Posts

Showing posts from April, 2014

The Body Artist by Don DeLillo

Image
Some books needed time and maturity to have affinity. The first reading found myself wanting in wisdom to understand the deeper brushes of pain and helplessness. Hence, I thought it was a rather odd book. It is about a woman drowning, perhaps, in her own melancholy or in her own art moving eerily around her house. Of old ghosts and broken sense of reality. In short, the book is almost one big metaphor. Reading The Body Artist  felt like being inside a white room slowly closing in and you never know the passage of time or days. All you are left with is your own mind which sometimes torments or becomes a dreamy haze in which you never find yourself. DeLillo knows his language and brilliantly plays with words that renders the reader grasping thin vapors instead of solid form. He plays with the spaces and shadows in our heads, the silences between one memory to another in the mundane poetry of day to day. I could ignore the vagueness of the plot and just thoroughly enjoy readin

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

Image
One thing that remained to me about Anne Rice's writing is its atmospheric eeriness. In my readings, I could almost hear the cicadas on the trees and feel the drowsy heat of the summer afternoon. It's the cicadas that never left me, really. I was late in the Mayfair witches bandwagon and only read it when this particular edition came out (because I like the cover). Only then was I able to understand what they have all parroted about the book and its corrupting seduction. The Witching Hour  feels like a one way trip to a dusty ominous crypt with barely a chance of surfacing unscathed, taking us to deep mystery and old secrets borne from an old family whose history reaches back in the dark medieval ages of witch hunting in Scotland to the sweeping plantations of Port-au-Prince and the historic houses in Garden District, New Orleans.

Maya Angelou: Poems

Image
Reading poetry has always been a favorite pastime (and some of us like to quote them). Not that I could memorize the lot (except a few favorites and even then I could barely do it without aplomb) but it was more in the moment of reading when I feel it pierce the shutters of my mind, in that last passage or two when words rush through like a blast on the face to destroy me. I had thought of words to say about Maya Angelou's poetry but somehow it got lost somewhere between my throat and teeth leaving me hitching my breath in its raw poignant tones. Long minutes later, I could attempt to begin again. The book is a collection of poems from four volumes of her work published years before. Some favorites like "Remembering" and "To a Husband" are from Just Give me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diie and Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well, which explores themes of anguished love, nostalgia and tenderness. "They Went Home" just left me undone l

New Release: Laura Kaye's East of Ecstasy

Image
We are so excited it's release day for Laura Kaye's EAST OF ECSTASY! EAST OF ECSTASY is the final book in her Hearts of the Anemoi Series. See below for a note from Laura and an excerpt!!   East of Ecstasy Excerpt: By Laura Kaye  You guys! I can’t believe release day for East of Ecstasy is finally here! This is the final book in my Hearts of the Anemoi series, which includes: North of Need, West of Want, and South of Surrender . The Anemoi were wind gods the Greek associated with controlling the wind, weather, and seasons. In East of Ecstasy , hero Devlin Eston is the heir to the East Wind which has long been associated with unluckiness, misfortune, and, thanks to Devlin’s father, even evil. Devlin himself has been the victim of father’s evil, and thereby finds himself an outcast among his own divine family. In this scene, heroine Annalise Fallston—who gets visions that she’s forced to paint in order to quiet them in her mind—sees Devlin for the first time. Here’s what s

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

Image
"But, you may say, we asked you to speak about women and fiction--what has that got to do with a room of one's own?" I should have read this eons ago. Didn't Virginia Woolf just cut right to the heart of it with these first words? Then she preceded to tell us readers a most wonderful message about writing, about women, and the importance of a fixed income and a space. By this extended essay, she speaks not only to women (and women authors) of her time but even of today as it is still relevant and applicable. Here she discussed about exploring the chances and the advantages of being independent and of pursuing creativity entailed from a little freedom. Years ago, I bought a tattered secondhand copy of  A Room of One's Own  and its condition was a testament enough of it being well read. I say, everyone must read this book! A lot may categorize this as a voice of feminism, but, for me, it is that and a lot more. It is a book worthy to be read again and agai

Cover Reveal: Hard To Hold On To (Hard Ink #3) by Laura Kaye

Image
Laura Kaye is thrilled to share with you the cover to her next Hard Ink book, Hard to Hold On To which releases on August 19, 2014 ! Check it out: Edward "Easy" Cantrell knows better than most the pain of not being able to save those he loves--which is why he is not going to let Jenna Dean out of his sight.  He may have just met her, but Jenna's the first person to make him feel alive since that devastating day in the desert more than a year ago. Jenna has never met anyone like Easy. She can't describe how he makes her feel--and not just because he saved her life. No, the stirrings inside her reach  far  beyond gratitude. As the pair are thrust together while chaos reigns around them, they both know one thing: the things in life most worth having are the hardest to hold on to.   Pre-Order at Amazon | Amazon.ca | Amazon UK | B&N | iTunes Hard to Hold On To on Goodreads And don’t miss the other Hard Ink books, now available: Hard As It Gets

Blog BLITZ: Love, Lex (The Undergrad Years #1) by Avery Aster: Exlusive Excerpt and Giveaway!

Image
LOVE, LEX (The Undergrad Years #1) by AVERY ASTER Contemporary New Adult Romance/Coming Of Age Foreword by Belle Aurora Cover Design by Cover It! Designs Interior Page Design by IRONHORSE Formatting eBook List Price $2.99 Paperback List Price: $8.65 218 Pages Synopsis: ONE-CLICK * $0.99 CENTS * LIMITED TIME ONLY This summer, I’d planned to celebrate my eighteenth birthday in Europe with my fellow Manhattanites—Taddy Brill, Blake Morgan, and Vive Farnworth—until I caught my boyfriend screwing my mother. According to the police report, this vomit-inducing incident happened around the same time I’d supposedly blown-up my mother’s penthouse. Like I’m walking around Soho with a stick of dynamite in my Louis Vuitton purse—not! Now, my besties and I are in jail. Officer Ford Gotti, the Harley-wheelin’ biker cop who arrested us, keeps sticking his perfectly-sculpted nose into my case. His inked body is jacked like a superhero, and he says I can trust him. He wants

Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik

Image
It wasn't idyllic, not even close to romantic but Adam Gopnik's account of his Paris life seemed more affecting and pleasurable than any travel books I have read about this city. He sweeps the dreamy curtains aside and presents to us a Paris, not a city of love and not a city of dreams but, an everyday Paris, where you can really see yourself breathing and living in it. For half a decade, moving from New York, he and his wife along with their son lived the Parisian life trying to find their bearings on its intricate web. Gopnik's eloquence shows through on his writing with its sense of timelessness. Family and domesticity aside, he paints a subtle picture of a nostalgic Paris in the last years of twentieth century.

Longbourn by Jo Baker

Image
If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah often thought, she’d most likely be a sight more careful with them. In this irresistibly imagined below stairs answer to Pride and Prejudice, the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household. But there is just as much romance, heartbreak, and intrigue downstairs at Longbourn as there is upstairs. When a mysterious new footman arrives, the orderly realm of the servants’ hall threatens to be completely, perhaps irrevocably, upended. 

Love Story by Erich Segal

Image
"Love means never having to say you're sorry..." The book that started with the popular love quote; young as I was when I first read it, it was to me as clear as a very foggy crystal. Perhaps I got scarred that she had to die, perhaps because I was in that HEA phase on my romance novels. Still, the story of Jenny and Oliver remained with me. It lingered floating in and out of my mind for an unaccountable length of time I must say it definitely had a great impact. Considering it was a huge best-seller, I guess it's not only me. Just as the rest of them, I shall put in my penny, too, and consider this a classic in the contemporary romance. To me it was like a beacon of an unforgettable young love; all spirit and angst, the turmoil of social realism, the price of courage and the little things that can turn our world upside down.

Telling Tales by Charlotte Stein

Image
Telling Tales puts a very erotic twist in an otherwise very common friends to lovers and unrequited love plot device which definitely puts this in a NSFW novel. Allie, Wade, Cameron and Kitty, four friends from college, part of the now defunct Candy Club, has inherited their old professor's home. After several years of losing touch they now come face to face once again, this time around their once innocent writing club has started taking on a more sensual and erotic turn. Allie has always felt attracted to Wade and time hasn't seemed to diminish that. However, it seem its her very good friend Cameron that pulls on her libido and makes her question what she truly wants. Telling Tales is pure erotica but in the hands of the very talented Charlotte Stein its also a very character driven book. With a very subtle take on domination and submission, Allie's character slowly develops and becomes more layered as the story progresses. Despite being told in the first per

Plain Jayne by Laura Drewry

Image
Title :  Plain Jayne   Author :  Laura Drewry Genre: Contemporary Romance Published: April 8, 2014 Publisher : Loveswept Rating : ♨♨♨♨  4 of 5   (This is just Some Kind of Wonderful , Jayne could be Pretty in Pink , but in cut offs and a ball cap she still catches Nick's undivided attention.  Her birthday surprise was no Ferris Beuller's Day Off but The Breakfast Club with Nick was the best.  An excellently written debut novel, this is a keeper along with your Sixteen Candles DVD!) Synopsis: In Laura Drewry’s funny, heartwarming Loveswept debut, a man and a woman learn the hard way that a little bit of love makes staying friends a whole lot harder.   Worn out from the long drive back home, Jayne Morgan can only smirk at the irony: Of course the first person she sees from her old life is Nick Scott. Once best friends, they lost touch when Jayne left town at eighteen, but nothing could keep them apart forever. Jayne has returned to take over her grand

Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

Image
Rebel Angels , the second book to the Gemma Doyle Trilogy, somehow broke the sequel curse to me and is almost at par with, or better in some ways than, the first book, A Great and Terrible Beauty . Gemma, along with the other girls, traveled further into the realms and the unfamiliar paths brought them to forbidding places, disturbing magical creatures and dark spirits abroad. The world of the realms, at first idyllic, has now become straight out of a Gothic fairy tale. Bray's writing retained its tones though now a shade darker than before and I found myself reading in a disquieting manner. She tipped the balance scales of the book bringing into suspicion some characters whom I didn't really think much before. Who to trust? Even I do not know who to trust anymore.

Promo BLITZ Giveaway: PRICELESS by Shannon Mayer

Image
Priceless - PROMO Blitz Shannon Mayer Urban Fantasy Romance Date Published: November 2012 "My name is Rylee, and I am a Tracker." When children go missing, and the Humans have no leads, I'm the one they call. I am their last hope in bringing home the lost ones. I salvage what they cannot. I'm on the FBI's wanted list. I have a werewolf for a pet, a Witch of a best friend, and I have no need for anyone else in my life. But when a salvage starts to spin out of control, help comes from a most unexpected direction. One that is dangerously dark, brooding, and doesn't know a thing about the supernatural. One whose kisses set me on fire. Shannon Mayer Shannon Mayer lives in the southwestern tip of Canada with her husband, dog, cats, horse, and cows. When not writing she spends her time staring at immense amounts of rain, herding old people (similar to herding cats) and attempting to stay out of trouble.