Top 10 Reads of 2010 & December Wrap-Up

Happy New Year everyone!


Here is my December reading wrap-up. It's also going to be my last wrap-up post as such as I've decided to discontinue posting monthly wrap-ups. Let's see if I'll come up with something else instead in 2011. :)


Books read: 5
Books read in English: 3
Books read in Finnish: 2
Finnish books read: 1
Fiction: 5
Nonfiction: 0
Books reviewed: 1


I cannot believe I read only 5 books in December! It felt more than that! Well, actually I did also read the first of the three novels in The Dancers at the End of Time omnibus by Michael Moorcock, but I will only count the book read after I've read the whole omnibus as it technically is one book even if it consists of three novels. I also read the title story in The Fixer and Other Stories, a graphic novel or rather a graphic novella and short stories by Joe Sacco. And I'm almost at the end of The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton. It was my aim to finish it in 2010, but I still have some 40 pages left, so , instead of being my last book read in 2010, it will be the first I read in 2011. :)


Here's the books I read in December:


-The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (reread, but the first time I read it in English)
-Minne tytöt kadonneet by Leena Lehtolainen
-Kesä Baden-Badenissa (Summer in Baden-Baden) by Leonid Tsypkin
-Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
-Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan


All in all I read 73 books in 2010, which is a usual number for me. I'm always aiming for 100, but have not managed that yet! Maybe in 2011... :)
 
My top 10 reads in 2010 were (in reverse order):
 
10. How Beautiful the Ordinary ed. by Michael Cart. This YA collection of 12 short stories about identity was the first book I read in 2010 and what a great beginning for my reading year it proved to be. Definitely a book I will return to in the future.
 
9. Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. This YA novel is quite a recent read as I only finished reading it on the Christmas Eve. The writing was great and the main characters were very likable. Partly contemporary and partly historical fiction this novel really shows how to make history interesting for young adults.
 
8. The PowerBook by Jeanette Winterson. It's Winterson, need I say more. :) The writing was fabulous as always.
 
7. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Well, is's Collins, need I say more. :) Loved this somewhat gothic mystery even more now that I read it the second time.
 
6. The 19th Wife by David Ebersdorf. Another partly contemporary, partly historical novel. What a great story this was! Maybe I should say here that this one shows how to make history interesting for everyone. :)
 
5. The Sealed Letter by Emme Donoghue. One of the three books by Donoghue I read in 2010. She really became one of my favorite writers in 2010. A historical novel with great period details and once again a great story.
 
4. Room by Emma Donoghue. Such a gripping story. No need to say more here.
 
3. Purge by Sofi Oksanen. I actually read this in the original Finnish. Judged by the writing alone this would have been my number one read, but the subject matter, in typical Oksanen style, was not in any means easy or enjoyable as such, thus my top 2 books beat Purge on the enjoyment factor. 
 
2. In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden. Interesting that my top 10 includes two rereads, this being the other one of those. I absolutely love this book! And now that I have my own copy I will no doubt revisit Brede every now and then.
 
1. Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski. Loved, loved, loved this Persephone book! :) I still almost get goosepumps when I think of the ending of this novel. It's so perfect.
 
So, uusi vuosi, uudet kujeet (new year, new tricks) as we say here in Finland. :) I have some plans for further improving the design of A Room of One's Own and I'm really looking forward to the new blogging and reading year. So many interesting books to read! So many stories waiting to pe discovered! Isn't it wonderful? A whole new year ahead of us full of all kinds of possibilities and promises and dreams just waiting for us to make them real! Happy reading in 2011!

More Challenges

There are so many interesting reading challenges popping up all around the blogosphere just now! It's hard to resist joining all too many of them, but I'm trying to choose a manageable number I will have a chance to finish, too. I've alreadty posted my lists for the TBR Pile Challenge and the One,Two, Theme! Challenge. Here come's my reading lists for the GLBT Challenge, the Historical Fiction Challenge, and the Steampunk Challenge. Both GLBT & Historical Fiction Challenges run from January 1st to December 31st. The Steampunk Challenge actually started already in October this year and will run until October 2011.

GLBT Challenge

Even though there is no required amount of books to read I have made a list of 12 books that I hope to read for this challenge in 2011:

1. Avery, Ellis: The Teahouse Fire
2. Boock, Paula: Dare Truth or Promise
3. Brenner, Samantha: Grand Slam
4. Daggett, Gina: Jukebox
5. Donoghue, Emma: Slammerkin
6. Garden, Nancy: Annie on My Mind
7. Jansson, Tove: Fair Play
8. Koja, Kathe: Under the Poppy
9. Murakami, Haruki: Sputnik Sweetheart
10. Sappho: It Not, Winter
11. The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister ed. by Helena Whitbread
12. Strachey, Dorothy: Olivia
 
Historical Fiction Challenge
 
My aim is to read 10 books (Struggling the Addiction -level):
 

 
1. Vladimir Bartol: Alamut
2. A. S. Byatt: Children's Book
3. Moyra Caldecott: Daughter of Amun
4. Emma Donoghue: Slammerkin
5. Sarah Dunant: Sacred Hearts
6. Ken Follett: Fall of Giants
7. Richard Harvell: The Bells
8. Kathe Koja: Under the Poppy
9. Hilary Martel: Wolf Hall
10. Kate Pullinger: Mistress of Nothing
 
Steampunk Challenge
 
I aim to read 5 books.
 

 
1. Meljean Brook: The Iron Duke
2. Cassandra Clare: Clockwork Angel
3. Kate Elliott: Cold Magic
4. William Gibson: The Difference Engine
5. Michael Moorcock: The Dancers at the End of Time (an omnibus of 3 novels)

Can't wait to start reading books for these challenges! :) 

ps. There's still time to enter my giveaway.

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day are all public holidays in Finland. As I also took Dec. 23rd off I've been enjoying a nice four day Christmas break here. I spent the 23rd rather tightly with a book, namely Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. I just could not put the book down!

Revolution is a story of two girls, two centuries apart. Andi  Alpers is a brilliant, but deeply troubled and emotionally scarred teenager from Brooklyn.

    "I wish I could stop messing up but I don't know how. What is it that mends broken people? Jesus? Chocolate? New shoes? I wish someone could tell me. I wish I had an answer. Once I asked Nathan what the answer was. I thought he might know, considering all he's been through, but he told me I would have to find it for myself. That everybody has to.
     I reach into my bag, take out my bottle of Qwellify and gobble three. That's my answer. Take enough Qwells and I forget the anger and the sadness. I even forget the question." [p. 136]

Andi reluctantly accompanies her Nobel Prize winner, DNA scientist father to Paris for the winter break. Her father, together with his historian friend G, is doing some tests on a heart said to be the heart of Louis-Charles, the son of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. G is also planning on opening a museum and among the artefacts he has gathered at his place Andi finds a journal of a young girl, Alexandrine, written in 1795 and depicting the girl's life from 1789 onwards.

    "Liberty. The marchers had shouted it over and over again, all night long. They'd carried banners with the word writ large. Was this liberty? If so, I wanted no part of it. I was free now, yes. Free to pin silly cockades to my hat. Free to sing daft songs. Free to go back to Paris and starve.
     On the palace steps, a man mopped up blood. Two more swept up pieces of glass. The jagged shards made an ugly music as they were dumped into a bucket.
     I heard the tune and knew it - it was the sound of my dreams shattering." [p. 208]

Revolution is a well-written, gripping, heartbreaking, wonderful novel. It is contemporary. It is historical -and it is something else. :) I had a hunch of how the story would develop. Then I thought my hunch was wrong and felt actually quite happy with it. In the end I was right (and happy with that, too), but you just have to read the book yourself to know more. :) Just three more words: loss, music, love.

This was the first Jennifer Donnelly book I read. It will certainly not be the last.

Below is a picture of me my Dad took with his phone on Christmas Eve. :)

Merry Christmas!

My favorite Christmas picture book is The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me. It tells the nativity story from the donkey's viewpoint. The story is written by Jeanette Winterson and the printed version is beautifully illustrated by Rosalind MacCurrach. The story is also available online on Winterson's official homepage here.

Merry Christmas, blogger friends!

The Willow (The Magical Sword Series #1) - By Stacey Kennedy

In Carson City, Nevada a tragic car accident has claimed the lives of Nexi Jones’ adoptive parents. Now, without them, her reason to live has vanished and she is determined to end her pain.

The problem with that, it’s not heaven she wakes up to, it’s the Otherworld. Nexi must reconcile the truth about her past, and her heritage as part guardian/part witch, while she begins to train to join the Council’s guard. But it’s not the combat training that has her worried, its attempting to keep her cool around the luscious guardian, Kyden that’s her biggest concern.

Before long, Nexi’s skills are put to the test as she begins to fight against the supernatural who have taken a human life. But nothing can prepare her for the journey ahead. Soon, she will find herself lost in a mystery and fighting to keep all she’s gained, as Lazarus, a vampire, threatens to take it all away.
(borrowed from staceykennedy.com)

Nexi is a woman who doesn't take shit from anyone, speaks her mind, & makes jokes in awkward situations. Not to mention she's got the temper of someone who's been stuck in mid-town traffic for hours, with a bunch of stupid drivers.

After losing everything that she has, and attempting to take her own life, Nexi is thrust into a place she never imagined existed. Having to face the transformation of becoming the warrior she never knew she could be, Nexi finds something within herself she never knew was there. Given a second chance at life, and a first glance at love, she starts to feel normal for the first time in her life.

Quickly everything is turned upside down & now must fight against all odds for what she believes in. On a path for vengeance, that she never knew was possible, Nexi must now find a way to harness her fury & destroy the one who has taken so much from her.

--After not being able to truly get into a book for a long time, I blew through, The Willow, in 1 day! Stacey has created a world & character that I completely fell in love with. She truly has a way to effortlessly make the story flow without a hitch or awkward pause. My interest is beyond sparked & now I can not wait to pick up the rest of the series & see how Nexi's journey unfolds! I completely recommend, The Magical Sword Series, and I hope that you will become consumed in, The Otherworld, as I was.

If you're interested in, The Willow, here are the links to get your very own copy:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

Teaser Tuesday 21.12.2010

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by LizB of Should Be Reading.

The rules are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two teaser sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers

Share the title and author too so that other Teaser Tuesday participients can add the book on their TBR lists, if they like your teasers!

Last week I started enthusiastically reading Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope. It is the first of his Palliser novels and is set in the 1860s. After The Woman in White I craved for more Victorian fiction and thought Trollope would satisfy that craving. For ca. 150 pages he did, but then somehow I became tired of the story. I did not care much for one of the characters and found another one a bit irritating. In the end I gave up. Not for good, but for now. I wanted to read something else, something with more...something, almost anything really, after a chapter on fox hunting! I took a good look at my book piles and decided on Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. I'm only 50 pages into the book, but I'm liking what I've read this far. My teaser is from page 26 (little more than 2 sentences this time):

"Most of the teachers at St Anselm's will tell me I'm a genius. That I can do anything, be anything. That my potential is limitless and I should reach for the stars. Nathan is the only one who calls me dummkopf and tells me to practise the Sarabande in Bach's Lute Suite in E Minor five hundred times a night if that's what it takes to get it through my thick skull. And it's such a relief I could cry."

ps. There is still time to enter my giveaway. Click the button below to go to the giveaway post.

First Chapter from Dead Reckoning has been posted!!

YAY!! So excited that Charlaine Harris has posted the first chapter from the new Sookie Stackhouse novel on her website!!

Well, what are you waiting for?! Go read Chapter 1!

One, Two, Theme! A Very Geeky Reading Challenge

Alexandra from The Sleepless Reader and Joanna from It's All About Me have come up with a very interesting idea for a reading challenge. One, Two, Theme! -Challenge will run from 1 January until 31 December in 2011. The purpose of the challenge is to read books, both fiction and nonfiction, on various themes. Every participant should choose at least three themes. For the first theme you only have to read one book, for the second two, for the third three etc. From your second theme up, at least one of the books chosen should be fiction and one nonfiction.


I first learned about this challenge through Alexandra's blog some weeks ago and immediately wanted to join. Choosing my themes have, however, taken some time. Here, finally, they are. I'm aiming for at least six theme blocks, so will post my tentative lists from which to choose the books for six different subjects. The lists include also books I have already read, if I think that those books might be of interest to someone else who might want to choose the same theme. Here goes:


1. Vietnam
For this theme I will read The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb. This is Gibb's upcoming novel. I've read all her previous books and really like her writing. Sweetness in the Belly was one of my top reads a few years ago and I have been rather impatienly waiting for her next book. The Beauty of Humanity Movement will be published in March 2011.


2. Mesopotamia
I'll read Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie as my fiction book for this theme. The nonfiction book will be one of these:

• Women of Babylon: Gender and Representation in Mesopotamia by Zainab Bahrani
• Return to Babylon: Travelers, Archeologers, and Monuments in Mesopotamia by Brian M. Fagan
• Babylon and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek
• Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City by Gwendolyn Leick
• Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia by Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat
• From Mesopotamia to Iraq: A Concise History by Hans J. Nissen
• Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization by A. Leo Oppenheim
• Ancient Mesopotamia: The Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians by Virginia Schomp

3. Napoleon Bonaparte and the Napoleonic Era
I've always found Napoleon Bonaparte a fascinating figure, but have actually not read much fiction featuring him. I hope to improve on that by choosing this theme. And I might even upgrade this theme highter up on my list in the end.

 Fiction:

• The Napoleon Series by Max Gallo (The Song of Departure, The Sun of Austerlitz, The Emperor of Kings, The Immortal of St. Helena)
• Vienna Waltz by Teresa Grant
• The Josephine Bonaparte Trilogy by Sandra Gulland (The Many Lifes and Sorrows of Josephine B.; Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe; The last Great Dance on Earth)
• The Napoleonic Trilogy by Patrick Rambaud (The Battle; The Retreat; The Exile)
• The Wellington and Napoleon Quartet by Simon Scarrow(Young Bloods; The Generals; Fire and Sword; The Fields of Death)
• Désirée by Annemarie Selinko

Nonfiction:

• Napoleon & Josephine: An Improbable Marriage by Evangelina Bruce
• Napoleon: The Path to Power 1769-1799 by Philip Dwyer
• Venus of the Empire: The Life of Pauline Bonaparte by Flora Fraser
• The Last Years of Napoleon: His Last Years on St. Helena by Ralph Korngold
• Napoleon in Egypt: The Greatest Glory by Paul Strathern
• Terrible Exile: The Last Days of Napoleon on St. Helena by Brian Unwin
• Napoleon: Man of War, Man of Peace by Timothy Wilson-Smith
• Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna by Adam Zamovski

4. Books about, or by writers from, the region of former Yugoslavia
This is a long time reading interest, but there's still quite many novels about former Yugoslavia I have not read. I'll also include here books by writers from the region, even if they don't write about the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

Fiction:

• Alamut by Vladimir Bartol
• My Nime is Bosnia by Madeleine Gagnon
• The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
• Guarding Hanna by Miha Mazzini
• Pretty Birds by Scott Simon
• Stilness by Courtney Angela Brkic

Graphic Books:

• The Fixer and Other Stories by Joe Sacco
• Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Bosnia 1992-95 by Joe Sacco

Nonfiction

• Bosnia: A Short History by Noel Malcolm
• Questions about Slovenia
• Slovenia and the Slovenes: A Small State in the New Europe by James Gow and Cathie Carmichael

5. Egypt
One geographical area more! Egypt, especially Ancient Egypt, is another subject that has more or less always interested me. I saw the British Museum's Egyptian collections when I was just seven years old and it was love at first sight. I remember my Mom feeling uncomfortable among the mummies, but I was fascinated! I even thought to study some Egyptology while at the university and even sat on a few lectures, but I didn't ever take any exams on the subject. I have, however, read quite a few nonfiction books about Ancient Egypt, and then there is Elizabeth Peters and her one of a kind heroine Amelia Peabody! This challenge will be a good reason to read the one Amelia book I still have sitting unread in my book shelf.

Fiction:

• The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany
• Our Horses in Egypt by Rosalind Belben
• Any of P. C. Doherty's mysteries set in Ancient Egypt
• Any of Christian Jacq's books set in Ancient Egypt
• The Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street) by Naguib Mahfouz
• The Heretic Queen, Cleopatra's Daughter and/or Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
• Mamur Zapt mysteries by Michael Pearce
• Any of Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody mysteries or any other of her mysteries set in Egypt
• Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger
• Any of Wilbur Smith's novel's set in Egypt
• The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Nonfiction:

• The Keys of Egypt: The Race to Read the Hieroglyphs by Lesley Adkins
• Anhenaten: King of Egypt by Cyril Aldred
• The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter
• Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter Reformation by Aidan Dodson
• A Thousand Miles up the Nile by Amelie Edwards
• A Passage to Egypt: The Life of Lucy Duff Gordon by Katherine Frank
• Dancing for Hathor: Women in Ancient Egypt by Carolyn Graves-Brown
• The Golden King: The World of Tutankhamun by Zahi E. Hawass
• Exploring the World of the Pharaohs: A Complete Quide to Ancient Egypt by Christine Hobson
• In the Valley of the Kings: Howard Carter and the Mystery of Tutankhamun's Tomb by Daniel Meyerson
• Splendor That Was Egypt by Margaret Alice Murray
• Ramesses: Egypt's Greatest Pharaoh or Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh by Joyce Tyldeslay
• Howard Carter And the Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun by H. V. F. Winstone

6. Nuns and Sisters
Since my late teens/early twenties I have been very interested in religious life, not as an option for myself, but as a life choice in general. I have read lots of books, mostly fiction but also some nonfiction, about nuns and sisters. There are many more books out there, though, so I thought to choose this as one of my themes, too. The list below is long (I have already read many of the books there), but I hope it will also serve others, who maybe want to read some nun books. :) And can you believe how many mystery series there are where the sleuth is a nun or a sister? Just take a look below. Many!

Fiction

• Going In and Life Class by Jenny Newman (one should start with Going In, as Life Class is a sequal to it)
• Body & Soul and/or Sacred and Profane by Marcelle Bernstein
• Secret Hearts by Sarah Dunant
• Black Narcissus, In This House of Brede and/or Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy by Rumer Godden
• Marietta in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen
• Nun's Story by Kathryn Hulme (together with In This House of Brede this is a must read for anyone wanting to read some nun-fiction (no pun intended:))
• The Convent by Panos Karnezis
• Amata Means Beloved by
• Angelology by Danielle Trussoni
• Frost in May by Antonia White

Nonfiction:

• Through the Narrow Gate by Karen Armstrong
• Nuns by Marcelle Bernstein (a classic study)
• The Habit: A History of the Clothing of Catholic Nuns by Elizabeth Kuhns
• New Habits: Today's Women Who Choose to Become Nuns by Isabel Losada
• Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns Through Two Millennia by Jo Ann Kay McNamara
• Unveiled: The Hidden Life of Nuns by Cheryl R. Read
• Building Sisterhood: A Feminist History of Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary by Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,Monroe,Michigan Sisters

And this book is not about nuns but monks, but it is such a treat that I'll list it here as an extra :) : An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order by Nancy Klein Maguire

Mysteries:

• Quiet as a Nun by Antonia Frazer
• A Nun in the Closet by Dorothy Gilman
• A Force of Habit by Christine Hilger
• Farewell to the Flesh by Gemma O'Connor
• The Nun's Tale by Candace Robb

Mystery Series:

• Sister Pelagia mysteries by Boris Akunin
• Sister Joan mysteries by Veronica Black
• Sister Frevisse medieval mysteries by Margaret Frazer
• Christine Bennett mysteries by Lee Harris
• Sister Agnes mysteries by Alison Joseph
• Sister Mary Helen mysteries by Sister Carol Ann O'Marie
• Sister Mary Teresa mysteries by Monica Quill
• Sister Cecile mysteries by Winona Sullivan
• Sister Agatha mysteries by Aimee and David Thurlo
• Sister Fidelma mysteries by Peter Tremayne

Phew! That's a long list! There are at least two, maybe three more challenges I want to join, so stay tuned for a few more challenge posts in the coming days.

Fresh Face Friday 12-17-10

La, La, La....oh don't mind me, I'm just dancing around & listening to music while I'm writing this weeks, FFF.

Lately it seems as though I'm having a harder time finding authors that only have 1 book published. I don't know if that has to do with multi-book deals? Or possible they're all hiding from me? (I'm going with the latter) I will say this, that I am thankful for everyone that I do find, and every single author that I've found has sparked my excitement to feature them in my FFF.

OK, now onto the goods!

With her first book, The Thirteenth Chime, Emma Michaels takes a spin on YA paranormal that goes beyond your average vampire or shape shifters.  She captures you with a tale of lies, deceit & revenge, that will have you on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next. To show you what I mean here's a synopsis of Emma's book:

No one knew of its existence until it was removed from the attic upstairs.

In a beautiful house that overlooks the sea, an antique clock has the power to change the course of their lives.

The power the clock resonates will not only force Destiny and ex-boyfriend David on a journey into the depths of one man's mind long dead, but into the mind of a man filled with hatred and bent on revenge.

With the only clues to the nature of the clock having disappeared into the sea, Destiny and David must retrace the steps the man had taken into the darkness, before they fall prey to the trap he had set in motion over half a century ago. 

Hatred never dies.

 

As am up and coming author, Emma sure knows how to grasp your attention quickly! Imagine what the books like if this is just the synopsis? :)

So, swing by Emma's Blogspot, or her website, to find out how to get your copy of, The Thirteenth Chime!



Reviews, Reviews, Reviews

Yes, I know that lately I have been TOTALLY slacking on the reviews. Honestly I have no excuse except that I hadn't been able to get into a book....that is until I started reading Primal Heat by Susan Sizemore!

Now, while trying to pull myself away from my book, I am currently in the process of configuring a rating system that is personal & unique to Taking it One Book at a Time. I want everyone to look forward to my reviews & know, without a doubt, that it's one of my reviews.

So for the time being, try to bare with my while I'm still constructing this. (It might be a while, lol)

~Jess

The 2011 TBR Pile Challenge

Here we go! One of my favorite, if not the favorite, times of the blogging year is here: The time to decide which challenges to do next year! I've already decided to join a few challenges and have been compiling my book lists. I'll be posting various challenge posts in the coming days, but I'll start with a very useful challenge: The 2011 TBR Pile Challenge hosted by Adam at Roof Beam Reader. 

I'm very good, I mean v-e-r-y good, in adding books to my TBR pile. However, I'm not so good at reading the books I've bought. All too often, no matter how interesting the books are, they are left waiting while library books take priority in my reading. Books from the library have to be returned, my own books are not going anywhere, so they wait for their turn, and wait, and wait... :) Joining this challenge is the perfect reason to read some of those books that have been sitting on my bookshelves for longer than a year.

The goal of the challenge is to read 12 books from one's TBR pile during 2011.

The books must have been on your bookshelf or TBR list for at least 1 year. That means they cannot be published 1.1.2010 or later. Two alternate books are allowed.

To join this challenge go to Roof Beam Reader.

This is my list:
1. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell
2. The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt
3. Tomb of the Golden Bird by Elizabeth Peters
4. The Laughter of the Dead Kings by Elizabeth Peters
5. Olivia by Dorothy Strachey
6. Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant
7. Pinkerton's Sister by Peter Rushforth
8. Command Decision by Elizabeth Moon
9. Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman & The Royal Game by Stefan Zweig
10. The Future is Queer. A Science Fiction Anthology. Ed. by Richard Labonté and Lawrence Schimel
11. Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf
12. An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah

Alternates:
+Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon
+And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander

Which one should I read first?

Smuketeers + Larissa Ione = UH-MAZE-ING

Over at the Smutketeers website, they're currently celebrating the 12 Dirty Days of Xmas. Today they had Larissa Ione drop by with an excerpt & giveaway for her newest book in the Demonica Series, Sin Undone! I just had to share because Larissa is one of my favorite authors & her Demonica books are genius. Seriously, who else could come up with the Under World General Hospital? Brilliant!

Do make sure you visit the Smutketeers website & enter for your chance to win a signed copy of Sin Undone :)

Talkative Tuesday 12/14/10

Less then 2 weeks until Christmas! Holy Moley!

While I've been trying, oh so hard, to get my holiday shopping done, I've truly been fighting with myself on which amazing blog to feature today & next week.....it can get really frustrating arguing with yourself, trust me.

Finally it dawned on me, hallelujah! I ALWAYS see Fiction Vixen Book Reviews on my Facebook either, giveaway great books by amazing authors, or reviewing the books I love! So there was my answer, right in front of my eyes.

With an unrelenting appetite for romance novels, Sophia decided to start Fiction Vixen Book Reviews in August 2009. Now her site has turned into a great place to find, read-alongs, discussions, giveaways, and honest reviews. (Plus the fact that the Fever Series, by Karen Marie Moning, is one of her all time favorite series too is great!)

So as I ask you all every week, hop on over to the Fiction Vixen website, "Like" her Facebook & even follow her on Twitter. Fiction Vixen could possibly introduce you to an author or series that you never knew about. Hope you enjoy her site as much as I do!

B.A.M.

I'm stumbling on B.A.M's like they're rocks in the road lately!

While surfing thru some fellow bloggers sites today, I stumbled upon a piece of cover art that caught my eye.

But seriously, how could a half-naked dude with a nothing but a belt & jeans on NOT catch my attention?

So, while my interest was peeked, I decided that I'd google the author, Ava Gray. I found that not only does she offer a whole line of books with half naked guys on the cover (please try to see the humor I'm trying to put forth), but they're all really good!

Ava's, Skin Series, has a total of 4 books in it so far. Though only 2 have been release, Skin Heat (pictured above) is set to release Jan. 4th, 2011, and Skin Dive (pictured below) has a release date of July 5th, 2011.

Now that I've introduced you to another enticing author with amazing cover art, you can:

1. Check out her website (which also has a link above),  and Facebook (which is under her other pen name, so don't be alarmed)

2. Thank me later :)

Virtual Advent Tour: A Christmas Story

Once upon a time, approximately 1980 + a few years since certain events in a little town of Bethlehem, there was a little family, father, mother and a daughter (let's call them Dad, Mom and Tiny Bit), living in a little suburb on the edge of a city in a country somewhere in the northern parts of the so called Old Continent. As it was customary in those parts Christmas in this little family was celebrated on the Christmas Eve and as it is customary all over the world this family, like all others, had their own Christmas traditions they followed faithfully year after year. Firstly, on the 23rd: bring in the tree & decorate. Secondly, on the morning of the 24th: Dad: roast the Christmas ham, Mom: sleep late, Tiny Bit: try not to disturbe either Dad or Mom.

During this particular Christmas everything had gone according to the plan. Came Christmas Eve afternoon the tree sparkled in the living room, the delicious scent of Christmas ham hovered around the house, and as always, the little family had walked to the beautiful St. Lawrence Church to lit candles on the graves of their loved ones. When they returned Dad stopped in front of the garage and said he needed to check something. Mom and Tiny Bit left Dad at the garage door and slowly walked around the house admiring the Christmas lights on their and their neighbours' back yards. Dad was not in when they entered and Mom expressed her surprise at him taking so long checking whatever it was he wanted to check in the garage.

Then the door bell rung. Mom and Tiny Bit looked at each other. "What an earth..." began Mom. "Did Daddy forget his keys?" asked Tiny Bit. "No, I don't think so", said Mom all puzzled. Tiny Bit went and got the door.

And there he stood! No Disney version of Mr. Claus, but Dad dressed in rubber boots, wearing his fur coat inside out, fur hat on his head and with a beard made of cleaning cotton adorning his face in a proper old fashioned Father Christmas style! Tiny Bit was flabberghasted! Mom was totally speechless! 

"Ho, ho, ho! Are there any good and nice children in here? said Dad/Father Christmas in a proper Santa Claus -style. "Yes", Tiny Bit managed to say. She was still staring at her father and hardly believing her eyes. "So, this is why it took you so long to return from the garage! Mom exclaimed. She was starting to laugh. Tiny Bit joined her and soon they were both laughing so hard that tears of joy were pouring from they eyes. "I cannot believe this! I can-not be-lieve this!" Tiny Bit said time and again between bursts of laughter and all the while Dad stayed coolly in his role and started picking up presents from his basket and delivering them to his daughter and his wife.

When all the presents had been delivered and the special Father Christmas had done his job and they had laughed so hard that their sides hurt Tiny Bit hugged her father tightly and proclaimed with authority: "You were the best Santa ever!"

Adrian Phoenix Giveaway via Dark Faerie Tales

Over at Dark Faerie Tales they're having an amazing Dark Winter Tales giveaway with author Adrian Phoenix! You could win signed copies of the first 3 books from her series, The Maker's Song, or a signed copy of Black Dust Mambo! So run on over and  Enter to Win Here!

BAM!

Yes, B.A.M! That stands for: Brilliant Author Mention

Recently I've decided that I'm;

1. Not paying enough attention to my blog. With issues that have been preoccupying my mind, I have let what's important to me be put on the back burner.

2. Need to start giving a shout out to authors that I think deserve it. (Besides my FFF authors of course)

There are some authors out there who are still up & coming, but have multiple books out. So when I find one of these authors, they're going to become a B.A.M

My first B.A.M is a new author that I've meet named, Keith Melton. With his 3rd publication being released in Feb. 2011, I have to say that I am excited to pick it up! Here's a brief synopsis of the book:

After accidentally blowing up both a client facility and a cushy city contract in the same day, pyromancer and mercenary captain Andrea Walker is scrambling to save her Zero Dogs. A team including (but not limited to) a sexually repressed succubus, a werewolf with a thing for health food, a sarcastic tank driver/aspiring romance novelist, a three-hundred-pound calico cat, and a massive demon who really loves to blow stuff up.

With the bankruptcy vultures circling, Homeland Security throws her a high-paying, short-term contract even the Zero Dogs can’t screw up: destroy a capitalist necromancer bent on dominating the gelatin industry with an all-zombie workforce. The catch? She has to take on Special Forces Captain Jake Sanders, a man who threatens both the existence of the team and Andrea’s deliberate avoidance of romantic entanglements.

As Andrea strains to hold her dysfunctional team together long enough to derail the corporate zombie apocalypse, the prospect of getting her heart run over by a tank tread is the least of her worries. The government never does anything without an ulterior motive. Jake could be the key to success…or just another bad day at the office for the Zeroes.

Sounds great right?!

Please make sure to check out Keith's page on Facebook, and his profile page with Samhain Publishing.

Talkative Tuesday 12/7/10

Thank god for Talkative Tuesday! I am in desperate need of a quick break from all this holiday madness. Don't get me wrong I LOVE this time of year, but I seem to be in some sort of holiday funk.

One thing that I am thankful for this holiday season is the discovery of an amazing blog called, Parajunkee's View. Not only does the site review all of our favorite books & give you the true nitty gritty on them, but they offer blogging advice.

If you cruise over to their Book Bloggin 101 section, they have answers to all those beginner blogging questions that you're constantly searching the "help" section for. The cool thing is, you don't receive a generic response or answer. Rachel, who runs Parajunkee's View, gives you her view on everything. She suggests what has worked for her in the past, or how she went about deciding what was best for her site & what might work for you.

This blog has not only entertained me with some amazing reviews, but has helped me shape my site into what it is today.

If you have time, check out Parajunkee's Facebook , or I have added links to her website above. The site will give you so much knowledge you'll be amazed!

Giveaway: A Signed Copy of Purge by Sofi Oksanen

Update January 6, this giveaway is now closed. And the winner is... Click here. :)

The holiday season is almost here and I know that many secret -and not so secret- Santas are already hard at work. :) During the latest Helsinki Book Fair in the end of October I was lucky enough to purhcase two signed copies of Purge by Sofi Oksanen. I'm giving one of them to one of you!

I want to keep this very simple. If you want to participate in the giveaway, just leave a comment here with your e-mail address (so that I have a means contacting you, if you win). I will choose the winner on January 6th by using the age old random technique of writing the names of all participants on slips of paper and pulling one of the slips out from a hat. :) This giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere.

Library Loot, New Books & November Wrap-Up

I have quite a pile of library books at home at the moment. Many of the books I had requested arrived plus I had some work to do that included going through our library's English fiction collection. In my case going through the collection usually means that I find some books I simply must borrow and this time was no exeption! :)

I also bought some paperbacks earlier this week. Officially I went to the bookstore to buy myself a wall calender for 2011 which I did (a very nice one with pictures by Mucha), but ended up coming home with also some books. So, this is going to be sort of a little bit of this, little bit of that post. Let's start with the library books:

A Dodo at Oxford: The Unreliable Account of a Student and His Pet Dodo by Philip Atkins and Michael Johnson

An over 300 years old diary is found amongs some books donated to an Oxford charity bookshop. This diary tells the story of an Oxford student and his unusual pet, a dodo bird. This is a curious little book. It is written as if it were a nonfiction book documenting a real rare book and the text of the diary is shown as a facsimile copy with lots of notes around the text on every page.

Theodora: Actress. Empress. Whore. by Stella Duffy

This is a praised historical novel about Empress Theodora, the wife of Emperor Justinian and one of the most powerful, maybe even the most powerful woman, in the history of the Byzantine Empire. The book tells Theodora's story from childhood up to her coronation. I've read some of Duffy's detective stories before, but this is surely going to be something completely different.

Michael Moorcock: The Dancers at the End of Time

I've been craving for some science fiction lately. The Holy Machine really left me wanting more. The Dancers at the End of Time contains in fact three novels all set in a decaying future society where anything is possible. The novels included in the omnibus are: An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands and The End of All Songs. These satirical novels are said to be an hommage to Oscar Wilde and the 1890s, Beardsley and the fin-de-siécle decadents. Need I say more! I can hardly wait to get into this book!

Joe Sacco: Safe Area Gorazde

This is a graphic book about the war in Bosnia in 1992-1995. I'm still interested in literature about the Balkans/the area that once was Yugoslavia, and when I read a review of this book & noticed that my library has it, I immediately put a hold on it. I also have another of his Bosnia books, The Fixer and Other Stories from the library at the moment.

Vita Sackville-West: All Passion Spent

I first found Vita Sackville-West through Virginia Woolf. The two were lovers and Woolf dedicated Orlando to Sackville-West. All Passion Spent on the other hand is said to be the fictional companion to Woolf's A Room of One's Own! I loved The Edwardians when I read it a long time ago, but have not read anything else by Sackville-West. All Passion Spent tells the story of Lady Slane, who as a young girl in 1860 wanted to become an artist. She become a wife and a mother instead. Seventy years later she retires to a little cottage in Hampshire and finally has the freedom to choose what she wants to do in her life.

Elizabeth Speller: The Return of Captain John Emmett

This is Speller's first novel. It's 1920. The first World War is over. Laurence Bertram is asked by a woman he once knew to look into the events that lead her brother John to kill himself. The text in the dust jacket proclaims the book to be "both a gripping mystery and and elegy to the private tragedies of the Great War."

Living in the End Times by Slavoj Zizek

The Slovenian philosopher Zizek is very popular in Europe at the moment. His books have been translated into many languages and I have been thinking of reading something by him for some time now. However, philospohy per se is not my thing. But when I saw this book in our library's new acquisitions list some weeks ago, I thought to give it a go and made a reservation as all copies were out. The book finally arrived this week. I will most probably not read the whole book, even though it does look very interesting, but browse it and read the chapters that interest me most.

That concludes my library loot selection this week, selection, because I also have at least half a dozen novels in Finnish from the library this week. But let's move on the the books I purchased this week:

Mark of the Lion by Suzanne Arruda

The first book in a new to me mystery series set in early 20th century colonial Africa. The first book is set in 1919. The heroine of the series is Jade del Cameron, a woman ahead of her time, who after being an ambulance driver in the Great War sets off to Africa to fulfill a fighter pilot's dying wish, but in doing so gets involved in murder. Arruda has already written quite a few Jade del Cameron mysteries, so if I like this one, there's a whole series to look forward to.

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

I read a review of this book on a blog just this week, but cannot remember now whose blog it was... Anyway, I had read about Donnelly's book somewhere even earlier and the review I read this week made me buy the book when I saw it in my favorite book store. This is a YA novel set in modern day Brooklyn and revolutionary France. The lives of two girls, two centuries apart, are twined together into "one unforgettable account of life, loss, and enduring love". Sounds intriguing.

Yksinäisyyden kaivo by Radclyffe Hall

This is the Finnish translation of the lesbian classic The Well of Loneliness. I mention it, because I was excited to find out that it has been translated. I have tried reading The Well of Loneliness once, but it is a somewhat depressing book and after reading maybe 2/3 of it I put it aside to read something more cheerful. I'm thinking of maybe reading the translated version for the GLBT Challenge in 2011 and comparing it with the original.

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (Volume 2)

I really need to read some Hugo! But I actually thought I bought the whole Les Misérables and only just now realised that it was just the second part! You all know what this means ->back to the book store to buy the other part(s)!

Up and Down Stairs: The History of the Country Servant by Jeremy Musson

The name really says it all. This is a nonfiction book that looks at the life in English country houses through the lives of the servants from the later Middle Ages to the 20th century.

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

I loved Verne as a child and read quite a few of his novels. I thought it would be fun to reread this one in English.

That was it this time!

Actually, one, no, two more things:

Firstly, as I mentioned above, I would like to read Les Misérables, maybe at some point in 2011. It would be nice to have some support for the task, because the book scares me a little! Would anyone be interested in a read-along? Or if not Hugo (which will take quite some time to finish, I'm afraid), then reading together Around the World in Eighty Days? I think it would be a fun project. Please, leave a comment or send me an e-mail, if you would like to read one or the other together with me.

Secondly, I mentioned some time ago that I have an interesting giveaway coming up. I'll post about it on the 6th (=Finland's Independence Day, we are enjoying a long weekend here :)).

~~~~~~***~~~~~~***~~~~~~***~~~~~~ 

In November I read an average number of books i.e. 7. Three of them were in Finnish and two of those were written by Finns (and thus count towards my personal FINNishing Up Challenge), the third was a translation.

Books read: 7

Books read in English: 4

Books read in Finnish: 3

Finnish books read: 2

Fiction: 7

Nonfiction: 0

Reviews: 2

List of books I read in November with links to my reviews:

- Chrie Beckett: The Holy Machine

-Margarita Engle: The Firefly Letters

-Susan Hill: The Little Hand

-Tuomas Kyrö: Mielensäpahoittaja

-Melania G. Mazzucco: Mestarin tunnustukset

-Delphine de Vigan: No and Me

-Seija Vilén: Mangopuun alla