Publisher: Riverhead (June 5, 2012)</li>
<li id="sold-by-merchant" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 20px;">Sold by: Penguin Publishing</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 20px;">Language: English </li>
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</div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Synopsis:</span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">With her bobbed black hair and strikingly red lipstick, Louise Brooks was a femme fatale in early Hollywood movies. In this latest novel from Moriarty (The Center of Everything), a teenage Louise heads to New York City in 1922 from her home in Wichita, chaperoned by proper Kansas matron Cora Carlisle. Once in New York, Louise is accepted by the renowned Denishawn School of Dancing and is on her way to fame. An innocent young adult she is not—hard as nails, she is both self-promoting and self-destructive. The real story here, however, is about Cora, a kind soul despite the shocks she has endured at several crucial times in her life. Cora's visit to New York gives her a new perspective and changes her life in unexpected ways. The novel, which spans the next six decades of Cora's life, also reminds us how dramatically American life changed over the 20th century.</span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #444444;">My View:</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #444444;">I liked this novel a lot. As the title states, this novel is mainly about Cora, chaperon to a 17 year old Louise Brooks.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #444444;">The story begins in 1922, Louise Brooks then 16 has been selected to join the Denishawn School of dancing...the rest is history...Louise Brooks will be on her way to fame.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #444444;">Here the novel becomes Cora's story, her interest in New York has little to do with her charge, Louise. Cora has a heartbreaking interest in New York which held my attention throughout. Also this is a novel and Cora a character, some of the events she will encounter did happen to real people.</span></span></div><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">The Chaperon will take you from heartbreak to su</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">rprises, to fulfillment, not </span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">necessarily in this order. It is a fully satisfying tale.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">If you have an interest in Louise Brooks, which I have after </span>reading<span style="line-height: 20px;"> the novel, in her later years Miss Brooks wrote her own biography to great reviews for her intelligent and erudite writing:</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #bf9000; line-height: 20px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lulu-In-Hollywood-Expanded-Edition/dp/0816637318/ref=sr_1_cc_3?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1343836732&sr=1-3-catcorr&keywords=louise+brooks+a+biography">Lulu-In-Hollywood-Expanded-Edition</a></span></span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpJs1wsqoegcySrGs0pmOzdjr1ortjz84HGjyMl8nGc0nnNW_cKRtYJCwj-yp1xpcmrJbKh6S89wkbXmNxOpRYEjkac-n8dHwaDgyrsvxJLbnnU7nsp1eQXOYADa_B5kRbpUgLfm1ybds/s1600/louise+brooks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpJs1wsqoegcySrGs0pmOzdjr1ortjz84HGjyMl8nGc0nnNW_cKRtYJCwj-yp1xpcmrJbKh6S89wkbXmNxOpRYEjkac-n8dHwaDgyrsvxJLbnnU7nsp1eQXOYADa_B5kRbpUgLfm1ybds/s200/louise+brooks.jpg" width="171" /></a></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></span></span></div>Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-39316623620490698652012-07-29T17:23:00.002-07:002012-07-29T19:53:28.115-07:00I moved to a new addressI moved to a new address, the blog is the same except for the address:<br />
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<b><span style="color: #073763;">madeleinesbookandphotoblog.blogspot.com</span></b><br />
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.Much still needs tweakingMadeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-35644802380481018222012-07-20T15:24:00.005-07:002012-07-31T07:21:13.564-07:00LA FEMME AU MIROIR de Eric Emmanuel Schmitt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKxPlK5gqB7_W8h-Lc8xF75VUHnl2-qQp3-NrfqnndvNfyO9DExrnkcLqOt5kpHDlXnZb-YLnC_PQ3_8UUKHJxJcUMR2xpD9lltcuhdyn0XdnPI7xeJtL2t2i28ajnPYf_9C8aiqbmtiY/s1600/la+femme+au+mirroir.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKxPlK5gqB7_W8h-Lc8xF75VUHnl2-qQp3-NrfqnndvNfyO9DExrnkcLqOt5kpHDlXnZb-YLnC_PQ3_8UUKHJxJcUMR2xpD9lltcuhdyn0XdnPI7xeJtL2t2i28ajnPYf_9C8aiqbmtiY/s400/la+femme+au+mirroir.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">5out of 5</div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">If you read in French I highly recommend this novel</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: left;"><br />
</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: left;">Three women interconnect with each other yet each lives in a different century. I loved this book from beginning to end.</i></div><br />
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</div><span style="text-align: left;">Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt can be found on amazon.com in English, however this particular novel was not translated in English yet it was translated in many others. I noticed many such books, erudite, literary and a great joy to read are not translated in English yet in all other languages??? Not sure why. Some times Europa will translate some but not near enough.</span><br />
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</div><span style="text-align: left;">Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt is the author of:</span><br />
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</div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Most-Beautiful-Book-World/dp/1933372745/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343743833&sr=8-1&keywords=Eric+Emmanuel+Schmitt"><i style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">The Most Beautiful Book in the World</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"> 2006</span></a><br />
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<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Woman-Bouquet-Eric-Emmanuel-Schmitt/dp/1933372818/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343744069&sr=1-9&keywords=oscar+and+the+lady+in+pink">The Woman with the Bouquet</a> Europa edition</i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Concerto-Memory-Angel-Eric-Emmanuel-Schmitt/dp/1609450094/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c">Concerto to the Memory of an Angel</a></i></span></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">and more available at amazon.com</div>Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-71544156244951389232012-05-30T07:18:00.001-07:002012-07-30T07:11:04.590-07:00Beautiful houses inspired by famous novels<br />
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Truly wonderful books have a habit of growing and changing years after they’ve been written, worming themselves into places you might not expect — our decisions, our aesthetic and cultural sense, and even, with the right kind of care, our physical world. Case in point: Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence, which opened in Istanbul last weekend, is an extensive museum (reportedly, he spent almost all of his 1.5 million Nobel Prize dollars on it) devoted to expanding on and complementing his recent novel, <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Museum of Innocence</em>. Since we can’t make it to Turkey to experience the place for ourselves, we’ve collected a few other amazing buildings born from books — whether inspired by particular novels, stories, or a writer’s entire oeuvre — to tide us over. Click through to see our gallery of real-life architecture inspired by literature from all over the world, and let us know if we’ve missed your favorite literary tribute in the comments.</div>
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<a href="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/pamuk.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-286089" height="856" src="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/pamuk.jpg" style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="pamuk" width="600" /></a></div>
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<strong>The Museum of Innocence, inspired by Orhan Pamuk’s <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Museum of Innocence</em></strong></div>
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In Pamuk’s best-selling novel <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Museum of Innocence</em>, a man, Kemal, falls in love with a woman, Fusun. After a short affair and a long obsession, wherein he begins to collect things she has touched or that have some meaning to him, she leaves him forever. He buys her family’s house and begins to fill it with the things he has collected, turning into a museum to her and his passion. Pamuk has created a museum of the same kind in Istanbul’s Çukurcuma neighborhood, representing memories from the book entwined with his own. Our favorite exhibit has to be the collection of Fusun’s 4,213 cigarette butts, each dated and affixed to a canvas that covers an entire wall. ”The Museum of Innocence is not an illustration of <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Museum of Innocence</em> the novel. Neither is the novel an explanation of the museum. They are deeply intertwined because they are both made by me, word by word and object by object,” Pamuk <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/orhan-pamuks-museum-of-innocence-builds-on-best-selling-book/2012/05/01/gIQA4tSEvT_story.html" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">said</a> at the museum’s opening. The book comes with a free ticket to the museum, although those who purchased it upon its release in Turkish in 2008 have been waiting a long time to use it. Find out more at the museum’s <a href="http://www.masumiyetmuzesi.org/W3/Default-ENG.htm" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">website</a>.</div>
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<a href="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/kafka.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-286090" height="696" src="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/kafka.jpg" style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="kafka" width="600" /></a></div>
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<strong>El Castell, inspired by Franz Kafka’s <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Castle</em></strong></div>
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This apartment block, built in 1968 by architect <a href="http://www.ricardobofill.com/en/5685/Architecture/Kafka-Castle.htm" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Ricardo Bofill</a> in Barcelona, is in part an homage to Franz Kafka — with all those harsh cubes and confusing gateways, we think the influence is clear. Even the complex’s name, “El Castell” is Catalan for “The Castle,” after one of Kafka’s novels.</div>
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<a href="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/calvino.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-286092" height="288" src="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/calvino.jpg" style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="calvino" width="600" /></a></div>
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<strong>Hotel Tres Sants, inspired by Italo Calvino’s <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Invisible Cities</em></strong></div>
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On the Spanish island of Menorca is a <a href="http://hoteltressants.com/hotels-in-menorca/hotels-ciutadella.html" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">little hotel</a> built by Menorquin architect Fernando Pons Vidal and Italian designer Chiara Fabiani to <a href="http://www.architectureweek.com/2004/0121/design_1-1.html" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">evoke</a> Calvino’s classic set of tales about imaginary cities discovered by Marco Polo. Each of the eight guest rooms is designed to represent a different city, often quite literally. Photos via <a href="http://www.architectureweek.com/2004/0121/design_1-1.html" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Architecture Week</a>.</div>
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<a href="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/dick.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-286100" height="903" src="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/dick.jpg" style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="dick" width="600" /></a></div>
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<strong>House at Martha’s Vineyard, inspired by <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Moby Dick</em></strong></div>
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Architect Steven Holl’s <a href="http://www.stevenholl.com/project-detail.php?type=&id=25" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">house</a> at Martha’s Vineyard was inspired by a very specific scene in<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Moby Dick</em>: “Melville describes an Indian tribe, which made a particular type of dwelling on the island. Finding a beached whale skeleton, they would pull it to dry land and stretch skins over it, transforming it into a house. Inspired by this practice, the house is an inside-out balloon frame structure, elevated over the landscape. The wooden ‘bones’ of the frame carry an encircling veranda affording ocean views.”</div>
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<a href="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/hobbit.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-286099" height="906" src="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/hobbit.jpg" style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="hobbit" width="600" /></a></div>
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<strong>The Hobbit Motel, inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Hobbit</em></strong></div>
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The world’s first Hobbit motel is in operation at Woodlyn Park in Waitomo, New Zealand. We don’t think we have to explain any further. Book your stay <a href="http://www.woodlynpark.co.nz/thehobbitmotel.html" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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<a href="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/lichtenstein.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-286101" height="400" src="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/lichtenstein.jpg" style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="lichtenstein" width="600" /></a></div>
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<strong>Lichtenstein Castle, inspired by Wilhelm Hauff’s <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lichtenstein</em></strong></div>
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Though it looks like it could have been inspired by any fanciful tale of glory in the Middle Ages, this castle was actually erected in homage to a specific tale. In 1840, Duke Wilhelm of Urach, inspired by Wilhelm Hauff’s then-popular novel <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lichtenstein</em>, a romantic and patriotic view of German chivalry, commissioned a castle to be built on <a href="http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1995297_1995295_1995285,00.html" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">the ruins</a> of the rumored ancient stronghold of the knights of Lichtenstein. The castle itself, a rather lovely if crumbling neo-gothic confection, was created by the architect Carl Alexander Heideloff.</div>
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<a href="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/peet.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-286102" height="829" src="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/peet.jpg" style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="peet" width="600" /></a></div>
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<strong>Villa Peet (The Rabbit House), inspired by Lewis Carroll’s <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland</em></strong></div>
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This minimalist house in Lelystad, the Netherlands, designed by Amsterdam’s Studio Klink, is not what you’d first expect when imagining a building based on Carroll’s trippy and colorful classic. But the concept, according to the architects, was much more cerebral: “Villa Peet was designed as a sequence of contrasting spatial experiences,” they <a href="http://www.contemporist.com/2008/07/24/the-peet-house-by-studio-klink/" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">explain</a>. “These contrasts create a feeling of entering new worlds behind a series of rabbit holes.” Well, that tracks — and all the white rabbits don’t hurt either.</div>
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<a href="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/walden.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-286104" height="422" src="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/walden.jpg" style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="walden" width="600" /></a></div>
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<strong>Walden, inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Walden: Or, Life in the Woods</em></strong></div>
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Designed by <a href="http://www.moormann.de/en/furniture/other/walden/" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Nils Holger Moormann</a>, this unique portable garden shed was inspired by Thoreau’s simple life and self-reliance, and “invites one to live outdoors.” According to Moormann’s website, “Determined garden-owners are able to store various tools such as shovel, rake and wheelbarrow in this ‘wooden box’ of unusual proportions. Easy goers have to decide whether to take a seat at the table in the seating cabin, or climb a ladder to the upper level. There it’s possible to enjoy the view or to stretch out and guess cloud shapes or count stars under the sliding sun roof. The obligation of a campfire is created in a swinging fire cauldron, and right beside it, the necessary space for firewood.” Sounds good to us.</div>
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<a href="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/hamsun.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-286105" height="400" src="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/hamsun.jpg" style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="hamsun" width="600" /></a></div>
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<strong>The Knut Hamsun Center, inspired by the writings of Knut Hamsun</strong></div>
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Another project by Steven Holl, this is not just another slapped-up museum to honor a writer’s life, but rather a considered <a href="http://www.stevenholl.com/books-detail.php?id=180" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">synthesis</a> of “Knut Hamsun’s literary sensibility, Steven Holl’s architecture, Hamaroy’s natural environment in Northern Norway’s dramatic landscape, and a specific regional cultural policy.” Erik Fenstad Langdalen writes, “Rather than the surroundings shaping the building, the building shapes its surroundings, not unlike the way Knut Hamsun’s writings create a new understanding of the Nordland landscape. Through his fiction he helped transform and re-create the landscape that is familiar to us today.”</div>
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<a href="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/blas.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-286108" height="847" src="http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/blas.jpg" style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="blas" width="600" /></a></div>
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<strong>Francisco de Blas home, inspired by the poetry of Luis Cernuda</strong></div>
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In 1999, Literature professor Francisco de Blas hired architect Alberto Campo Baeza to <a href="http://en.wikiarquitectura.com/index.php/Blas_Home" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">build</a> him a home in Sevilla la Nueva, Madrid, Spain pressing into his hands a copy of Luis Cenuda’s<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Written-In-Water-Collected-Prose/dp/0872864316/flavorpill0e-20" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3399cc; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">complete poems</a> for inspiration. Cenuda’s work is infused with themes of dreams, freedom, sweeping landscapes and the contrast between the internal and external life, and we think (if we squint) we can totally see all those in this lovely home.</div>
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<br /></div>Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-18506588820920993652012-04-24T08:15:00.001-07:002012-07-30T07:14:46.553-07:00THE HOTTEST DISHES OF THE TARTAR CUISINE by Alina Bronsky<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjISukPLxpuNc1v5sZIEeGdN2UQzZVX3d8R1QXPZxUsb8WQQaYe19NF6y-YCntcr-bwnqmd6sk_iCEK4_ft0AkrlxRQrY4cHuSEq1dZHCezmBWbcGfVEgM2oJ1Jaswb50sIC7ZCXqtzcKs/s1600/Alina+Bronsky.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjISukPLxpuNc1v5sZIEeGdN2UQzZVX3d8R1QXPZxUsb8WQQaYe19NF6y-YCntcr-bwnqmd6sk_iCEK4_ft0AkrlxRQrY4cHuSEq1dZHCezmBWbcGfVEgM2oJ1Jaswb50sIC7ZCXqtzcKs/s400/Alina+Bronsky.png" width="256" /></a></div>
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5out of 5</div>
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em; margin-top: 0.5em;">Publisher: Europa (April 26, 2011)</li>
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<li id="sold-by-merchant" style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em; margin-top: 0.5em;">Sold by: Penguin Publishing</li>
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em; margin-top: 0.5em;">Language: English</li>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Synopsis:</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 20px;">Rosa Achmetowna is the outrageously nasty and wily narrator of this rollicking family saga. When she discovers that her seventeen-year-old daughter, “stupid Sulfia,” is pregnant by an unknown man she does everything to thwart the pregnancy, employing a variety of folkloric home remedies. But despite her best efforts the baby, Aminat, is born nine months later at Soviet Birthing Center Number 134. Much to Rosa’s surprise and delight, dark eyed Aminat is a Tartar through and through and instantly becomes the apple of her grandmother’s eye. While her good for nothing husband Kalganow spends his days feeding pigeons and contemplating death at the city park, Rosa wages an epic struggle to wrestle Aminat away from Sulfia, whom she considers a woefully inept mother. When Aminat, now a wild and willful teenager, catches the eye of a sleazy German cookbook writer researching Tartar cuisine, Rosa is quick to broker a deal that will guarantee all three women a passage out of the Soviet Union. But as soon as they are settled in the West, the uproariously dysfunctional ties that bind mother, daughter and grandmother begin to fray.</span><br />
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Told with sly humor and an anthropologist’s eye for detail, The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine is the story of three unforgettable women whose destinies are tangled up in a family dynamic that is at turns hilarious and tragic. In her new novel, Russian-born Alina Bronsky gives readers a moving portrait of the devious limits of the will to survive.</div>
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My view: I absolutely loved this book, and ordered 'BROKEN GLASS PARK' by the same author.</div>
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I am going to skip writing a review as I am terribly busy, however I want to let everyone know, this is a <b>must read! </b>Oh, this isn't a cook book.</div>
<br />Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-81244391938873806222012-03-14T08:02:00.001-07:002012-07-29T19:11:21.177-07:00A CUPBOARD FULL OF COATS by Yvvette Edwards<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7-ymM2v70j89jGfxLW2Msv3YIc__ojTealbpsoEb6UcxsLCjVOSc4Is7_IoIDf7orgDfG_ayhOSBXO3-trvG_syQrEcqbs5Q9Q-B-pn_v9DDS4K1JzDcdymcidC_Q7c3AUV6fstMESlk/s1600/coats.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7-ymM2v70j89jGfxLW2Msv3YIc__ojTealbpsoEb6UcxsLCjVOSc4Is7_IoIDf7orgDfG_ayhOSBXO3-trvG_syQrEcqbs5Q9Q-B-pn_v9DDS4K1JzDcdymcidC_Q7c3AUV6fstMESlk/s400/coats.jpg" width="250" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />4out of 5</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><ul style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br /><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em; margin-top: 0.5em;"><span style="color: #999999;">Paperback: 288 pages</span></li><br /><li style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em; margin-top: 0.5em;"><span style="color: #999999;">Publisher: Oneworld (June 16, 2011)</span></li><br /></ul><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><span style="color: #666666;">Synopsis:</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><i style="color: #666666;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Edwards ele</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">gantly braids together the lives of three people whose entangled love for the same woman turns sour in this gut-wrenching and gorgeously lyrical debut novel. Fourteen years after Jinx Jackson's mother was killed, "Lemon," a man mysteriously involved in the events of the murder, shows up at her doorstep with crippling news: the murderer is out of prison. Jinx's first instinct is to run. Full well knowing it's "too late for regret," Lemon wants to "put the record straight." And over a period of three days, Edwards sweeps the reader along a stream of memories revolving around Jinx's mother, who chose an abusive relationship over loneliness. "To know her was to love her," and love her these characters did (and do), each in their own way, but some of that love contributed to her murder "in hot blood." Edwards has drawn complicated characters whose voices are as distinct as the choices they have made. Jinx propels the narrative forward with her raw honesty as she unpacks the "private disgrace" that is her life. Engrossing and human to the core, Edwards's novel wrings the heart in the most tender of ways.</span></i></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><i style="color: #666666;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br /></span></i></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #444444;">My view:</span></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br /><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br /><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">This beautifully told story isn't a crime novel, yes a crime is committed yet it is a small part of the novel. Seen trough the eyes of two people, Jinx and Lemon, a daughter and a friend the lives of a mother, Joy and friend, Berris are retold. Joy is dead and Berris free after 14 years in jail. The author takes us on a journey of seemingly innocent lies, misunderstandings,teen angst which lead ultimately to the destruction of four lives...and redemption.</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br /><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br /><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">This is such a beautifully written book, a must read</span></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><br /></div>Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-67572959382587326272011-09-25T10:27:00.001-07:002012-07-29T19:11:21.168-07:00THE FOREMOST GOOD FORTUNE by Susan Conley<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQz03TpfNu1kPca_iD1o92FpRqIVpoHDdtyT-x6ICQ8Erd4BMyJohoxTC8q-PdV047hfXqFprcG3SidK8RMT4HkWKCY6pQH0BxyNi0q0NK1lh9guvWS5EAwONRs9XlcOQMCNq6by1RXEk/s1600/the+formost+good+fortune.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQz03TpfNu1kPca_iD1o92FpRqIVpoHDdtyT-x6ICQ8Erd4BMyJohoxTC8q-PdV047hfXqFprcG3SidK8RMT4HkWKCY6pQH0BxyNi0q0NK1lh9guvWS5EAwONRs9XlcOQMCNq6by1RXEk/s320/the+formost+good+fortune.jpg" width="218" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />5 out of 5</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"></span></div><br /><ul style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 350px;"><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Pub. Date: February 2011</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Sold By: Random House</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Format: NOOK Book (eBook) , 304pp</li><br /></ul><br /><div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;">Synopsis:</span></div><br /><div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><br /></span></div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">"China sat in the rooms of our house like a question," begins Conley in this luminous memoir of moving her family from Portland, Maine, to Beijing on the eve of the 2008 Olympics. Conley's husband had accepted a dream job in Beijing, and they had decided to say "yes to all the unknowns that will now rain down on us" including common difficulties faced by many families moving to a new city: a new school for her two young sons, finding new friends, and adjusting to a new apartment all compounded by the intensity of learning a difficult new language and adapting to a new culture. Conley's writing is at once spare and strong, and her description of having to present an unflappable front to her children while being hit "with a rolling wave of homesickness" pulls the reader into her world like a close friend. As Conley starts to hit her stride in her adopted city, she discovers lumps in her breast and finds herself on a different kind of journey, which she describes as "an essential aloneness that cancer has woven into my days." She explains in this engaging memoir that after her treatment in the U.S. was over, she returned to Beijing, where she searched for the perfect Chinese talisman to "ward off the leftover cancer juju" and hoping to help her boys move past their own fears of their mother's mortality.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"></span><br /><br /><div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><br /></span></span></div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /></span><br /><br />Author:<br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyc_-xK_UCztx7M-HxRQZjGKoq_hAHNwHlif2yQchyomVSzouXLuG1IWJjzYfUC1mW1F5fW-33Uq_l97qECyp7iw5QkZ3qE4-IWKbYdcZIw4rX8cRIewHAfs36lJCHq3djJFKydaqLh-I/s1600/SusanConley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyc_-xK_UCztx7M-HxRQZjGKoq_hAHNwHlif2yQchyomVSzouXLuG1IWJjzYfUC1mW1F5fW-33Uq_l97qECyp7iw5QkZ3qE4-IWKbYdcZIw4rX8cRIewHAfs36lJCHq3djJFKydaqLh-I/s200/SusanConley.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Susan Conley lived in Beijing for more than two years, and returned to Portland, Maine, with her husband and two sons in December 2009. She is cofounder and executive director of the Telling Room, a writers’ workshop and literary hub for the region. She was an associate editor at <i style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Ploughshares</i> and has led creative writing seminars at Emerson College in Boston. Her work has been published in <i style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The New York Times Magazine </i>as well as <i style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The Paris Review</i>, <i style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Harvard Review</i>, <i style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Ploughshares</i>, and other literary magazines. She is currently working on a novel and settling back into life in the States.</span></div>Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-42157210469445422612011-09-25T10:16:00.001-07:002012-07-29T19:11:21.159-07:00ORANGES AREN'T THE ONLY FRUIT by Jeanette Winterson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDOu_hA2wD0TZt2PJp0BQcfUPIAnLyhKF0n0yKOEHh4ZpGD-My3EOHzoJspRiiAk_zPV-QxjFNhYm7ShlwJPmok2wZKiMrHsp2D6r-6cyejlRkEo4UiktV3JXikWKPnBUOg4LFauEJjow/s1600/Oranges+aren%2527t+the+only.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDOu_hA2wD0TZt2PJp0BQcfUPIAnLyhKF0n0yKOEHh4ZpGD-My3EOHzoJspRiiAk_zPV-QxjFNhYm7ShlwJPmok2wZKiMrHsp2D6r-6cyejlRkEo4UiktV3JXikWKPnBUOg4LFauEJjow/s320/Oranges+aren%2527t+the+only.jpeg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />4 out of 5</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"></span></div><br /><ul style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 350px;"><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Pub. Date: December 2007</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Sold By: Barnes & Noble</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Format: NOOK Book (eBook) , 192pp</li><br /></ul><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />Synopsis:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">If Flannery O'Connor and Rita Mae Brown had collaborated on the coming-out story of a young British girl in the 1960s, maybe they would have approached the quirky and subtle hilarity of Jeanette Winterson's autobiographical first novel....Winterson's voice, with its idiosyncratic wit and sensitivity, is one you've never heard before.</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Raised by an oppressively evangelical mother, Jeanette grows up a good little Christian soldier, even going so far as to stitch samplers whose apocalyptic themes terrify her classmates. As she dryly notes, without self-pity or smugness, ``This tendency towards the exotic has brought me many problems, just as it did for William Blake.'' Jeanette would have remained in the fold but for her unconventional desires; though she can reconcile her love of women with her love of God, the church cannot. It could have been a grim tale, but this first novelwinner of England's Whitbread Prizeis in fact a wry and tender telling of a young girl's triumphantly coming into her own.</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Author:</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigK7t8skBl-e6CZxHvbtQCl_hQmu1HoE-LeeukVBwIOYH4fsFrFRqBKHgF9Ak4C5GrhhgY7YvL66nF-lC69ghCBJtW9Q_epvpWrdK3q8aH2I_FWRrXtfhqPVWjdkdUQRJXsANMyISozcU/s1600/winterson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigK7t8skBl-e6CZxHvbtQCl_hQmu1HoE-LeeukVBwIOYH4fsFrFRqBKHgF9Ak4C5GrhhgY7YvL66nF-lC69ghCBJtW9Q_epvpWrdK3q8aH2I_FWRrXtfhqPVWjdkdUQRJXsANMyISozcU/s1600/winterson.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">A novelist whose honours include England’s Whitbread Prize, and the American Academy’s E. M. Forster Award, as well as the Prix d’argent at the Cannes Film Festival, Jeanette Winterson burst onto the literary scene as a very young woman in 1985 with <b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit</b>. Her subsequent novels, including <b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Sexing the Cherry</b>, <b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The Passion</b>,<b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Written on the Body</b>, and <b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The PowerBook</b>, have also gone on to receive great international acclaim. Her latest novel is<b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Lighthousekeeping</b>, heralded as "a brilliant, glittering, piece of work". She lives in London and the Cotswolds.</span>Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-14820928533963250052011-07-20T09:16:00.001-07:002012-07-29T19:11:21.145-07:00WEIGHT by Jeanette Winterson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUHgCOkEFKVwGDkXwOVR8nocRcurFb2iWWLgS6QFfCyR_88_QBW6Hz3N69ylYpILoA-Cmfq7p3VgN7b_1xfdwq3Ure7nQbebpq0hUOgcu04D-joXSu1yUZQzQVBuBvH3Py5lKzSe6CAVU/s1600/weight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUHgCOkEFKVwGDkXwOVR8nocRcurFb2iWWLgS6QFfCyR_88_QBW6Hz3N69ylYpILoA-Cmfq7p3VgN7b_1xfdwq3Ure7nQbebpq0hUOgcu04D-joXSu1yUZQzQVBuBvH3Py5lKzSe6CAVU/s320/weight.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />5 out of 5</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><ul style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; list-style-type: disc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 350px;"><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px;">Pub. Date: December 2007</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px;">Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px;">Sold By: Barnes & Noble</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px;">Format: NOOK Book (eBook)</li><br /></ul><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 17px;">Excerpt:</span></span></div><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><i>‘Tell me the time’ you say. And what you really say is ‘Tell me a story.’</i></div><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><i>Here’s one I haven’t been able to put down.</i></div><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><i>Weight of the World My father was Poseidon. My mother was the Earth.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />My father loved the strong outlines of my mother’s body. He loved her demarcations and her boundaries. He knew where he stood with her. She was solid, certain, shaped and material.</i></div><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><i>My mother loved my father because he recognised no boundaries. His ambitions were tidal. He swept, he sank, he flooded, he re-formed. Poseidon was a deluge of a man. Power flowed off him. He was deep, sometimes calm, but never still.</i></div><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><i>My mother and father teemed with life. They were life. Creation depended on them and had done so before there was air or fire. They sustained so much. They were so much. To each other they were irresistible.</i></div><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><i>Both were volatile. My father obviously so, my mother more alarmingly. She was serene as a rock but volcano’d with anger. She was quiet as a desert but tectonically challenged. When my mother threw a plate across the room, the whole world felt the crash. My father could be whipped into a storm in moments. My mother grumbled and growled and shook for days or weeks or months until her rage fissured and crumpled entire cities or forced human kind into lava-like submission.</i></div><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><i><span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Humankind</span> . . . They never could see it coming. Look at Pompeii. There they are in the bathouses, sitting in their chairs, wearing skeletal looks of charred surprise.</i></div><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><i>When my father wooed my mother she lapped it up. He was playful, he was warm, he waited for her in the bright blue shallows and came a little closer, then drew back, and his pull was to leave a little gift on her shore; a piece of coral, mother of pearl, a shell as spiralled as a dream.</i></div><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><i>Sometimes he was a long way out and she missed him and the beached fishes gasped for breath. Then he was all over her again, and they were mermaids together, because there was always something feminine about my father, for all his power. Earth and water are the same kind, just as fire and air are their opposites.</i></div><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><i>She loved him because he showed her to herself. He was her moving mirror. He took her round the world, the world that she was, and held it up for her to see, her beauty of forests and cliffs and coastlines and wild places. To him she was both paradise and fear and he loved both. Together they went where no human had ever been. Places only they could go, places only they could be. Wherever he went, she was there; a gentle restraint, a serious reminder; <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">the earth and the waters that covered the earth</span>. He knew though, that while he could not cover the whole of her, she underpinned the whole of him. For all his strength, she was strong.</i></div><br /><br /><br />Author:<br /><br /><div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">A novelist whose honours include England’s Whitbread Prize, and the American Academy’s E. M. Forster Award, as well as the Prix d’argent at the Cannes Film Festival, Jeanette Winterson burst onto the literary scene as a very young woman in 1985 with</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">. Her subsequent novels, including</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sexing the Cherry</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Passion</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Written on the Body</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">, and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The PowerBook</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">, have also gone on to receive great international acclaim. Her latest novel is </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Lighthousekeeping</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">, heralded as "a brilliant, glittering, piece of work" (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Independent</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">). She lives in London and the Cotswolds. </span></div><br /><div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0yJmSQ08HMVJBt0n3JHO6bMCQ0hh3ymS4v5an-KwaqqnpKGj0U8KiYbRcm_TaIza1MOpBaK4yYf-dkuTtfnxw0oU-XbLv-fwFHjthgX8-IZE3XjU0uXL_dXZGex0P14V1yPo6zAncOv8/s1600/jeanette+winterson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0yJmSQ08HMVJBt0n3JHO6bMCQ0hh3ymS4v5an-KwaqqnpKGj0U8KiYbRcm_TaIza1MOpBaK4yYf-dkuTtfnxw0oU-XbLv-fwFHjthgX8-IZE3XjU0uXL_dXZGex0P14V1yPo6zAncOv8/s320/jeanette+winterson.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><br /></div>Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-8828744448341092772011-07-16T08:06:00.001-07:002012-07-29T19:11:21.181-07:00STATE OF WONDER by Ann Patchett<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN3TfbTjjumK63Ueb83cOpsX85AE4fRkdOQgIHT_oQlEj72HhfBfY5LJKjhyphenhyphen0XbSLv-k1jbzprwjd-EuZJBmy8S8pXJkmstvYf-zL3HXFG7BBCrFBlAQnULErgPL1ZwhTjQNlzfrZGUlU/s1600/state+of+wonder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN3TfbTjjumK63Ueb83cOpsX85AE4fRkdOQgIHT_oQlEj72HhfBfY5LJKjhyphenhyphen0XbSLv-k1jbzprwjd-EuZJBmy8S8pXJkmstvYf-zL3HXFG7BBCrFBlAQnULErgPL1ZwhTjQNlzfrZGUlU/s320/state+of+wonder.jpg" width="209" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />4</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"></span></div><br /><ul style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 350px;"><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Pub. Date: June 2011</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Sold By: HARPERCOLLINS</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Format: NOOK Book (eBook)</li><br /></ul><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"></span></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />Ann Patchett raises the bar with <i style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">State of Wonder</i>, a provocative and ambitious novel set deep in the Amazon jungle.</div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />Research scientist Dr. Marina Singh is sent to Brazil to track down her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have disappeared in the Amazon while working on an extremely valuable new drug. The last person who was sent to find her died before he could complete his mission. Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an odyssey into the insect-infested jungle in hopes of finding answers to the questions about her friend's death, her company's future, and her own past.</div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />Once found, Dr. Swenson is as imperious and uncompromising as ever. But while she is as threatening as anything the jungle has to offer, the greatest sacrifices to be made are the ones Dr. Swenson asks of herself, and will ultimately ask of Marina.</div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br /><i style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">State of Wonder</i> is a world unto itself, where unlikely beauty stands beside unimaginable loss. It is a tale that leads the reader into the very heart of darkness, and then shows us what lies on the other side.</div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />Author:</div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />Since her auspicious debut, Ann Patchett has crafted a handful of elegant novels, garnering several accolades and awards along the way. But her real breakthrough occurred with 2001's <i style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Bel Canto</i>, a taut, psychological thriller set in the claustrophobic confines of an embassy under siege in South America. Winning both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize, <i style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Bel Canto</i> catapulted Patchett into the ranks of bestselling authors.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz0Ps3jWHMDImDoMyBHWHujALNqVuYnydqLEVA0Vc-9s8N0OWC4Aq81H-pLY2Wejw4MTNIdCyNs9WFzmdMChdUDzHij-oBXR0o2_7_2BTpwLiDWjwRyqo0L85makV9R7Lrox2SacmR6Wc/s1600/Ann+Patchett.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz0Ps3jWHMDImDoMyBHWHujALNqVuYnydqLEVA0Vc-9s8N0OWC4Aq81H-pLY2Wejw4MTNIdCyNs9WFzmdMChdUDzHij-oBXR0o2_7_2BTpwLiDWjwRyqo0L85makV9R7Lrox2SacmR6Wc/s1600/Ann+Patchett.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />As if to prove her versatility, Patchett departed from fiction for 2004's <i style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Truth & Beauty</i>, the heartbreaking account of her longstanding, difficult friendship with the late Lucy Grealy, a gifted writer whose disfigurement from cancer precipitated a tragic descent into addiction and death. This memoir won several literary awards and appeared on many end-of-year best books lists. </div><br /><br />Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-847668371339469432011-06-30T09:53:00.001-07:002012-07-29T19:11:21.178-07:00THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeannette Walls<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSl9Qip7HKR2c7MCSNB5gSguszP0WKviqyAkR4g6r9Ox25IGFc3JPAJsjXHrWTWaeVA3MUW5-Cw9b5Opz8vJ3VCr4FOeIj41RpVufwTNosLanHngyTSeDkt6r_ba5d3O1q7IHN6tUcESI/s1600/the+glass+castel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSl9Qip7HKR2c7MCSNB5gSguszP0WKviqyAkR4g6r9Ox25IGFc3JPAJsjXHrWTWaeVA3MUW5-Cw9b5Opz8vJ3VCr4FOeIj41RpVufwTNosLanHngyTSeDkt6r_ba5d3O1q7IHN6tUcESI/s320/the+glass+castel.jpg" width="202" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />5/5</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"></span></div><br /><ul style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 350px;"><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Pub. Date: March 2005</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Sold By: SIMON & SCHUSTER</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Format: NOOK Book (eBook) , 304pp</li><br /></ul><br /><div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><br /></span></div><br /><div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><br /></span></div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"></span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.</div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town — and the family — Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.</div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.</div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor.</div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />Author:</div><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 14px;">Jeannette Walls lives in Virginia and is married to the writer John Taylor. She is a regular contributor to MSNBC and has worked at several publications, including Esquire, USA Today, and New York. </span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 14px;"><br /></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE5WL5NSOfpUOvGjNy3IXIOdxlXzrXqd6hTunT0Cp6oYs_EJ4gR1mIhJNV01iAIfPL44fdBGlMPT9qPM65ZeOB2Md4yl0HgqNzv2rw9VhmtZgp3FUjlT3vE-3M7dp_eoB40HTEvH8M4h0/s1600/jeannet+Walls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE5WL5NSOfpUOvGjNy3IXIOdxlXzrXqd6hTunT0Cp6oYs_EJ4gR1mIhJNV01iAIfPL44fdBGlMPT9qPM65ZeOB2Md4yl0HgqNzv2rw9VhmtZgp3FUjlT3vE-3M7dp_eoB40HTEvH8M4h0/s1600/jeannet+Walls.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 14px;"><br /></span></div><br /><br />Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-78550530971375066762011-06-30T07:05:00.001-07:002012-07-29T19:11:21.176-07:00ON BLACK SISTER STREET by Chika Unigwe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTG1nzTpbMWa4Is6X_eou6djxaHTg3sbJuq-4KTQuYzbS1Flf9YztIDsFmb6l0WPRUZp5_yJstNO2dEKqV5lcthEtT0jr9JTLs5_xhHycYKIwlE8sBCqaV7f_JdlVvWJ2vXBX21j7gm1w/s1600/on+black+sisters+street+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTG1nzTpbMWa4Is6X_eou6djxaHTg3sbJuq-4KTQuYzbS1Flf9YztIDsFmb6l0WPRUZp5_yJstNO2dEKqV5lcthEtT0jr9JTLs5_xhHycYKIwlE8sBCqaV7f_JdlVvWJ2vXBX21j7gm1w/s320/on+black+sisters+street+%25281%2529.jpg" width="209" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />5/5</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"></span></div><br /><ul style="list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: disc; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 350px;"><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Pub. Date: April 2011</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Publisher: Random House Publishing Group</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Sold By: Random House</li><br /><li style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Format: NOOK Book (eBook)</li><br /></ul><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 10px;"><br /></span></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><br /><b></b><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="w-box" data-bn-role="ui:swap-who" itemprop="description" style="display: block; height: 307px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; zoom: 1;"><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /><i style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">On Black Sisters Street</i> tells the haunting story of four very different women who have left their African homeland for the riches of Europe—and who are thrown together by bad luck and big dreams into a sisterhood that will change their lives.</div><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />Each night, Sisi, Ama, Efe, and Joyce stand in the windows of Antwerp’s red-light district, promising to make men’s desires come true—if only for half an hour. Pledged to the fierce Madam and a mysterious pimp named Dele, the girls share an apartment but little else—they keep their heads down, knowing that one step out of line could cost them a week’s wages. They open their bodies to strangers but their hearts to no one, each focused on earning enough to get herself free, to send money home or save up for her own future.</div><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />Then, suddenly, a murder shatters the still surface of their lives. Drawn together by tragedy and the loss of one of their own, the women realize that they must choose between their secrets and their safety. As they begin to tell their stories, their confessions reveal the face in Efe’s hidden photograph, Ama’s lifelong search for a father, Joyce’s true name, and Sisi’s deepest secrets—-and all their tales of fear, displacement, and love, concluding in a chance meeting with a handsome, sinister stranger.</div><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br /><i style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">On Black Sisters Street</i> marks the U.S. publication debut of Chika Unigwe, a brilliant new writer and a standout voice among contemporary<i style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"> </i>African authors. Raw, vivid, unforgettable, and inspired by a powerful oral storytelling tradition, this novel illuminates the dream of the West—and that dream’s illusion and annihilation—as seen through African eyes. It is a story of courage, unity, and hope, of women’s friendships and of bonds that, once forged, cannot be broken.</div><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 7px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br /><div style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><br /><br /></div><br /></div><br /><div style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.4em;"><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, 'Browser Default'; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, 'Browser Default'; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, 'Browser Default'; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, 'Browser Default'; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, 'Browser Default'; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, 'Browser Default'; font-size: x-small; line-height: normal;">Chika Unigwe was born in Enugu, Nigeria, and now lives in Turnhout, Belgium, with her husband and four children.</span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Verdana, 'Browser Default'; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"><br />She holds a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and an MA from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. She also holds a PhD from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, having completed a thesis entitled "In the shadow of Ala. Igbo women writing as an act of righting" in 2004.</div><br /><div style="font-family: Verdana, 'Browser Default'; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"><br />Chika Unigwe is the author of fiction, poetry, articles and educational material. She won the 2003 BBC Short Story Competition for her story "Borrowed Smile", a Commonwealth Short Story Award for "Weathered Smiles" and a Flemish literary prize for "De Smaak van Sneeuw", her first short story written in Dutch. "The Secret", another of her short pieces, was nominated for the 2004 Caine Prize. She was the recipient of a 2007 Unesco-Aschberg fellowship for creative writing, and of a 2009 Rockefeller Foundation fellowship for creative writing. </div><br /><div style="font-family: Verdana, 'Browser Default'; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizHnP47BaYlO_7lxuBwUPOvl1rSb6VEvlbT0NfnzP54mXAsFdkmnICLVVRsks6UfjX8UQF3-dKu6ahBPvGBn_JXEH81AwrprpiWjmBi4n84CnE3mPi-0qwIxUPZy-zBcVJTnj666nqu7I/s1600/on+black1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizHnP47BaYlO_7lxuBwUPOvl1rSb6VEvlbT0NfnzP54mXAsFdkmnICLVVRsks6UfjX8UQF3-dKu6ahBPvGBn_JXEH81AwrprpiWjmBi4n84CnE3mPi-0qwIxUPZy-zBcVJTnj666nqu7I/s200/on+black1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div style="font-family: Verdana, 'Browser Default'; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"><br /><br /></div>Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1559276717445091788.post-35224909595243803672011-05-15T10:20:00.001-07:002012-07-29T19:11:21.153-07:00LITTLE PRINCES by Conor Grennan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSfMwdsPWl6YsaFlQrIXuuHnCxSAATNgUgMbqWpvqPge90wxcBxXwmYtnEfIAPBLwEji0S8dMYQulUJXI-dqNhpAcjqqK58B0OuASq3VE6pN8PKaIVhXx4t31M1t0I9FUkozCS-dKqq7s/s1600/littleprincesweb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSfMwdsPWl6YsaFlQrIXuuHnCxSAATNgUgMbqWpvqPge90wxcBxXwmYtnEfIAPBLwEji0S8dMYQulUJXI-dqNhpAcjqqK58B0OuASq3VE6pN8PKaIVhXx4t31M1t0I9FUkozCS-dKqq7s/s400/littleprincesweb.jpg" width="265" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />Please visit Conor Grennan's website where you can find information should you want to help.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Author Website :<span style="color: #6fa8dc;"> <span style="color: magenta;"></span></span><a href="http://www.nextgenerationnepal.org/" style="color: magenta; font-weight: normal;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">click here</span></a></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br />5/5</div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><li><b>Paperback:</b> 304 pages </li><br /><li><b>Publisher:</b> HarperCollins Publishers (February 2011) </li><br /><li><b>Language:</b> English </li><br /><li><b>ISBN-10:</b> 0007354177 </li><br /><br /><br /><div align="left"><br /><br /></div><br /><div align="left"><br />Synopsis:</div><br /><div align="left" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />In search of adventure, 29-year-old Conor Grennan traded his day job for a year-long trip around the globe, a journey that began with a three-month stint volunteering at the Little Princes Children’s Home, an orphanage in war-torn Nepal.</div><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhin4WbB9x06JMF4ducSIbSEZLV0S028Dx2t_Zsfq6DpHCi6y0wmI0tTWUX_7W7ddKhq6FM2YCUNsLIlmSKFE5gSK6e1C8C69JvHy1vFxNqRjgLo4zBFiKpudm1_su5h3UwmvtRsfuNOOk/s1600/nepal-map.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="110" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhin4WbB9x06JMF4ducSIbSEZLV0S028Dx2t_Zsfq6DpHCi6y0wmI0tTWUX_7W7ddKhq6FM2YCUNsLIlmSKFE5gSK6e1C8C69JvHy1vFxNqRjgLo4zBFiKpudm1_su5h3UwmvtRsfuNOOk/s200/nepal-map.gif" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />Conor was initially reluctant to volunteer, unsure whether he had the proper skill, or enough passion, to get involved in a developing country in the middle of a civil war. But he was soon overcome by the herd of rambunctious, resilient children who would challenge and reward him in a way that he had never imagined. When Conor learned the unthinkable truth about their situation, he was stunned: The children were not orphans at all. Child traffickers were promising families in remote villages to protect their children from the civil war—for a huge fee—by taking them to safety. They would then abandon the children far from home, in the chaos of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKdnqZ34eepHTAX7l8I4XlQNYgQBYDJ8EVbq-jH9RMfFwsJNq8vQcuBgkVIvlac2vssorstt91lWK_OCNnejLR3gGtiGkGbwglu77xBAl_RYEj925TSjo6eY4-wXcZKhJ_pAxbIci2LlU/s1600/nepal1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKdnqZ34eepHTAX7l8I4XlQNYgQBYDJ8EVbq-jH9RMfFwsJNq8vQcuBgkVIvlac2vssorstt91lWK_OCNnejLR3gGtiGkGbwglu77xBAl_RYEj925TSjo6eY4-wXcZKhJ_pAxbIci2LlU/s320/nepal1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />"Dahulagiri" children, Conor's home for trafficked children</div><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />For Conor, what began as a footloose adventure becomes a commitment to reunite the children he had grown to love with their families, but this would be no small task. He would risk his life on a journey through the legendary mountains of Nepal, facing the dangers of a bloody civil war and a debilitating injury. Waiting for Conor back in Kathmandu, and hopeful he would make it out before being trapped in by snow, was the woman who would eventually become his wife and share his life’s work. HUMLA</div><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidHLKMGT0-BQiU6Qx_T1Ho2rchrjE5AD9YJl1rAkkxf5CnZQL_2yueySyz8XpMiOcmplr-5M_DbNrHkowfV1pN2CPfOxsOcD6LvoaPlyMaqQRD1sWMf6eX5ij0vrhyphenhyphenFneyE1SbBnktD3o/s1600/nepal3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidHLKMGT0-BQiU6Qx_T1Ho2rchrjE5AD9YJl1rAkkxf5CnZQL_2yueySyz8XpMiOcmplr-5M_DbNrHkowfV1pN2CPfOxsOcD6LvoaPlyMaqQRD1sWMf6eX5ij0vrhyphenhyphenFneyE1SbBnktD3o/s200/nepal3.jpg" width="200" /></a><em>Little Princes</em> is a true story of families and children, and what one person is capable of when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. At turns tragic, joyful, and hilarious, <em>Little Princes</em> is a testament to the power of faith and the ability of love to carry us beyond our wildest expectations.</div><br /><br /><br />Conor Grennan<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZGGpyq1dVh0xChNDhK-tsNSVC8konU04Av4FzYvz2wveornAr_odDOflcQYhZWm5ECJAI4tyTaXmZrrcIA4AZhwoOaPxqdRJLzRzEeysKxKyeD106nAmvEZ-KNMnvXi9YeitVY7KrXTU/s1600/nepal2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><img border="0" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZGGpyq1dVh0xChNDhK-tsNSVC8konU04Av4FzYvz2wveornAr_odDOflcQYhZWm5ECJAI4tyTaXmZrrcIA4AZhwoOaPxqdRJLzRzEeysKxKyeD106nAmvEZ-KNMnvXi9YeitVY7KrXTU/s1600/nepal2.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /> </div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><br /> </div><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><br /></div>Madeleinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14624058636860716664noreply@blogger.com6