Carabosse's Library

Friday, January 6, 2012

Follow Friday

Q: Go count the number of unread books sitting on your shelf. How many?

Wow, okay, 202.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

If you could sit down and interview anyone, who would it be?
And, what would you ask them?

Well, if we can magically resurrect anyone who's ever lived then I'd probably choose Dostoevsky, to ask him many, many annoying questions about my favorite book, Crime and Punishment.
If we have to stick to the realm of the possible, then I'd choose Stephen King. I'm not too sure of what I'd ask him, but he seems like a fascinating person.

Blog Tour: The Keeper by Suzanne Woods Fisher

It’s a “Honey of a Giveaway” from Suzanne Woods Fisher!

Suzanne is hosting a "honey of a giveaway"during the blog tour for The Keeper! During 1/3-1/17 you can enter to win an iPad2 from Suzanne and connect with her on January 17th at The Keeper Facebook Party!

During the giveaway one Grand Prize winner will receive a Prize Pack valued at $600:

A brand new 16 KB iPad 2 with Wi-Fi

A $25 gift certificate to iTunes

A copy of The Keeper

But wait there's more! Just click one of the icons below to enter, then on 1/17 join Suzanne for The Keeper Facebook Party! During the party Suzanne will announce the winner of the "Honey" of an iPad Giveaway and host a fun book chat and give away some fun "honey" inspired prizes - It'll be 'sweet"!

RSVP early and tell your friends!

Don't miss a moment of the fun. RSVP today and tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning. Hope to see you on the 17th!

About the book:
Julia Lapp has planned on marrying Paul Fisher since she was a girl. Now twenty-one, she looks forward to their wedding with giddy anticipation. When Paul tells her he wants to postpone the wedding--again--she knows who is to blame. Perpetual bachelor and spreader of cold feet, Roman Troyer, the Bee Man.

Roamin' Roman travels through the Amish communities of Ohio and Pennsylvania with his hives full of bees, renting them out to farmers in need of pollinators. He relishes his nomadic life, which keeps him from thinking about all he has lost. He especially enjoys bringing his bees to Stoney Ridge each year. But with Julia on a mission to punish him for inspiring Paul's cold feet, the Lapp farm is looking decidedly less pleasant.

Can Julia secure the future she's always dreamed of? Or does God have something else in mind?

About Suzanne:
Her interest in the Amish began with her grandfather, W.D. Benedict, who was raised Plain. She has many, many Plain relatives living in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and travels back to Pennsylvania, as well as to Ohio, a couple of times each year for research.

Suzanne has a great admiration for the Plain people and believes they provide wonderful examples to the world. In both her fiction and non-fiction books, she has an underlying theme: You don't have to "go Amish" to incorporate many of their principles--simplicity, living with less, appreciating nature, forgiving others more readily-- into your life.

When Suzanne isn't writing or bragging to her friends about her first new grandbaby (!), she is raising puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind. To Suzanne's way of thinking, you just can't take life too seriously when a puppy is tearing through your house with someone's underwear in its mouth.

Suzanne can be found on-line at: www.suzannewoodsfisher.com.

You can buy the book here.

My review:

This was a lovely story full of romance and special relationships that is very different from a lot of the Amish novels that are being written now.

What I love the most about this author is her sense of characterization. All of her characters are so well-written, with layers upon layers of personality, that it is hard to believe they don’t really exist. Julia, for example, is a fully fledged person, with her positive and negative sides in constant battle, which makes her a fascinating person to follow through her life. The rest of the characters are just as well done, with M.K. being one of my favorites.

The story itself is simple enough, but the details, the mood is so welcoming that it is difficult to put the book down once the reader starts. The writing is clear, with occasional poetic flourishes that are always light and interesting and never slow the plot down. I do wish there had been a little more explanation on beekeeping to make the story even more unique, but that’s a personal thought and won’t really affect anyone else’s chance of enjoying the book.

This is definitely a fun, quick read. I can easily recommend it.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

WWW Wednesdays

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently, I'm reading The Keeper by Suzanne Woods Fisher for an upcoming blog tour. Despite the awful cover, it's a pretty good book.

And still reading Fall of the Birds by Bradford Morrow

I just finished reading Cinder by Marissa Meyer. You can read my review here.

Next, I'll probably read Never Smile at Strangers by Jennifer Minar-Jaynes

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!