Book Review: Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman

Book: Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman
Genre: Historical fiction/romance
Rating: ★★★★☆
For: book club
From: the library

We've been trying to read this book for book club forever, or nearly. Once I had it reserved, but there was a glitch and somehow we didn't end up with it. So finally, this past month, it worked out and we got our hands on the book club set and read this popular, well-loved book.

I hadn't even heard of it until we were choosing it for book club. But once I began reading it and talked around, I DID find out that it's quite popular and well-loved. So where was I when everyone else was reading it at school or in their teens?

While I liked this book a lot, I think I would have liked it even more as a teenager. Not sure why exactly. I just think I would have been very much caught up in the adventure and romance, whereas now, perhaps I've read too much at this point and the book felt lacking in parts. I just needed MORE!

So we have this very young girl who leaves her family to go stay with her uncle in Canada. Shortly after arriving, she meets this hunk of a guy, 11 years older than her (she's 16, he's 27) and bam they up and get married! The romance here was quaint and funny and sweet, but oh so very fast!

He's a Canadian Mountie (policeman) and the year is 1907. So he takes her off with him to wherever he's been assigned, which is very very north, and very very cold, and very very remote. And there's lots of Indians! So let the adventures begin!

I can't even imagine... first... being 16 and living this story. And second being the mom of a 16 year old and having no idea what's happening with your kid. But... it was a different day and time, I suppose. Which only means that they didn't have much choice.

Anyway, stuff happens. Some good, some bad. Some really very bad. Your heart breaks for this girl. At one point, it even appears that she gives up. But no worries, because we all know that this book wouldn't be well-loved and popular if THAT was how it ended!

Bottom line: Sweet story, with a touch of romance and a lot of western frontier adventure.

Some thoughts discussed at book club:

• What a rough life! Wow! We could never do it.
• Is this a romance or a survival story? Marketed as romance, but there was very little of that... and more of the adventure and survival bits.
• Lots of funny moments too though.
• We could never live with out the medical care that they had to do without. It's hard to imagine a world and life without that luxury we often take for granted.
• Much discussion about vaccinations and are they good or bad? What diseases (such as diptheria which plays a big role in this book) have we truly wiped out? And which ones are actually making a come back? Whopping cough seems to be at least.
• Is this book YA? Seems to be actually, but marketed as adult I think. Interesting. Though it was published in 1947 and then there was no such thing really as a YA/ Teen market. 
• Reminded us of These Is My Words and there was something else, but now I forgot! 

Other Reviews:

If you like a sweet romance and a historical book that will make you laugh and cry, then this is a great book for you. From Good Clean Reads

A book that almost anyone of any age could enjoy--if historical romance is their genre of choice. From Becky's Book Reviews

Mrs. Mike is no simple love story – nature is cruel, and Kathy and Mike suffer many losses at the hands of a harsh climate and people. From The Brazen Bookworm

How much of it is actually true has been debated. Regardless, it's a delightful adventure. From 2 Kids and Tired Books

Currently: Too Much Food, Not Enough Lee Pace

C  U  R  R  E  N  T  L  Y

(as written on Saturday evening)

Listening: Hans Zimmer station on Pandora... currently this most awesome Batman song:


Eating:  Oh boy. The eating these past few days! Chocolate pie and apple pie (got a head start on the pie thing) and some awesome greasy cheesy dip for book club, and out to eat at Goodwood and Kneaders and I can't remember where else! Oh, and cake and ice cream of course! Wow, it was a bad bad eating week around here. 

Loving: that I'm officially one year old as of this past week. NOT!! JK!! Ha. In the words of my grandma, getting old sucks. (Wait, maybe she doesn't use that exact word, but that's what she means!)

Reading: Finished Mrs. Mike for book club this week. Now, I'm just needed to work on the other books I've started this past month and never finished. That is, unless I start something new again anyway, despite the fact there's already unfinished things to read!

Feeling: It's been a crazy week, but I'm feeling kind of sad that's over, because it was all fun craziness. I guess I should be feeling excited about an upcoming holiday and kids home and sleeping in!

Watching: We saw Breaking Dawn part 2 on Friday! Yes, it wasn't bad at all! Still the awkward cheesy moments, but the ending was satisfying and good in my opinion. We also got The Amazing Spider-man on DVD and watched that again.... AWESOME movie! Love that one. And just this evening I got caught up on Survivor and The Vampire Diaries for the week. Favorite Damon quote:"It's a long story... buy the ebook!" What a dude. Love him.

Oh, speaking of vampires and Breaking Dawn, I have a new favorite: Lee Pace as Garrett:

Yes? I think so!
Speaking of Lee Pace, he's also going to be in The Hobbit!!!
Awesome!

Wanting:  more time, you know? Just more time please. Oh, and could someone just send me four Twitter followers? So I can get to freaking 1000 once and for all!!! :) 

Thinking: that it's weird to be here on a Saturday night with absolutely no kids around. A taste of the future, a memory of the past? But weird I say, very weird.

Stalking: Marissa from Rae Gun Ramblings who I meet this week at the Reached event. Now, here's a girl who gets into her launch parties! Wow, click on over to see what I'm talking about and enter her giveaway. 

Happy new week everyone! Let's get lots of reading done!

Meeting Authors Jennifer Nielsen and Ally Condie

Can you believe it? I've got two more author signings I'd love to tell you about!


Jennifer A. Nielsen, The False Prince

A couple of weeks ago Jennifer A. Nielsen came to the Orem Library and gave a presentation and signing. She was a blast to listen to and I loved her presentation. I even took a couple of notes!

She asked questions like this, and then we discussed the answers:

Why do authors write? For fame? No! Because it's easy? No! Because they love the art or writing?
YES! And because they are born with stories embedded in their DNA!


What is it like to be a writer? First of all, you are by yourself a lot of the time, and you need to enjoy that. And then, you have to switch over to being with lots of people at lots of events. Being a writer means dealing with lots of ups and downs, like a roller coaster. (She told us about one of her very best ups...when the editor of the Harry Potter books toasted her at a Scholastic event and told everyone to remember her name and that they "knew her when" because she was going to go on to be BIG!)

Where do you get you ideas? Steal them? No! Pay you kids to think them up? No! From everywhere in life? YES!

Why should kids read? Because your teachers make you? No! So you don't have to do chores? No! Because it makes you smarter? Yes! For the adventure and chills and friendships? YES! (Then she told us about studies that have proven that if kids are readers they are better communicators, have more success, are more logical, can concentrate better, have strong family bonds, have a higher IQ, and a better vocabulary, etc. etc.)

Afterwards I was just going to slip on out. I had her book, The False Prince, but had loaned it out and hadn't got it back yet... plus it was already signed from the bookstore where I got it. But, then I said what the heck and came back and bought another to get personalized! And chatted with her for a bit. I told her I thought Sage reminded me of Gen from The Queen's Thief series and had she heard that from others. Yes, she said, a lot!

Anyway, now I'll do a giveaway for that other copy sometime, so stay tuned. I know you'll all be so excited!!

Ally Condie, Reached

Then, just the other night, Jenni Elyse and I went to the launch party hosted by The King's English for Ally Condie's final book in the Matched series... Reached. We met my sister, Megs (from Sweet and Sour Sassiness) there also! Wahoo!

But first, Jenni and I got to participate in a blogger shindig with Ally before the actual event. There we were able to participate in a fun informal chit chat with Ally along with three other bloggers, Jessica from Books a True Story, Kimberly from The Broke and the Bookish and Jessica from Cracking the Cover. How fun is that??? Fun I tell you!

We asked her things like:

--how do you feel about being done with this series. (A little sad, a little excited, and like it's not really real yet.)

-- what's next? (another dystopian sort of science fiction-y series that feels a lot like our world)

-- why the name change? (from Allyson Braithwaite Condie in her first books.... because it looked better on these covers! And now it's also a distinction between her first local market books and the national market ones.)

-- what have you read this year that you loved? (Michael Phelps' biographies! It appears she has a bit of a crush on him!)

-- and lots of things about Reached. (look for music references, she didn't know for sure who Cassia would end up with until writing Reached, people die!..... and I can't remember what else!)


We talked about all kinds of things, for nearly an hour! It was very fun and hopefully I'll be able to go to more such events in the future.

Then we went to the main presentation where she had us listen to the first page of the book as read by the guy playing Xander. And then she answered more questions.... lots of them from kids in the audience.

Then we (Megs, Jenni and I) got our picture taken in the bubble!

And our books signed!

I've been having a blast going to all these events these past few months. Here's hoping it continues!

Must Read Faster!

Awhile back I read a blog post by a certain favorite author that I can't seem to get out of my head. Well, he's actually written a few posts recently that have stuck with me, but this one post particularly because it's all about books.

This author, Dan Wells, shared a mathematical formula for how many books we will most likely read before we die. Click on over to his post to read it and see this formula. But basically you take your age and minus that from how long you think you'll live, and times it by how many books you normally read a year.

Using a life expectancy of 80 and an average figure of 90 books a year (obviously that number will go way down as I get older, but for now, that's where I'm at!) I get the number of 2970.

Does that sound like a lot? Or hardly any?

Here's what it makes me wonder:

-- what books should I be spending my time reading? All the classics? All the new books? All the books by my favorite authors? And what about the never ending re-reading question? Should I even "waste" my limited number of books by doing re-reads?

--and if you tend to think that I should only be reading "good" books and don't waste time on the "bad"... how would we even define that? A book is mostly good or bad simply depending on my mood....

-- does this mean I have all the more power to DNF a book if I want? No guilt? No regrets? No apologies? Ah, but still, what if that book ends up being a favorite if I stick with it? What if it's just my mood again?

-- should I try to up the amount of books I read? Read less chunksters and more littles? Or more chunksters and less littles?

In the end, I've decided there's no use feeling stressed by this! And I'm sure I won't change my reading habits in any significant way, except for maybe being easier on myself for not finishing a book that's just not working... or at the very least being okay to put it down and try it again later.

So... what's your number and what do you worry most about when you see it? Or does the thought even worry you at all?

Anyway, bottom line? GET READING! :)

Top Ten Tuesday: Going to a Deserted Island

If I was spending a long amount of time on a deserted island, what ten books would I want with me? I'm thinking ten books that I'd love to read over and over and over again!


Ten Books I'd Want on a Deserted Island

1. Complete works of Jane Austen (this is not cheating, is it?) Yes, I would be fine reading these books over and over again.

2. Something by Markus Zusak, of course. Duh. But which one? You know, I think reading The Book Thief over and over again would be a little depressing, and I feel like I Am the Messenger is much more uplifting and all happy-making, so perhaps that one? Yes, let's say that one!

3. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. I've only read this saga once, but I think I could handle it a few more times on my island!

4. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I've read this one twice already. The first time, I didn't understand a word (I was only 14), the second time I loved every bit of it. If I could read it over and over and over again, I think I would love discovering new things about it every single time. This book has EVERYTHING!

5. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Just because it's so beautiful.

6. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.... ditto. So beautiful.

7. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I know! Don't even say it! But I love this book!

8. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson. I bet I would have time to get through this one! And it would be nice to have a big huge book there that I've not yet read.

9. Okay fine, I should have my scriptures there too. Maybe I'd even read them!

10. Some survival book, and/or deserted island cookbook. Please? Can I include that here?

What books would you take on your trip to the island? Come join in over at The Broke and the Bookish!

Book Review: The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima

Book: The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating:★★★★☆
For: Fun
From: Bought at Amazon for birthday last year

I loved the first book, The Demon King, and have been anxious ever since to get to this second book. Finally, I just dropped everything else I've been trying to read so I could read this one. It took me a bit to get into it and remember the details, but it went really fast after that.

But here's the thing. We were left at the end of the first book thinking that Han and Raisa would be together all during this second book, at a sort of Harry Potter school. But, wow, it took awhile for that to happen! Of course, it DID happen, which is not a spoiler because you KNOW it's going to, but still. It took a long time!

Anyway, so we have Han aka. Cuffs coming to this school to learn how to be a wizard, and Raisa coming to learn how to be a soldier. Of course she is in disguise, no one knowing that she is in fact the princess. Except sweet Amon, who I absolutely love! Things back at home are still in quite the turmoil and there's lots of politics to explain all that. Poor Raisa, having to figure all that out!

But then she does run into Han, who has no idea who she really is. And the sparks fly of course. All sorts of kinds. Han asks her to tutor him in princely manners, which is really quite fun. He is also being tutored in magic by some mysterious wizard dude in the dream world (this reminded me so much of the Wheel of Time books! Ah, will I ever finish those?) and I'm hoping we learn soon what's going on with that.

But it wasn't to be in this book. Han and Raisa's (well Rebecca in this case) time together is short lived and pretty soon, they are both off to solve the kingdom's problems! Sort of. We'll see.

I continue to love this story. It's very engaging and enchanting. And like I said, quite Harry Potter-ish in this particular book. But, the story is not the same actually. Anyway, I hated to see the book come to an end, so luckily, there's more and I found myself at the bookstore buying the next one! Too bad I can't just jump right into and keep reading! Sadly, it must wait...but only for a little while.

Bottom line: I love this story and these characters!

Other Reviews:

This is epic high fantasy at its best. Chima has created a rich, detailed, and deep world here with customs, prejudices, cultures, and history so complete it is like an alternate reality. From One Librarian's Book Reviews

Cinda Williams Chima is a master at world building, and the setting in this book is almost like another character that moves and grows with the story. From Emily's Reading Room

Han is truly awesome. He reminds me of Kvothe, with his latent abilities and rough hewn, hard-earned status. He also reminds me of a hotter, more badass Harry Potter, just as he also reminds me of what I’m pretending is his namesake, my favorite stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder – that is, Han Solo. From The Book Smugglers

The quick pacing, difficult-to-predict storyline, and complicated heroic characters are sure to captivate readers, as are the perfectly hateable villains From TeenReads

The list goes on when it comes to these two main characters but as you can see this hero and heroine are completely different and yet when they cross paths with one another, they couldn't be any more than perfect for each other . . . ahhhhh . . . I just adore them so, so much! From Tales of the Inner Book Fanatic

Currently: Dreaming of Pi

C  U  R  R  E  N  T  L  Y

(as written on Saturday evening)

Listening: to my Shakira Pandora station. Yep. I know. Anyway, I love the songs that come on this station... dancing while I clean the kitchen and now while I blog. You should see it. NOT! 

Here's an example:


A lot of Enrique shows up on that station too. 

Eating:  Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa Salad!

Loving: that it snowed! It's so pretty!

Reading: I finished The Exiled Queen and went right out and bought The Gray Wolf Throne. But I'm not reading it yet. First I've got to read Mrs. Mike for book club. 

Feeling: tired from doing a TON of driving today, hauling the kid to a far away dance performance, then to a far away birthday party, and then retrieval from said party. Whew. Good thing it stopped snowing for tonight.

Watching: Today I started season 2 of Parenthood. What a show.

Wanting:  new movies at the theater! Ugh, it's been months since something new came out that I actually wanted to see. Life of Pi for Thanksgiving! Finally.

Needing: my kids to make Christmas lists. I asked them about it and their response is... Mom, I already have everything I need. Hmmm.... not sure how to take this.

Thinking: this next week won't be quite as relaxing as the past week. There's stuff every single night. You might even hear all about it!

Stalking: This week I'm learning about my Christmas ornament exchange partner, Stephanie from Life is Better With Books.