Enquiring Minds & A Little Personal Time!

This Monday is Victoria Day in Canada.  And while most people recognize Queen Victoria for what she has accomplished, I also believe most people celebrate her today because of the holiday.  I know I am looking forward to a three-day weekend; three blissful days at the trailer where I can hopefully relax and read, go hiking and biking, and do some more sightseeing trips with the kiddies.  And hopefully, we will get a break from the RAIN!!!!!  

Enquiring Minds Want to Know is hosted by Dollycas's Thoughts.  It's a series of three fun questions that allows readers to get a tiny glimpse into the personal lives of bloggers, something we don't always see because we focus so much on books.  I also tend to guard my privacy, almost too much, so it's nice to do a post once in a while, and share a little bit about me.

1. When you were little what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a WITCH!!!  It sounds weird, but I was fascinated by all things paranormal and my mom told me that my goal as a child was to be a witch.  If I couldn't, then I wanted to be what most little girls wanted to be be, a princess.  The paranormal thing is still central to my life, and I tend to be drawn by novels that have paranormal elements to them first. 

2. Did you go to college?
I went to university, three of them and have three degrees.  I have an Honours Bachelor's Degree in Physical Education, a Bachelor's Degree in Education, and a Master's Degree in Education.   I thrive on schooling and was also accepted to pursue my studies for my Doctorate several years ago, something I have been deferring due to time limitations plus I have two children who need me more than I need a Doctorate's at the moment.  I figure when my children are off to university, I will have more time to pursue further education. 

3. Do you attend your high school or college reunions?
Not a chance.  It's not that I didn't enjoy university or high school, but I have no desire to revisit old haunts.  I tend to live in the present and don't really revisit the past very often.  I have no desire whatsoever to go to any of my reunions.

http://btt2.wordpress.com/

Question: In contrast to last week’s question–What do you think of censoring books BECAUSE of their intended age? Say, books too “old” for your kids to read?


I'm not in favour of censoring books at all.  I would not have been happy as a child being told I couldn't read something because of my age as I always thought it depended on your maturity level as well as your individual knowledge and experience.  I was well-travelled and my parents always insisted that I learned things about the outside world, that my experience was always greater than what was around me, so I always felt I was more mature than other people my age.  Plus, as I was very widely read, I learned a lot from newspapers, journals, encyclopedias, novels, and so on, that I felt I could handle reading anything that came before me.  If I had questions about what I was reading, I always felt comfortable asking my parents, and we had some great dinner discussions because of the questions I asked.  I encourage my children to do the same thing in their reading.  Obviously, they will come across concepts they will not fully understand until they are older, but does that mean they shouldn't read the books?  No way, not in my world.  It's generated fantastic discussions in my household too, and I want that to continue.  There are many levels to learning.



Giveaway: Central Park Knight by C.J. Henderson

Thanks to Alexis at Tor/Forge, I have one (1) copy of CENTRAL PARK KNIGHT by C.J. Henderson to give away to one of my lucky readers. 

Professor Piers Knight is the Brooklyn Museum's very own Indiana Jones. His specialties include lost civilizations, arcane cultures, and more than a little bit of the history of magic and mysticism. What his contemporaries don't know is that he is also proficient in the uses of magical artifacts. Knight receives a chilling message from Tian Lu, a former lover and an agent for the Chinese government. Years ago, they made a frightening discovery at an archaeological dig when out of the depths rose...a living, fire-breathing dragon. Now, the dragons are waking again from their slumber before their scheduled time. And one particularly diabolical dragon is set on eliminating the others and taking over the world. As civilization plunges into panic, Knight, Lu, Knight's seventeen-year-old techie intern George Rainert, and an untrustworthy dragon ally must use all their resources - magical and otherwise - to stop the destruction before it's too late.

Giveaway

Open to residents of Canada and the United States only.

Contest ends 31 May, 2011.

Mandatory Entry:  Comment on this post, and include your email address.

Good luck, everyone!

New Releases: May 16 - 22

This weekend is Victoria Day in Canada and I can't wait.  It means another three-day weekend for us energy-sapped workers who are in desperate need of a small break.  I am looking forward to heading to my trailer and getting in some serious reading time.  Hopefully, the weather will improve as I am getting really tired of seeing and hearing the rain; and that's saying a lot as I normally like rain.  If it does rain, I will be curling up in front of the fire (I am so sorry for the pun!) and reading, reading, reading.  Here are some of the books I am looking forward to picking up this week:

Queen of Kings
by Maria Dahvana Headley
Release Date: May 17, 2011

Passion and seduction, witches and warriors, and history and mythology combine to bring the timeless story of Cleopatra to life like never before in this stunningly original and spellbinding debut.

The year is 30 BC. A messenger delivers word to Queen Cleopatra that her beloved husband, Antony, has died at his own hand. Desperate to save her kingdom and resurrect her husband, Cleopatra summons the most fearsome warrior goddess, Sekhmet, and against the warnings of her scholars she strikes a mortal bargain. But not even the wisest scholars could have predicted what would follow...

The Jefferson Key
by Steve Berry
Release Date: May 17, 2011

Cotton Malone has been called on to defend his country's safety in many exotic locations around the world, often using his knowledge of history to get to the heart of mysteries and conspiracies stretching back for centuries. But never has the danger been quite so close to home.A stunning opening sets the tone of explosive action and mind-bending intrigue as Cotton battles an extraordinary group of families whose unseen influence dates back to the pages of the U.S. Constitution - and whose thirst for power is about to be satisfied by the craking of a code devised by Thomas Jefferson himself.

Embassytown
by China Mieville
Release Date: May 17, 2011

In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to the enigmatic Ariekei, sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak.

Avice Benner Cho, a human colonist, has returned to Embassytown after years of deep-space adventure. She cannot speak the Ariekei tongue, but she is an indelible part of it, having long ago been made a figure of speech, a living simile in their language.

When distant political machinations deliver a new ambassador to Arieka, the fragile equilibrium between humans and aliens is violently upset. Catastrophe looms, and Avice is torn between competing loyalties - to a husband she no longer loves, to a system she no longer trusts, and to her place in a language she cannot speak yet speaks through her.

Desperate Measures
by Laura Summers
Release Date: May 17, 2011

Vicky has always felt responsible for her mentally disabled twin sister, Rhianna, and their feisty little brother, Jamie. So when the foster care system threatens to split them up, they all run away together, heading for a distant relative's home. After a difficult journey, they arrive-only to find strangers living there. With nowhere else to go, they hide in a cave, and must survive by their wits. By the end of their adventure, Vicky is surprised to find that the sister she thought she was protecting is the one who saves her.

City of the Dead
by Sara Gran
Release Date: May 18, 2011

Claire DeWitt is not your average private investigator. She has brilliant deductive skills and is an ace at discovering evidence. But Claire also uses her dreams, omens, and mind-expanding herbs to help her solve mysteries, and relies on Détection - the only book published by the late, great, and mysterious French detective Jacques Silette.

The tattooed, pot-smoking Claire has just arrived in post-Katrina New Orleans, the city she's avoided since her mentor, Silette's student Constance Darling, was murdered there. Claire is investigating the disappearance of Vic Willing, a prosecutor known for winning convictions in a homicide- plagued city. Has an angry criminal enacted revenge on Vic? Or did he use the storm as a means to disappear? Claire follows the clues, finding old friends and making new enemies - foremost among them Andray Fairview, a young gang member who just might hold the key to the mystery.

Fragile

by Lisa Unger
Release Date: May 17, 2011 (Paperback)

Everybody knows everybody in The Hollows, a quaint, charming town outside of New York City. It’s a place where neighbors keep an eye on one another’s kids, where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten. As a child, Maggie found living under the microscope of small-town life stifling. But as a wife and mother, she has happily returned to The Hollows’s insular embrace. As a psychologist, her knowledge of family histories provides powerful insights into her patients’ lives. So when the girlfriend of her teenage son, Rick, disappears, Maggie’s intuitive gift proves useful to the case—and also dangerous.

Eerie parallels soon emerge between Charlene’s disappearance and the abduction of another local girl that shook the community years ago when Maggie was a teenager. The investigation has her husband, Jones, the lead detective on the case, acting strangely. Rick, already a brooding teenager, becomes even more withdrawn. In a town where the past is always present, nobody is above suspicion, not even a son in the eyes of his father.

Tornado Hunter
by Stefan Bechtel with Tim Samaras
Release Date: May 18, 2011

In the first of five you-are-there accounts, Tornado Hunter opens with a moment-by-moment description of the 2003 catastrophe that engulfed Manchester, South Dakota. The authors evoke the doomed town and its people; the dark menacing funnel; and Samaras’s fearless advance into the whirlwind’s core to deploy the ingenious equipment he devised. They interweave the tornado chaser’s passion, the fascinating science of the storms themselves, and six decades of progress in predicting and recording their onslaught?an art beholden to Samaras’s own ground-breaking inventions.

Like the deadly tornadoes it documents, this potent combination of high adventure and hard science is terrifyingly timely in our era of global warming and climate change. Tim Samaras’s 2004 article in National Geographic became one of the most widely read in the magazine’s history

Review: Hellforged by Nancy Holzner

Hellforged (Deadtown, Book 2)
by Nancy Holzner
Release Date: December 28, 2010
2010 Ace Books
Trade Paperback Edition; 340 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-441-01980-9
Genre: Fiction / Urban Fantasy
Source: Review Copy from Publisher

4 / 5 Stars

Summary
After Vicky banished her demon nemesis to the fiery depths of Hell, she thought life would return to normal.  But considering she has a werewolf lawyer boyfriend, a zombie apprentice who's angling to become a pop star, and an eccentric vampire roommate, what is normal anyway?

Then the supposedly banished Hellion starts to trespass in Vicky's dreams - just as several of Deadtown's zombies are viciously attacked and become really dead.  When Vicky realizes she's the only connection between the realms, she suspects that the demon is somehow working through her dreams to become Deadtown's living nightmare.

My Thoughts
When I first started reading this novel, I was afraid that I would find it difficult reading as I had not read Deadtown, the first novel in this series.  Like all sequels, there is always the chance that starting with the second book is never a good thing as you would have no idea what is going on, or who the characters are, or some of the background.  Luckily, this was not the case with this novel, and while I didn't feel like I needed to read Deadtown in order to understand the events in Hellforged, I enjoyed Hellforged so much that I want to read the first book just to get a deeper undertanding of this new world in which I find myself embroiled.

Apparently having saved the world from the evil demon Difethwr, Vicky has resumed her normal job as a professional demon-hunter, hunting them in both the living world and in the world of dreams.  To her utter amazement, Difethwr appears to her in a dream-state, uttering a prophecy about the end of the world.  Scared, unsure, and unable to sleep without someone getting hurt, in particular her zombie friends with which she has contact, Vicky seeks out the one person who can help her, Aunt Mab, an exceptionally strong demon-hunter living in Wales, and her own personal trainer. 

There were some really enjoyable elements in this novel.  First of all, I loved the characters and their zany quirks and personality traits.  Deadtown is a really imaginative place where people with paranormal abilities must live; they also have limited rights in some states and almost no rights in others.  I was trying to imagine what this would be like for people who can't help the way they were born and really struggled with this concept.  The political flare-ups and the discrimination seemed very realistic as many people who believe in monsters don't necessarily want them showing up on their front doorsteps or in their faces.  It's okay to believe in something, but put that something in front of you and it's a whole different thing. 

Vicky is a kick-ass heroine, but I also loved her vulnerability and her flaws as it made her very someone with whom I could connect on a lot of levels.  I liked her character development and how she grows throughout the novel, become more connected with herself as the story develops.  Aunt Mab was perhaps my favourite character thus far.  Anyone who has secrets such as she has is bound to be interesting, and we are given only a few hints and teases here and there as to her story; I really wanted to know more about her and I seriously hope we see more of her in forthcoming novels.  And Kane?  What can I say?  I love werewolves!!  I hope he sticks around as well.  And I say that with trepidation as I was seriously beginning to wonder if some major characters were going to be killed by the end of the novel.  This simply adds to the suspense of the events.

Verdict
Hellforged was full of suspense, drama, romance, and action; it was pretty much the complete package for me.  There are secrets waiting to be discovered and characters waiting to be flushed out and developed.  The only limitation I found is that it was your typical urban fantasy fare, fun, interesting, zany, and quirky, but for those who are not drawn to this type of genre, I don't really think Hellforged is the type of novel that will make you a fan of this genre.  For those who already love this genre, this novel will certainly be an asset to your collection.  I am looking forward to book 3, Bloodstone, when it is released in September.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Giveaway

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides opens in theatres on May 20th to the delight of many movie goers everywhere who are eagerly awaiting the next adventures of Captain Jack.  Here is a brief synopsis of the fourth Pirates adventure: Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) finds himself on an unexpected journey to the fabled Fountain of Youth when a woman from his past (Penélope Cruz) forces him aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the ship of the formidable pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane).

To celebrate the opening day of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Canada is offering a really fun prize package to my readers. 

ITEMS FOR GIVEAWAY:

· PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES in adult sizes only
· PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES bandana in black
· PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES temporary tattoo (2 per winner)
· PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES official movie poster
· PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES pin

Giveaway is open to Canadian residents only.  Contest ends 27 May, 2011. 

Mandatory Entry
1) Leave a comment about the post and please include your email.

Bonus Entries
1) “Like” WALT DISNEY STUDIOS CANADA on Facebook and feel free to include a link and a tag if possible: www.facebook.com/WaltDisneyStudiosCanada

2) “Like” PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN on Facebook at: http://www.Facebook.com/PiratesoftheCaribbean

3) Use the following hashtags on Twitter #Pirates and/or #DisneyPirates and include #Canada for easier tracking

CafePress: Review & Giveaway

Stay tuned for giveaway at the end of this post.

I had the pleasure of being asked to do a review for CafePress.ca, which has the distinction of being one of the top websites on the internet for personalized gifts.  Before being asked to do a review, I had heard of CafePress.com, but had never really taken a good look at their site. I had actually come across the name on various blogs which either had shops connected to CafePress or were selling custom items created on CafePress.  I was impressed with the rather large selection offered, and I have to admit, it took me quite awhile to select the item I wanted to review.  In the end, I selected a black hoodie with a Celtic design.

On the website, you can click on the hoodie, and the picture of the design will enlarge which makes it quite easy to see if the design is to your liking.  I rather liked that feature as some of the designs were rather hard to see and it made it easier to know right away if the design would be one you would like or not.  The ordering process was painless as I simply had to set up an account and order.  The package arrived within a couple of days, although I did get an email stating it could take as long as 8-10 days.  Considering it had to cross the border, the package arrived fairly quickly.  It came wrapped in a cute little case, with care instructions included.  On the website, there was a warning about the sweatshirts being rather large, so I took their advice and ordered one side smaller than I usually would, and I am rather glad I did as the sweatshirt that came was rather large.  When I put it through the wash, I deliberately shrank it somewhat and now it fits perfectly; it's comfortable, fits well, and it's warm.  I really, really like it and am planning on ordering some for my kids. 

Take a look at some of the other items I found:

 Angelfire Book Bag

Angelfire Mug

 Angelfire T-Shirt

Angelfire Bumper Sticker

Humour Poster

Nebular Poster (For my son)

Twilight T-Shirt

If you wish, you can also open up your own store and either cash in on your own creativity or sell products from Cafepress.ca or Cafepress.com.  If you are interested, there is a lot of information on this page here.  This is why I have seen some blogs with links to this store.  Many authors often have their merchandise created through CafePress and then either sell it on their blogs or their websites. 

Giveaway: One reader will win an item of their choice from CafePress.com (under $50).

Giveaway ends 31 May 2011.  Open only to residents of Canada and the United States. 

Mandatory Entry:  Comment on this post and include your email address.

Review: The Sorcerer's House by Gene Wolfe

The Sorcerer's House
by Gene Wolfe
Release Date: March 15, 2011
2010 Tom Doherty Associates Book
Softcover Edition; 302 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2459-7
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Review Copy from Publisher (TOR)

4 / 5 Stars

Summary
In a contemporary town in the American midwest where he has no connections, an educated man recently released from prison is staying in a motel. He writes letters to his brother and to others, including a friend still in jail. When he meets a real estate agent who tells him he is the heir to a huge old house, long empty, he moves in, though he is too broke even to buy furniture. He is immediately confronted by supernatural and fantastic creatures and events. His life is utterly transformed. We read on, because we must know more and we revise our opinions of him, and of others, with each letter. We learn things about magic, and another world, and about the sorcerer Mr. Black who originally inhabited the house. And then, perhaps, we read it again.


My Thoughts
I always tend to approach a Gene Wolfe novel with a little apprehension as I never know what to expect.  On Blue Waters is probably one of my favourite novels from this author, a book I loved so much that I went through a phase where I read as much Wolfe as I could lay my hands on.  There were some misses though, and I've read enough of his work to realize that I never know what the format of any of his novels will be.  The Sorcerer's House however, was fun, and as long as I just went with the flow, so to speak, and suspensed some major disbeliefs, it was easy to enjoy this crazy and zany story.
 
Fun is not usually a term I tend to use when describing a Gene Wolfe novel, so it is a pleasure to be able to do so.  I think dark, terrifying, and shocking are usually the normal words when speaking about one of Wolfe's novels, but this one is also quirky and different from the norm.  It revolves around Baxter Dunn, an incredibly intelligent man who holds several PhD's and who is down on his luck after spending several years in prison, who finds a seemingly abandoned house in the middle of nowhere.  As he moves in, he discovers the house has been deeded to him along with large sums of money and large tracts of land.  He is surrounded by some wonderfully zany characters, including his brother George, a fox named Winker, a butler, a real estate agent, and a host of otherwordly creatures, who create complete chaos on his life.  As Bax tries to make sense of it all, we are pulled into a mystery that seems to grow and deepen, even as events are made clearer and we get a sense of the bigger picture. 
 
The story is written using letters as a narrative device and I thought it was pretty effective.  I like reading different literary devices as I find it different from the norm and I enjoyed this format very much.  It gives you an intimacy with Bax that I don't think would have worked otherwise and makes you feel empathy towards his character.  I love how he just seems to go with the flow and takes everything, even all the supernatural events, with stride.  I do have to admit however, that this format did make you feel like you were living inside a glass jar and had very limited access to information as you only saw and heard what Bax reported in his letters; I could never have read this novel in one night as it would have exhausted me.
 
One of things I've learned is never to take anything Wolfe writes at face value as he is a very subtle writer, only giving the reader information as he wishes.  This can sometimes lead to information overload, but it didn't happen so often that I couldn't handle it.  After I finished the novel, I recognized the genius in the writing, and how subtly information was imparted, leading me merrily along.  If I wasn't familiar with Wolfe's writing, I would have fallen for some of the traps, but I was able to keep things in perspective and avoid falling for the obvious. 
 
There is so much happening in this novel that it makes it difficult to adequately write a review.  I find that I need to re-read many of Wolfe's novels in order to fully appreciate the complexity and thought that goes into his novels and to really grasp what is going on.  It is no different with The Sorcerer's House as I feel I need to re-read it in order to gain a richer understanding of the events.  As Bax's character and personality developed throughout the novel, I was surpised at how much he grew and changed from when we first met him; my concept of him was completely wrong and he wasn't anything like the person I imagined him to be.  That's what makes this novel so much fun though.
 
Verdict
The Sorcerer's House is a quirky, zany novel full of weird, zany characters where fantastic events happen in a non-stop action novel.  The epilogue did catch me by surprise, enough that I re-read the final few chapters in order to see what it was I missed.  The novel was full of surprising twists and turns, fascinating character development, and unique plot elements, but because of the letter format used to explain the story and the use of rich, but subtle, details to explain the story, I did find it overwhelming at times and had to read something else in between.  If you act like Bax and just go with the flow without overly questioning the happenings, you will be one with the story and enjoy it tremendously.

Some Bookish Questions & Enquiring Minds

It's been an interesting week thus far and I am certainly enjoying the weather. It's been so nice to see sunshine instead of rain, although we'll be getting more of that this weekend apparently. I went to Toronto yesterday to visit the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) and to a French Restaurant (Le Papillon) and enjoyed myself tremendously; I always enjoy the dinosaur exhibit and the modern art exhibits. I will be taking my children there this summer as they are now old enough to really appreciate these types of activities.


Last night I had a dream where I was attacked by a book again. I think I am taking on too much, both at work and with reading, especially if it's entering my dreams. Reading is a necessary activity for me every day, but when books are entering my dreams as monsters, I think that's a sign to back off a little bit and destress. My kids thought the dream was hilarious as they know how important reading is to me. My son even suggest I write a story about it, something I have given serious thought. A little side note, I was secretly proud of the fact my son got in trouble yesterday for reading during Math class. He had the book hidden under his Math book and was sneaking in the reading whenever the teacher turned her back. Okay, I realize he should not have been doing that, but at the same time he's following in his momma's footsteps and I was sort of proud about that. He got the book taken away for the rest of the day and was upset because he had to wait until last night before he could find out what happened. Boy, do I remember those days!!!! It was on the tip of my tongue to counsel him to learn to be sneakier, but I guess that would have been wrong and he will just have to learn the sneakiness on his own. (It's a good thing he doesn't read these right now.)

http://www.btt2.wordpress.com/

Question:
Do you read books “meant” for other age groups? Adult books when you were a child; Young-Adult books now that you’re grown; Picture books just for kicks … You know … books not “meant” for you. Or do you pretty much stick to what’s written for people your age?

Answer:
It's funny, but until I was older I never thought of books in terms of children or adult. When I went to the library I just read whatever took my fancy. I was an avid/gifted reader and reading anything was never a problem for me; I could easily read a dozen novels in a week. I did have to re-read some novels as an adult however, as I did not fully understand some of the innuendos of what I was reading until I was older. Flowers in the Attic is an example as I read the novel when I was ten years old, but definitely did not grasp some of the sexual connotations until I re-read it several years later and went, "Oh, so that's what that means!" When I did my Masters degree, I had to analyse some children's picture books in terms of their post-modernism and some of the ones I found were extremely difficult to analyse and were definitely not created with children in mind, even according to the authors themselves. I hate to categorize and label books and especially hate being told to read what people call 'adult' books. Reading is reading!!!!

Enquiring Minds is hosted by Dollycas's Thoughts.

Question 1: What is your favourite thing to do on a sunny bright spring day?

Anything as long as it doesn't involve going to work. I could happily spend time at the trailer, sitting on the deck, reading. I could work in the garden, go for a walk, go to the park, anything as long as it is outdoors and involves enjoying the fresh air. After a brutally long and snowy winter, these days are especially welcome.

Question 2: What is your favourite colour?

RED! Bright, eye-popping red.   And ORANGE!

Question 3: Do you have a favourite month of the year?

Not really. I like them all for different reasons.  I love July and August because I am on holidays and who doesn't like being on holidays.  I love my job and what I do, but man, do I love my holidays!!!  I always enjoy December,...well, it's Christmas.  And we always travel during March Break to the Caribbean so that's enjoyable.  I'm not necessarily fond of November as I find it dreary and long, but I do celebrate my anniversary during that month so there's at least something to look forward to. 

Have a great weekend, everyone!!!