King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: Running Around (and Such): Lizzie Searches for Love

author: Linda Byler

genre: YA fiction/amish families

pages: 345

published: 2010

source: sent for review by publisher

first line: Lizzie Glick noticed the change in Dat one evening when he came in from checking things over at the pallet shop one last time before bed.

rated: cutesy

Lizzie Glick longs to fit into her quiet Amish community. Her sisters, Emma and Mandy, are ready to get married and settle into the traditional rhythm of having children and keeping house. But Lizzie isn't sure that's what she wants for her future. It isn't that Lizzie doesn't want to stay Amish. It's just that there's so much to figure out!

Running Around (and Such): Lizzie Searches for Love is the first book in a three book series by author Linda Byler.
The story is centered around fifteen year old Lizzie Glick and her Amish family.
The family is about to move from their home in Jefferson County to a new home in Cameron County. The reason for the move being that Lizzie's Dad is giving up his business and becoming a cow farmer instead.


Lizzie lives with her 'Mam' and 'Dat', her twin baby sisters and her sisters Emma and Mandy. She is outspoken and dislikes housework and farming.



This book is mainly a coming of age story. Strong willed Lizzie struggles to fit in and she has views and ideas that differ from her parents and her Amish upbringing.
She doesn't want to marry a farmer and she wants to wear nice clothes and high heeled shoes. Lizzie is self conscious like any teenage girl her age. She feels like she's not pretty enough and not thin enough and won't fit in at her new hometown and school.

Lizzie felt mixed up. A part of her wanted to live here, to try new and strange things, but another part of her clung to Jefferson County. She felt as if everything secure was being taken away from her, and there was nothing to do but let go.
p.23

She gets herself into silly predicaments, such as stepping into wet paint and having a cow mistake her blond hair for hay. Lizzie argues with her Mom like all teens. She was whiny and would have temper tantrums here and there throughout the story and that annoyed me. There are flashbacks throughout the book as well, where Lizzie brings up childhood memories and in these memories, she tended to be whiny too.



Against her will, Lizzie winds up having to be a maud or a maid for another Amish family. Her parents think it will do her good to learn some responsibility and earn her own money. When Lizzie finally turns 16 she begins what the Amish call 'running around', or going out to social gatherings on weekends with other Amish teens. Once she starts running around, Lizzie meets some interesting boys and wonders who will be her husband one day.



Running Around is definitely a stretch for me. I've never read anything remotely Amish related. When I was first contacted about a possible review, I was interested in this book because I've never read anything like it and it did seem like it would be a fun, light YA read.




Running Around was an okay read. I'd say it is good for readers ages 11-14.


I think teens any older than that would not be able to relate to Lizzie, unless they are Amish themselves.





You get a view into the Amish lifestyle as the girls bake with their mother and sew their own clothes. Included at the end of the book are Lizzie's favorite recipes from the story, like Apple Pie with Crumb Topping and Chicken Stew, which I thought was a nice touch.

This was a light, fluffy read. It was definitely 'cheesy', but I expected that.
I didn't love this book, but I didn't hate it either.

The title 'Running Around' doesn't really suit the book too well, since Lizzie doesn't actually start to run around until towards the end of the book.
The ending leaves the book open for the next installment in the series.





About the author:

Linda Byler grew up Amish and is an active member of the Amish church today. Growing up, Linda loved to read and write. In fact, she still does. She is well known within the Amish community as a columnist for a weekly Amish newspaper. Linda and her husband, their children, and grandchildren live in central Pennsylvania.






Special thanks to Julie over @ FSB Associates.

title: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls

author: Steve Hockensmith

genre: fiction, humor

published: 2010

pages: 287

first line: Walking out in the middle of a funeral would be, of course, bad form.

rated: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars







What can I say about Dawn of the Dreadfuls? This was a fun, creepy and strange book and I enjoyed it. This book is a prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies which I read back in January.



Author Steve Hockensmith does not take the storyline directly from Pride and Prejudice, he does however use Austen's characters and adds a few of his own, then mixes that with zombies. The zombies a.k.a. The Dreadfuls, long since thought to have all been slayed, have now returned to Longbourne. Mr. Bennet, who was once part of a secret order and a warrior himself, takes it upon himself to train his 5 daughters on how to slay the undead. It's either learn to fight or be disowned and eventually, most likely, eaten by zombies.

It was a cry that hadn't been heard in Hertfordshire for years, yet nearly everyone there knew what it was.


The zombie wail.

In the midst of all this, an annoying baron named Lord Lumpley pays a visit to the Bennet household and of course, sets his eye on the eldest sister, Jane. Soon after Mr. Bennet begins training his daughters, tall, dark and handsome, Geoffrey Hawksworth, arrives on the scene. He has been sent to train the girls himself. Not before long, Geoffrey, Master as he insists they call him, takes a special notice of Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth meets Dr. Bertram Keckilpenny, she is really interested in his unique ways of dealing with the undead. The two hit it off right away and before you know it, there's a minor love triangle involved in the story.



As if the zombies and would be suitors aren't enough, Elizabeth still has to prepare for her coming out ball. It doesn't help that most of the town is against the Bennet sisters' warrior training, they consider it unladylike behavior. The sisters soon become social pariahs and are avoided by most of the town.




I'm a sucker for these kinds of books. I know some die hard Austen fans don't care much for these types of spin-offs. Pride & Prejudice is my favorite Austen, so while reading this one, I knew that Elizabeth and Jane were not going to pick any suitors, but I still enjoyed seeing some new characters vie for their affections.



I liked the illustrations throughout the book. And how creepy is the cover on this one? I enjoyed the storyline, I liked the fighting and training scenes in particular and I liked the characters within the story. Steve Hockensmith creates plenty of quirky characters to keep the reader interested. He also takes Austen's beloved characters and keeps them true to their personalities. Elizabeth is strong willed and intelligent. Jane is still trying to find the good in everyone.


All in all, a fun book, I recommend it if you enjoy zombies and Austen spin offs.
The last part of the book actually reminded me a bit of Night of the Living Dead. I also liked the ending alot, it had a little unexpected twist that I enjoyed.

Within moments, there were zombies enough for all. Some ran from the shadows, some staggered, some crawled. Some were men, some women, some children. Some wore ragged shrouds, some bloody clothing, some absolutely nothing. Yet they all had one thing in common: They were headed toward the house.

This book has been read as part of R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril Challenge




Special thanks to FSB Associates for sending me a copy.

This book is a Quirk Classic

title: True Blood and Philosophy: We Wanna Think Bad Things With You



authors: William Irwin (Series Editor), George Dunn (Editor), Rebecca Housel (Editor)


genre: entertainment


published: 2010


pages: 246


first line: Sookie Stackhouse loves Bill Compton.



rated: 3 1/2 out of 5

Vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, fairies, telepaths—True Blood has it all. In a world where supernatural creatures coexist with human beings, Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton wrestle with powerful desires while facing complex issues concerning sex, romance, bigotry, violence, death, and immortality. Now, True Blood and Philosophy calls on the minds of some of history’s great thinkers to perform some philosophical bloodletting on this thought-provoking series. From the metaphysics of mind reading to Maryann Forrester’s cult of Dionysus, from vampire politics to the nature of personal identity, and from contemporary feminism to the rights of nonhuman species, True Blood and Philosophy mines the thinking of philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, and John Rawls to enlighten us on the intriguing themes that surround this supernatural world. You’ll find no shortage of juicy metaphysical morsels to sink your teeth into!

True Blood and Philosophy: We Wanna Think Bad Things With You is an interesting book that discusses and analyzes True Blood the television series and The Sookie Stackhouse books. This book is food for thought. It takes different themes in True Blood and discusses them in detail. I think this book is a great conversation piece for fans of the show and books.



I haven't watched the show True Blood, but I have read the first in the series of books, Dead Until Dark, and enjoyed it.



Some of the discussions in this book are 'The Ethics of Making Vampires', 'Coming Out of the Coffin and Coming Out of the Closet' and 'Sookie, Sigmund, and the Edible Complex'.

The writers do plenty of 'what if' situations. Like what if vampires were real and living among us, would they have to pay taxes, since they don't need health care? Would they be served with life sentences in prison if they committed crimes, or would that be considered cruel and unusual punishment since they are immortal?
The book also discusses homosexuality and the comparisons between coming out of the coffin and coming out of the closet. Are the prejudices gay people face similiar to the ones vampires face?

Another topic for discussion is whether vampires are evil or not. Some vampires such as Bill are turned without choice, are they considered evil?


My one issue with this book was the repetitiveness of certain excerpts from the books and show. I'd read one chapter that quoted a certain conversation and discussed it, then I'd read the next chapter, only to find the same quote being brought up again. It didn't happen that often in this book, and it didn't deter me from enjoying this read, but I did notice it. I think it may have happened because there were different people writing the chapters, the topics overlapped a bit.



After reading this book you realize there are plenty of philosophical questions that can be raised by the Sookie Stackhouse books and True Blood. This is an interesting read, I enjoyed it. It is definitely a very detailed book, you can see that the writers are true fans of the series. I like how they would discuss great minds like Freud and Socrates and apply their theories and ideas to True Blood.










Visit The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series website for more. There are other Philosophy books for fans such as House and Philosophy, LOST and Philosophy and Mad Men and Philosophy.







Special thanks to Julie over @ FSB Associates for sending me a copy of this book.

title: The Lumby Lines

author: Gail Fraser

published: 2005

pages: 319

genre: fiction

first line: One could describe Lumby as one would describe, with unreserved fondness, one's own small town in our vast and diverse country: quaint, with enough quirk to make it interesting.





rated: 4 out of 5

Nestled in the Northwest is a quaint little town that its quirky residents are proud to call home. With charming shops lining its one main thoroughfare, Lumby has the oldest apple tree in the county and the smallest bank in the state. And though it's hours from the nearest big city, you'll always find Lumby close to your heart . . .

The Lumby Lines is first in a series of five books. Lumby is a cozy little town, whose local newspaper 'The Lumby Lines', reports all the goings on of the community and its residents.



Montis Abbey was once a monastery, but has since been destroyed by a fire. While on vacation, Mark and Pamela Walker stumble upon the previous monastery. They decide to make a break from their hectic lives and purchase the Abbey. They plan on restoring it and turning it into an Inn.

As Pam and Mark are hard at work the town is buzzing with talk about the couple and the new Inn. Little did they expect to run into some trouble from The Lumby Lines owner himself, William Beezer. Some of the townsfolk are supportive of the Inn, while others are not. Pam and Mark recruit their good friend and architect, Brooke to help with the job.

As the story goes on, you get to meet several Lumby residents and get to learn a bit about each of their lives. Like Sheriff Dixon and his wife Anna and Hank the plastic flamingo, who gets dressed up frequently by town residents according to whats going on around Lumby. When Mark and Pam begin construction, Hank is wearing a hard hat.


I enjoyed reading The Lumby Lines . It was what I'd consider a cozy read. I liked the different characters within the story and didn't feel overwhelmed by them. You get to read about the construction at the Inn, and coincidentally as I read this book, there was work being done on my own house, so I could relate a bit to the story. Has this ever happened to you? Events that are happening in the book you are reading are similar to something that is going on in your own life?


I also liked that at the end of the book there's recipes and that the author Gail Frasier is being interviewed by the characters in her book. I think this is the type of book that can be made into a mini series.

One of the few factors separating Lumby from most other villages that dot the landscape is its apparent anonymity, being hidden away in a less-traveled part of the Northwest. Lumby is also extraordinarily beautiful, reminiscent of the landscape canvases painted by young college artists when told to envision paradise on earth.
The sounds and smells are just as enticing, reminding one of childhood walks through fields of lavendar and honeysuckle with the low hum or pollinating bees and dragonflies all about.

Other books in this series include: Stealing Lumby, Lumby's Bounty, The Promise of Lumby, and Lumby on the Air (coming Spring 2010).





Author Bio

Gail Fraser had a successful career in corporate America holding senior executive and upper management positions in several Fortune 500 and start-up corporations. She lives with her husband, Art Poulin, and their two dogs near Saratoga Springs, New York.

visit the authors website: http://www.lumbybooks.com/






Special thanks to Caitlin over @ FSB Associates for sending me a copy of this book.

title: She-Rain: A Story of Hope

author: Michael Cogdill

published: 2010

genre: fiction

pages: 349

first line: Scraps of fog, adrift on the ridges of Appalachia.


rated: 4 out of 5





She-Rain: A Story of Hope is one of those books that really draws you in from page one. Starting off in 1921 in North Carolina, the story is about a young boy named Frankie Locke Junior who witnesses and experiences abuse in his home at the hands of his drug addicted father.


Having a close relationship with his mother and grandparents helps Frank remain strong. At school he meets Mary Lizbeth, and as the years pass the two never forget one another. They form a common bond through the hardships they both suffer.

Like a mountain laurel flower trying to blossom inside a bottle. Pink-white petals pressing soft but determined against the glass. The shared nectar of that bottle had recently become another of my secrets-our secret from the entire town.

Due to an incident concerning his mother, Frankie winds up leaving home. He does it to protect his mother, but his heart breaks at leaving her and Mary Lizbeth behind.


While on the run, a woman named Sophia Proctor helps Frankie. He winds up falling in love with her.

I remember Sophia murmured something about tears healing well, especially when they've been stored and aged a long while from hurts that seem behind us. She cried harder after she said that.

I enjoyed reading She-Rain, it is definitely a story about overcoming hardship and finding and holding onto love. There is alot of sadness to this story, but hope as well. I really liked the relationship between Frank and Mary Lizbeth, and hoped the two would end up together. I also liked how Frank would have flashbacks of his grandmother and the advice she gave him.


This is the type of book that needs to be discussed after reading it, I think it would make a great selection for a book club.

In the rise of crickets and peep frogs, Granny spread out her mountain mystic view of things again, and the whole wagon treated it as sacred for a moment. She'd often speak of how a little scrap of fog tears from a rain cloud. Floats on the waves of blue ridge as if a wisp off a bride. Granny and others called it she-rain, I suppose for its womanly drape, white as a wedding gown.

Author Bio

Michael Cogdill is blessed as one of the most honored television storytellers in America. His cache of awards includes 24 Emmys and the National Edward R. Murrow for a broad range of achievement, from live reporting to long-form storytelling. His television credits as a journalist include CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, and The Today Show, and Michael's interview history crosses a wide horizon: The Reverend Billy Graham, Dr. Mehmet Oz of Oprah fame, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Abby Hoffman, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator John McCain, Howard K. Smith, James Brown, Keith Lockhart of the Boston Pops and many other newsmakers. His coverage credits include Presidents and Vice Presidents of the United States.


Michael spent ten years writing She-Rain, letting it evolve into a world of fiction drawn from his upbringing in Western North Carolina but reaching far beyond. His other writing credits are Cracker the Crab and the Sideways Afternoon -- a children's motivational book, and a self-help volume, Raise the Haze. Michael makes his home in South Carolina with his wife, Jill (a publishing entrepreneur), and their second-generation golden retriever, Maggie. He's currently working on his second novel.


For more information, please visit http://she-rain.blogspot.com.





Special thanks to Caitlin over @ FSB Associates for sending me a copy of this book.

title: The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship

authors: Andrea Israel & Nancy Garfinkel


pages: 363

genre: fiction

published: 2009

rated: 5 out of 5




The Recipe Club is one of those books that grabs your attention and does not let go. If I didn't have to work full time and tend to two children, I would have finished this one in one sitting, instead, I read it in two.



Lilly and Val are lifelong friends who haven't spoken in 26 years due to a falling out. Lilly is outgoing, flirty and dramatic, Val is the shy one, who tends to have her nose in a book and feels insecure most of the time.



In April of 2000, when Val's mother passes away, she emails Lilly, who is thrilled to hear from her long lost friend. The two women begin to email back and forth, but while they are catching up and reminiscing, they begin to argue once again over the same old issues that broke up their friendship up in the first place.



The book is written in the form of the womens' letters to each other. When the girls were tweens in the mid 1960's, they formed what they called 'The Recipe Club', and as they wrote to each other, they included a recipe with nearly each letter. So as you are reading the letters, you get a different recipe to go along with it. Recipes like First-Kiss Caramel Almond Kisses, Starry Night Scampi and Missing You Warmly Lentil Salad.




This book reads like non-fiction, you get the feeling that you are really reading the correspondence between these two friends.


I really enjoyed this book and am so happy I got a chance to read it. I highly recommend it! I liked both Val and Lilly, and I liked reading about thier lives through the letters they sent each other. This book also has a great twist in the end that took me totally off guard.


This one will be on my top favorites for 2010. The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship is my first favorite read of the year. Special thanks to Caitlin over @ FSB Associates for sending me a copy of this book.


Here's a few tidbits I liked:

Sometimes I feel like you and I don't have much in common anymore. But here's a recipe anyway. For the sake of the Recipe Club. It's complicated. I hope you mess it up.

Valerie

I'm starting to understand what it takes to make friends: it's all about connecting with other strong, intelligent, focused women. About abandoning the shell you've been hiding in your whole life. And when you do it right, you're rewarded with love. With people who really get you. Who never judge you. Who admire you for who you are and what you have to offer.

The truth is, you need lots of different kinds of friends, Val. My mom has taught me that, too. When I think about it, I realize my friends are like planets, circling around me. Each one is different, but I am always the sun.

title: Benny & Shrimp


author: Katarina Mazetti

pages: 209

genre: fiction/romance

published: 2008

first line: You'll have to be on your guard!

rated: 4 1/2 out of 5






Desiree is a lonely widow who visits her husbands grave nearly every day. Her husband of five years passed away suddenly one day when he was hit by a truck. She notices a man named Benny who visits the cemetary every day to visit his parents graves. Benny notices Desiree sitting on 'his bench' and one day the two look over at each other and smile. I love this moment in the story! This is how the smile is described:

He smiled, too. And...

There's no way of describing that smile without resorting to the wonderful world of cheesy song lyrics.

It had sun and wild strawberries and birds singing and expanses of glittering water in it. And it was directed at me, trusting and proud as if he were a child presenting me with a misshapen birthday gift. The corners of my mouth were still stretched wide. And an arc of light flashed between us, I'd still swear it even today-a blue one like my physics teacher could produce with that special generator thing of his. Three hours passed, or maybe three seconds.

Soon after Benny follows Desiree as she leaves the cemetary one day and finds out she works at the library. He asks her out for lunch, and she agrees. The two begin seeing each other.

Benny is a down to earth milk farmer who wants to have a wife one day who will help out on the farm, cook him meals and take care of him. Desiree is a modern, book loving independant woman who doesn't really like to cook or care much for milk farming. Even though they are opposites, the two quickly fall madly in love. Benny thinks Desiree is a 'hoity-toity' name and gives her the nickname 'Shrimp' instead.







I found Benny & Shrimp to be a quirky, sweet and charming book, the kind of read that can make you smile while reading it. I laughed out loud several times. I liked both Benny & Shrimp's characters and how they find each other, and fall in love despite being complete opposites. I liked how each chapter starts off with a quote from Shrimp's journal. I also enjoyed how the chapters are told alternately by Shrimp and then Benny, so the reader can get the point of view from each character.

I also liked that the author leaves the ending up to the reader.



Here's a few of my favorite passages:

Love makes others into doves,

gazelles, cats, peacocks-but I,

quivering, wet, and transparent-

am your jellyfish

I call her Shrimp. It fits her so well it's almost cruel. Pale, curled around her soft parts, with her shell on the outside. And long feelers.

There's so much about her I don't understand.

Surely it's possible to live this way, to be simply the best of friends, he on his star and she on hers, having fun together when loneliness breathes too heavily down thier necks?

Surely it's possible?

Benny & Shrimp was first published in Sweden in 1998 and came to be translated in 2008.


This book was an ARC from http://www.fsbassociates.com/.

title: The Ten Year Nap

author: Meg Wolitzer

published: 2009

pages: 383

first line: All around the country, the women were waking up.

rated: 4 out of 5

From the bestselling author of The Wife and The Position, a feverishly smart novel about female ambition, motherhood, and marriage -- and four friends who confront the choices they've made.



For a group of four New York friends the past decade has been defined largely by marriage and motherhood, but it wasn't always that way. Growing up, they had been told that their generation would be different. And for a while this was true. They went to good colleges, and began high-powered careers. But after marriage and babies, for a variety of reasons, they decided to stay home, temporarily, to raise their children. Now, ten years later, they are still at home, unsure how they came to inhabit lives so different from the ones they expected -- until a new series of events begins to change the landscape of their lives yet again, in ways they couldn't have predicted.

I found this to be a great book. I was hooked from page one. The way Meg Wolitzer writes, you almost forget you are reading fiction.





The book starts off with Amy and Leo. They met at the law firm where they both worked. After they were married, and Amy became pregnant, she decided to leave work for a few weeks then return. Now, 10 years later, Amy is still a stay at home mom. Amy flashes back to when she was a child, being raised my her feminist mother.

As they grew older, the early experience of having once had a mother who was available all the time -an iconic figurine like the Statue of Liberty, raising a glass of milk and serenely handing it over-lost its clarity. Had Antonia ever truly belonged to them? Yes, yes, she had, and the ownership had been extraordinary, though they had taken it for granted.

Amy's friends are also a part of the story. You get to read about their lives, some of them are working moms, while others of course, are stay at home moms. One of the working mothers is having an affair, and you kind of get to see how she brings Amy into her secret life. You see how Amy reacts to her friends affair and to her friends lover. She wonders if she should tell her own husband or keep this information ot herself.


One of the mothers adopted a baby from Russia, and you see how she feels guilt for taking a child way from her culture and doubt at her own skills at being a mom. Did she make the right choice or would the baby have been better off being adopted by a Russian family?



Another one of the moms feels inadequate when she sees the working moms in thier business suits at the school meetings. She feels like she doesn't do enough with herself while her son is in school.





This is a book about motherhood. About moms who work and about ones who don't. I think any mom could relate to the characters in this book and the feelings they have. How many of us hasn't felt guilty at leaving our children with a sitter while we go to work? Or how many moms haven't felt like they had to defend their choice to be stay at home moms, especially once the children are a bit older?




This is also a book about friendship and family and just life in general. As I said, it almost reads like non fiction at times.




There were several passages that I could really relate to, like this one:

You were the gatekeeper and nerve center and the pulsing, chugging heart of your family, the one whom everyone came to and needed things from. You were the one that had to coax that unconcious child from his bed, day upon day.

Women who worked were exhausted; women who didn't work were exhausted. There was no cure for the oceanic exhaustion that overwhelmed them. If you were a working mother you would always lose in some way, and if you were a full-time mother you would lose too. Everyone wanted something from you; you were hit up the minute you rose from your bed.

The one thing I didn't like about this book, is the cover. I don't like the faded buildings in the background or the clock hands. If I had seen this book on a shelf somewhere, I probably wouldn't have grabbed it, because of the cover. And that would be a shame, because it's a great read. Never judge a book by its cover.



Special thanks to Caitlin Price @ http://www.fsbassociates.com/ for sending me a copy of this book to read and review.