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R7: SS Goal Diggers (8)***Winners***
I would roll, but I think we are still needing Bouchra's review.
Dawn wrote: "I would roll, but I think we are still needing Bouchra's review."Yes we are. I messaged her.
So, if we don't hear from Bouchra soon, I assume we're going to use the pass?
Ha, Marty! I was just typing the same question!
Kim wrote: "Ha, Marty! I was just typing the same question!"Great minds, ya know! ;)
Mod
I think I also pm'd Bouchra yesterday. I haven't heard back so I don't think she's around
Hi guys, got your PMs, will be replying soon. Just going to write the review for Tales of a Female Nomad and post it up here in a bit.Sorry for disappearing, but I thought I'd posted about the book I chose to read last Friday itself?
we did get your book from last week. I just ask if your not done by Thursday just let us know how soon you will be. we are all anxious to roll. =)
Yes, I'm sorry about that, I'm just a bit overwhelmed with work these days and don't get to finish before Thursday. Hopefully this roll I'll get to read a shorter/fiction book, which I can finish in a shorter period of time.
Roll 3, Spot 29
Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World
Relevance: Title starts with T
Date Finished: 06/02/2016
Rating: ***
Review: I've always been obsessed with the idea of travel, and only recently I was introduced to the idea of nomadic living. This book is an interesting take, because Rita's experience is a bit different from the others I've read about, with her travels starting in the 80s.
I look forward to someday being able to visit some of the places mentioned in this book. I'm always on the lookout for interesting things to add to my never-ending bucket list.
Week 3 ~ Roll ~ 9 Spot 29 Alternate ~ Title "T"Mandy ~ Fire Touched -Review
Debbie (Doc) ~ The Mistake - Review
Marty ~ Revenant - Review
Dawn ~ Wildest Dreams - Review
Bouchra ~ Tales of a Female Nomad - Review
Kim ~ One False Note - Review
6 of 6 complete
Roll 4Rolled 6 + 4 = 10, we're on spot 39 now.
Can read #3, #9, or #39 in a series.
Alternate: Fairy Tale Retellings.
Mod
Mod
by Robyn Carr# of pages - 379
How the book qualifies: #3 in Thunder Point"
I loved this book (and this series).
Super excited to get to read the 3rd in the Land of Stories series:
ThatEzi wrote: "Debbie (Doc) wrote: "New Spot #39 by Robyn Carr# of pages - 379
How the book qualifies: #3 in Thunder Point"
I loved this book (and this series)."
'
I really like the audio on this series. The narrator is one of my favorites!
I'm still choosing, but do you think The Princess Bride by William Goldman would be considered a retelling of a fairy tale?? It came up on a Listopia list as a retelling, but I thought it was it's own unique story. Do any of you know?
I've read it and if it were me, I'd say it was not a retelling. I can't think of what story it could possibly be retelling. I would agree that I think it's its own unique story.
Kim wrote: "I've read it and if it were me, I'd say it was not a retelling. I can't think of what story it could possibly be retelling. I would agree that I think it's its own unique story."That's what I thought too. I'll continue looking through my books. Thanks for the input, Kim!
Don't get me started on that book. Seriously. I've started typing about it in this text box no less than six times and it turns into a psychotic rant every time. And I have to say to myself, out loud, "Just NO, Kim. These people don't need to see your psychotic side."I kept on writing after the above paragraph and deleted that two times. So, really, we're on eight times.
(PUSH THE POST BUTTON AND LEAVE IT ALONE <- me yelling at myself out loud)
Kim wrote: "Don't get me started on that book. Seriously. I've started typing about it in this text box no less than six times and it turns into a psychotic rant every time. And I have to say to myself, out lo..."OMG I want to know what you really think!!!!
Dawn wrote: "Okay, I found one. It is The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy.
"Oh that's a great choice! I read it a few years ago and loved it. I hope you enjoy it.
Kim wrote: "You asked for it! Read at your own risk. Contains spoilers!The story itself is very, very good. I've been watching the movie since before I could walk. I just finally picked up the book last year..."
INCONCEIVABLE!! (Sorry. Had to.)
That's really interesting. I've never heard any of this before. It reminds me of the whole Lemony Snicket thing.
Oh lord. I was planning on reading the first book in that series this month. I'm not sure my sanity can take it.
OMG!!! It's been on my TBR Forever. That's so heartbreaking. I'm just going to love the movie.
It really, really is a brilliant book. It just made me so mad because I fell for the ruse and I should have known better. You really should read it. But read it going in knowing it for what it is instead of being horribly horribly gullible like me.
Kim wrote: "It really, really is a brilliant book. It just made me so mad because I fell for the ruse and I should have known better. You really should read it. But read it going in knowing it for what it is i..."I'm super gullible. If you hasn't said anything I would have been just like you too.
For "the joke" to carry on for so many years isn't even funny anymore. It's just mean. It can't even be a marketing ploy anymore because the movie has made that story so cult-classic famous already, it doesn't need a gimmick. Now when I read it, I want to figure out if the "humor" of that coincides with how the author writes/thinks.As far as Lemony Snicket goes, Kim, the author (Dan Handler) pretended to be a liaison, a.k.a. the handler for "the author", Lemony Snicket. He would go all in and speak about "the author" as a separate entity. It was confusing at first because people thought the real author was eccentric and in hiding or something. The name, Lemony Snicket, was obviously a pseudonym, but for whom? That's how it was all played off and it was a mystery. Who knows? Maybe that was just me. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention. Maybe I was the gullible one that time around! ;) People who interviewed him, though, also played along. It was a good marketing ploy.
Oh yes. Sounds super similar. I'm glad you said something because my self esteem can't take much more! Ha ha!
I'm planning to read the third book in the Sancti series by Simon Toyne.
Completion PostWeek 4
Spot: 39
Book: A Grimm Warning by Chris Colfer
Qualification: 3rd in Series (3)
Rating & Review: 4 Stars
I just love this series. It has quickly become one of my favorites. Colfer has such a way with words. And his audio narration is in a league of its own. I'm curious if I'm enjoying the books more because of how good his narration is. Excited to read Book 4 and then wait for Book 5 to come out this summer.
Week 4 - RetellingRead -
Blackhearts by Nicole CastromanFinished - 2/09/16
Rating - 4 star
Review
I like Anne she’s a stubborn strong willed girl living in a world that sees her as a second class citizen. While Anne has been treated like a second class citizen she actually deserves to be an equal but never good enough to be with Teach at least in his father’s eyes. I like Teach he’s a perfect complement for Anne they both dream of leaving the torturous lives they are forced to live. I like the sweet romance between the two they complement each other very well.
I’ve had this one on my kindle for a while but wanted to wait till closer to the publication date to give it a shot. I’ve not read a lot of books about Blackbeard so I was excited by the prospect of a story about him before he was the pirate I’m so familiar with. I found the concept unique it was interesting to see Teach before he’s the scary pirate. I found Anne and Teach’s story captivating it’s a whirl wind romance that sparked the imagination. I liked the characters they are easy to connect with and because we are given both stories I felt that I really got to know them well. I enjoyed Blackhearts while it’s not so much about the pirate but the man before it’s a beautifully written romance story. I enjoyed every page of Blackhearts it’s a quick paced novel that captures the heart. I can’t wait for another installment because I'm not ready for it to end like this.
I will be posting my review tomorrow. Just letting you all know!
I probably will be too. I'm reading as fast as I can, but I don't think I will have it finished tonight.
Spot #39
by Robyn CarrHow the book qualified: #3 in Thunder Point
Completed: 2/9
3.50 Stars
The Hero is book 3 of Robyn Carr’s Thunder Point series. I have really enjoyed this series so far but found that this one was lacking for me. I would have liked more character building of Spencer and possibly Devon. I found Devon’s predicament to be unbelievable. She did not appear to me to have recently left a commune. I did enjoy learning more about Rawley who has been in the last two books. It was nice to see that Rawley had a pre-made family. Devon and her daughter softened old Rawley who quickly embraced the two as his own.
Devon and her 3 year old daughter fled from a commune where she realized that she was in danger. Rawley just happened to be driving and spotted the two. He took them to Thunder Point where he gave Devon and the tot a place to live. Like several other Thunder Point residents, Devon was immediately welcomed and met Spencer, who was recently widowed.
Spencer was introduced in the last book, and before his wife passed away they found out that their son wasn’t Spencer’s.
Spencer moved to Thunder Point to take the head coach position at the local high school. This move also put Spencer and his son close to Cooper, who was recently told that Austin was Cooper’s. Spencer certainly wasn’t looking for love so soon after his wife’s death. With Spencer’s help, Devon began to slowly put her life back together.
I love Robyn Carr and will definitely continue with the series. I want to learn more about the citizens of Thunder Point.
Just wanted to let you all know that I'll be running a bit late, but should be done before Friday afternoon.
Week 4, Spot 39#3 in a series, The Madman's Daughter
by Megan Shepherd - 2/11/16Rating: 2 stars
Disappointing. That pretty much sums up my reaction to this last book in The Madman's Daughter trilogy. I loved the first book, was okay with the second book, but this one? It had so much potential - the love triangle between Juliette, the main character, Montgomery, whom she finally marries and Edward with whom she had a frightening attraction, the Frankenstein angle, Dr. Moreau's horrific plans to be revealed. Really, the two boys don't figure too deeply in this edition - they pretty much faded into the background. The romance of Juliette and Montgomery is flimsy at best. Edward seems like an afterthought here, a half-hearted bit of scenery.
That aside, the book was sort of saved by the Frankenstein angle - the manor that the three are hiding out in is based on Frankenstein's house and the medical experiments there referenced both Juliette's father's and Victor Frankenstein's. The problem is that Juliette's shocking attempts at recreating these experiments is an almost unbelievable character reversal for her, given the fact that she was a victim of her father's own animal to human surgeries and her experiences on his island of horrors. It just didn't ring true, unless she was mentally ill, which I suppose could be the argument for her behavior.
It's never a good sign when the setting in the novel is more interesting than the plot or the characters. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened here. There were so many missed opportunities to make this a truly fascinating final chapter in the trilogy.
Mod
Dear, you should really think about whether you can really fit this challenge into your RL stuff. It may be too much for you to meet your deadlines. Think about it and make sure you can be consistent and remembering to post weekly!
**Team 8: you still have your Free Pass to use...
This is a GREAT book, ladies! Week 4, Retelling of a fairy tale.
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel Louise Murphy, 2-11-16 (5*) review
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel,
A Novel of War and Survival
by Louise Murphy
This is considered a retelling of the fairy tale referred to in the book's title, using the primeval Bialowieza Forest in Eastern Poland during World War II as the setting. It follows the struggle for survival of two Jewish children (aged 7 and 11), their father, and stepmother, as they try to outrun and outwit the Nazis. After a hasty and heartbreaking decision to try and give the children a chance to avoid being caught, the adults separate themselves from the children, leaving them alone in the forest. As the adults speed away on a motorcycle before the Nazis down the road notice what they are doing, the children are given last-second instructions to find a farm or someone to take them in, to never let anyone see the little boy without clothes on, and to never use their real names. Instead, their names should be "Hansel" and "Gretel". They promise to come back and find the children. Of course, the adults know that keeping that promise is very improbable.
They do end up finding an old woman who lives in a little hut outside the village of Piaski who is willing to take them in. She is called Magda the Witch by the villagers, as she is rumored to come from Gypsies and serves as the local midwife. Add in her withered and stooped appearance, her gift of "sight", the extremely large bread oven in her tiny home (which was given to her after she delivered the local baker's set of twins), her lovely widowed/pregnant niece and the local woodsman who loves her. The multiple connections to the fabled story threaded throughout the book add something special to the tale. Rather than the scary being we have become accustomed to in the witch's role, however, in actuality, Magda is a kindly and wise woman who turns out to be the children's savior on several occasions. She also serves as the voice of narrator for this tale.
The majority of the story takes place in the little village of Piaski, and the outlying forest which it is nestled within. Piaski's population (minus the Gypsies, Jews, simpletons, and other "undesirables" who have already been taken away or killed) is down to around 50 persons, all of whom live in a constant state of fear of the Nazi security police who rule over the town. Among the villagers, of course, common to any town of that time period, are collaborators--whom the townsfolk fear as much as the SS--as well as members of the resistance who meet in secret with partisans in the forest.
Among the villagers, moral/ethical choices have to be made which test the limits of the human capacity for committing acts of bravery or falling to cowardice. You can see how in certain circumstances the fear people carry, if they aren't able to overcome it, could cause them to make decisions they normally wouldn't make and which would be impossible to live with later. Either way, they may have been doomed. For some, their fight for survival could have been in vain because of later succumbing to the weight of their own guilt. The ingenuity and skill for finding the balance required to survive could bring anyone to the breaking point.
In saying that, however, you can't explain away true evil. The SS were pure evil. It's hard to imagine so many disturbed people coming out of the woodwork and using war as the excuse and opportunity to let their evil out to play. It's unfathomable. Medical experiments, the unfeeling methods of killing millions, the ability to intentionally cause pain or humiliation or degradation to other human beings, even holding the thought that others are subhuman, the disconnect that must be there in order to pick up a baby and smash its head against something in order to kill it, or to rape a child, etc., and the ability to enjoy doing these unconscionable things. There never will be an explanation for it other than pure evil.
"This is Hell. God couldn't invent anything worse. The Nazis have exceeded the imagination of God."
"Sacrilege."
"God shouldn't have let this killing happen. God should have stopped it."
"God didn't come down and kill us. I don't see God shooting children and priests. None of us met God beating up Jews and shoving them into railroad cars. This is men doing the murdering. Talk to men about their evil, kill the evil men, but pray to God. You can't expect God to come down and do our living for us. We have to do that ourselves."
The story goes back and forth as we see how everyone tries to make their way back to each other. At times, it is Tarantino-esque as their lives intertwine without them being wise to it. It's frustrating as the reader to see their missed opportunities to find out information, but it fits in so well with the subject matter, the time period, the region, and all the questions that have gone unanswered for the multitudes of people wishing for some knowledge of their loved ones' fate.
The children are obviously forced to grow up quickly in order to survive. They are incredibly brave and intelligent. Even in normal circumstances, children back then were much different than children today. I think the majority of them started off more practical out of necessity. My own father was around the same age as these kids during WW2, and although he was from America and out of any physical danger, he was born during the Depression and lived in a cave house dug out of the dirt for his early years, and he was already working outside of the home at age 9, and it was expected. That would be unheard of today. I think his experience as a child of doing what had to be done is what made him the kind of guy who could do pretty much anything and had many skills as an adult. He also was able to roll with the punches, no matter what life threw at him.
Of course, I have no idea how he would have handled seeing what his European counterparts had to see/do/live through. The horrors faced in Europe (and later in the Pacific) were on a scale so far above what anyone should be expected to face. It truly was hell on earth. I'm amazed by the strength of the human spirit and how people are able to walk through hell and come out the other side.
"See the stars? I know what they are. All those stars in that big streak that goes over the whole sky? You see them? Those are all the Jews who've died. All of them died and went up in the air, and the stars are the stars that they wore on their coats. The stars on the coats come off when their souls float up and the stars live up in the sky forever."
"That's awful."
"No it isn't. It's lovely. They'll be there forever."
Dawn wrote: "This is a GREAT book, ladies! Week 4, Retelling of a fairy tale.
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel Louise Murphy, 2-11-16 (5..."
Nice review! I've had this on my TBR for a while. Maybe, I should move it up!
Dawn wrote: "This is a GREAT book, ladies! Week 4, Retelling of a fairy tale.
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel Louise Murphy, 2-11-16 (5..."
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I really thought it was a fantastic story too.
The Challenge Factory
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Week 3
Wildest Dreams by Robyn Carr
#9 Thunder Point
Fairly disappointing inclusion in the Thunder Point series. This one centers around Lin Su Simmons and her 14yo son, Charlie. Lin Su is Winnie Banks' home health nurse. Winnie has bonded with Charlie and wants him to come to work with his mom, so they have all developed a tight relationship in just a few months. It's become like a big happy family with Winnie, her daughter and SIL, Grace and Troy, the devoted Mikhael (Grace's former ice skating coach and dear friend to Winnie). They have all enfolded Lin Su and Charlie into the mix.
Their new neighbor, Blake Smiley, has moved in and Charlie befriends him instantly. Blake is an Ironman triathlete and trains year round. Much of the book centers around the grueling training and lifestyle commitment that is required for professional athletes.
Lin Su is an overprotective mother, worried about Charlie's severe asthma. Fairly normal for a mother who has almost lost her child to health issues in the past. Because Charlie is now 14, however, she really has to learn to start letting go a bit as he needs to learn to monitor his own body and start to be responsible for his own health. That control of his care is hard for Lin Su to relinquish but eventually figures out that she is smothering him. Control in general is extremely hard for her to relinquish, in all aspects of her life. Because of that, she causes more problems for herself than is necessary. Her biggest problem is her own pride.
The romance between Blake and Lin Su is started mainly in their own heads, as they both are very slow in showing emotion to each other. If the author didn't give us a glimpse into their thoughts, it would come as a complete shock that they were even interested in each other. Lin Su was sniping at him all the time and they both seem to be equally stubborn.
Problems arise when Lin Su discovers her son has been going behind her back to find out information she refuses to share with him. Unfortunately, he also drew Blake into what Lin considered a betrayal of her trust and they find themselves in a sticky wicket. Charlie's curiosity, however, does provide answers to some long-held questions and hopefully some closure for Lin Su. I hope she ends up happy, anyway, because otherwise she'll make Blake miserable. She's a tough nut.