Dewey's Read-a-thon: Introductory Post

The read-a-thon has started! I'll start with Kate's and my answers for the introductory meme.

1)Where are you reading from today?
We're both comfortably settled in the living room.

2)Three random facts about me…
From Kate:

• My favourite colour is purple.
• I play the violin, piano and guitar.
• I read the newspaper comics every morning.
  

From me:

• I usually knit in my free time when I'm not reading.
  
• I love every kind of seafood.
  
• I've just finished watching all the Star Trek Next Generation season 2 episodes with Kate.
  

3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?
I've got about a dozen books in my TBR pile and will pick a few of them for the read-a-thon.

4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
I signed up for an hour of cheerleading. Hopefully, I'll be able to spend even more time catching up with all the blogs after the actual read-a-thon is over. I'm hoping to finish two books this time around. Kate has no definite goals. She said she'll just read when she feels like it.

5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?
I like to save up books that I really, really want to read for read-a-thon day. Even if I have other books on the go, I give myself permission to start new books today.

Dewey's Read-a-Thon

Kate and I will be participating in Dewey's Read-a-thon once again on Saturday. We will attempt to read for as many hours as we can in the 24-hour period starting 8am EDT. We will donate a toonie to UNICEF for every hour that either of us reads.

Last year, our combined total was 15 hours. As we have some other activities scheduled for Saturday, I suspect we'll fall short of this number, but we'll still read for as many hours as we can!

Seeing that we're coming up to Halloween, I think I'll spend the day with some dark, scary books from the pile of mystery, thriller and horror novels on my shelves. Kate will probably read a couple of books she has on hand from the recently announced Red Maple list.

If you have nothing to do on Saturday, or if whatever you need to do is less appealing than spending the entire day reading, then please join us! You can sign up as a reader and/or as a cheerleader. Cheerleading involves visiting other readers' blogs and leaving encouraging comments. It's a great way to discover new book blogs and get book recommendations.

The Accident by Linwood Barclay

This is the fourth Linwood Barclay thriller I’ve read and they have all been enjoyable if somewhat formulaic. His novels typically involve a small-town middle-class guy, a family man who is well educated but not quite working at his potential. This very ordinary person suddenly gets caught up in an extraordinary chain of events and discovers disturbing secrets about his family, neighbours and friends.

In this particular novel, the main character’s wife is killed in a car accident, in unexpected circumstances that seem completely contrary to everything he knows about her character and history. Unwilling to believe the police’s account, he investigates further and finds a complex chain of events leading to her death.

Despite the predictability, I cannot seem to put Barclay’s books down. They are extremely readable, well-paced, and scary because the characters are so ordinary. That family could be yours. The dialogue and characters are completely believable even if the plot seems highly unrealistic at times.

The Accident is not a deep or challenging read. It’s just a really good way to spend a few hours if you enjoy mysteries and thrillers.

Queen of Hearts by Martha Brooks

Intrigued by the premise and the cover design, I picked up Queen of Hearts from a bookstore recently. This is the first book by award-winning Canadian author Martha Brooks that Kate and I have read. The novel is an honest and touching account of life in a sanatorium as seen through the eyes of a French-Canadian teenage girl during the World War II years.

Marie-Claire and her two younger siblings are put into a sanatorium in southern Manitoba after contracting tuberculosis from their uncle, who had succumbed to the illness. Marie Claire must deal with worry and fear for her sister and brother, despair about her own situation, and anger with her parents’ inability to cope with the tragic situation.

In the sanatorium, Marie Claire’s constant companion is Signy, a needy girl that she befriends with great difficulty. In the development of this relationship, Brooks examines the obligations, pains and awkwardness of friendship as well as the joys. In an environment where people are slowing dying, friendship necessarily encompasses a range of emotions, including not so pleasant ones like pity, revulsion and guilt. Yet, in this bleak environment, there is also happiness, love, and even hope for a future life outside this tiny enclosed world.

Eric Walters- Part 3

The Falls

When Jay Hunter, a fourteen-year-old boy, discovers some hidden family history, he's hooked on the story about his great-grandfather, Harold Jamison. As he digs deeper, he finds out that his great-grandfather was a famous river man. He also finds the same barrel that he went over Niagara Falls in. In an attempt to sell the barrel to a daredevil museum, he meets Boomer Williams, another famous river man, and discovers a challenge that he can't resist.

The Falls is an interesting and educational book, but I it found slightly slow-paced. However, this book would be perfect for young adults who enjoy realistic fiction.

Rating:****

Reviewed by Kate.

The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival

I recently finished The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, another book from the Ontario Library Association's 2011 Evergreen list. John Vaillant's book about the Amur tiger takes the reader into the most remote regions of Far East Russia. It provides an in-depth and fascinating examination of the psyches of both the tiger and the people living in these isolated Russian communities in post-Perestroika times.

There are a number of interesting human and tigrine characters, but the main ones are Yuri Trush, who works for a government agency set up to protect the Amur tiger, and the man-eating tiger he is charged with destroying. Though this is a work of non-fiction, it often reads like a mystery/thriller, as predator stalks prey, with tiger and human interchanging roles.

Vaillant often veers from the main story to talk about the history of tiger hunting in Asia. He succeeds in conveying to us the significant environmental impact of this practice without being overly preachy. My only complaint is that the audiobook version was narrated by the author. The narration was tolerable but subpar compared to that of narrators professionally trained for the job. Otherwise, this book is well worth a read (or a listen).

Elizabeth I by Margaret George

I devoured Jean Plaidy's historical novels as a teenager and was thrilled to receive a review copy of Elizabeth I by American novelist Margaret George from Penguin Canada. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel that covers the second half of Elizabeth I's life, starting from the attack of the Spanish Armada. Narrated in turn by Elizabeth and Lettice Knollys, lifelong enemy of the queen because of their shared love for Robert Dudley, the people and events of the era are seen through the eyes of these older, more mature and reflective women.

Though the novel is ostensibly about Elizabeth, the more poignant story for me is that of the rise and fall of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, son of Lettice and a favourite of Elizabeth. Like a Shakespearean hero with a tragic flaw, Essex manufactures his own downfall through his pride and sense of entitlement. Shakespeare himself is a major character in this novel. While much of what he says and does may be speculation on George's part, her portrayal of his character is entirely consistent with what I would expect, or perhaps hope, he had been like.

Coincidentally, when I received this book, Kate was doing a unit on historical fiction at school. She is a huge fan of Tudor history and insisted on reading it herself, though I had some doubts whether she'd be able to get through the almost-700 pages. Clearly, the characters and plot were engaging enough to keep her attention, as she did finish it, and we will both look for more of Margaret George's work.