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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

2013 TBR Pile Challenge


I found the best Challenge for the new year. I have not had a chance to read any of my own books for such a long time and the pile has grown so big. So, I will be taking a break from review books and return to reading my own books. So, here are the books that I have chosen to read for this challenge:

1. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (2003)
2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2006)
3.Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (2006)
4. A Thousand Pleasant Suns by Khaled Hosseini (2007)- read in August
5. Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry (2009)- Read in May
6. 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs (2009) - read in January
7.The Van Allen Legacy by Melissa De La Cruz (2009)
8. The Likeness by Tana French (2009) -read in January
9. Faithful Place by Tana French (2010)
10. Forever by Maggie Stiefvater (2011)
11. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown (2011)
12. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (2011) - read in April

I forgot my alternates! Here they are:

American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition by Neil Gaiman (2011)
Bumped by Megan McCafferty (2011) - read in May

Do you have a large TBR pile, too? Join the challenge! Head on over to RoofBeamReader and sign up. Let's see if we can make a dent in our piles.

Happy Reading!
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FTC Disclosure: Clicking on book title and/or image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page.

Review: The Listeners by Harrison Demchick


The Listeners by Harrison Demchick

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It was such a beautifully, almost poetically, written zombie apocalypse novel. Its definitely not a typical zombie story. The infected are not dead. They are sick people, who's mental state slowly degenerates. They are covered in boils and highly contagious. They are a frightening addition to the horror genre.

Daniel Raymond is 14 year old, left alone in his apartment in the middle of the quarantined borough. He thinks of his mother, his friend Katie and their lives before the outbreak. Within the walls of the quarantine, the police have become corrupt, the people dependent on them for food and protection. There are also The Listeners, a band of boys and men with an ear chopped off that seem almost a myth, but who have an agenda of their own. Then there are the infected roaming the streets. 

The story goes back and forth in time, and is sometimes interspersed with Daniel's dreams and what seem like hallucinations. It is very affective at portraying the madness and desperation within him to find answers to what is happening around him.

I realize that this review sounds a bit vague but I feel sharing even some of the plot gives away too much. You will enjoy it better if you read it without knowing what is coming next.

Source: from author for review, NetGalley

Happy Reading!
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FTC Disclosure: Clicking on book title and/or image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Advent Calendar

Untitled
Does anyone else have a hard time keeping up with your Advent Calendar?

 I always forget to put a new ornament on our Advent tree, and these little knits only get emptied when the little girl remembers. She is so much better than I am. It's the treats.  I filled it with leftover halloween candy, clementines, some fruit snacks and am trying to get some ornaments knit and in there on time.

An almost finished candy cane ornament. 
I am cutting it close with this one. Have to get it in there by tomorrow! She is, unfortunately, not as excited to get them as I hoped. She can't eat them, so…

One knit ornament ball. Hopefully my next attempt looks a little better.

Happy Reading!
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FTC Disclosure: Clicking on book title and/or image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Wordless Wednesday

Bardessano Inn and Spa
Yountville, CA

For more Wordless Wednesday visit: http://wordlesswednesday.blogspot.com

Dead Ringer Holiday Special!


Here is a really great Holiday deal! 

Dead Ringer is available on Amazon for only $1.99 from now until Christmas as part of their Special Holiday Seasonal Promo. Click here to find it and some other great deals or click on book cover to got straight to the book's page.

Below you will find more info on the book and a link to my review.
Happy Holidays!
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You can find my review here.
Heart Stopping Medical Thriller Takes On
True-to-Life Body Snatcher Syndicates
Recent Newspaper Headlines Confirm Horrifying Premise


"In the tradition of Robin Cook, Wyler takes us behind the scenes to show us things the medical establishment doesn’t want us to see. DEAD RINGER builds a high-speed plot on a startling but all-too-plausible premise. This is the stuff nightmares are made of."

-- Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of Paranoia and Buried Secrets

“…Wyler does for hospitals what Benchley did for the ocean.”

--Joe Moore, Co-author of the International Bestseller, The Grail Conspiracy

Neurosurgeon Allen Wyler knows of what he speaks, and writes, and the result is a thriller that equals and updates the best of Robin Cook and Michael Crichton.”

--Jon Land, bestselling author of Strong at the Break


While speaking at a Hong Kong medical conference, neurosurgeon Dr. Lucas McCrae slips the cloth off a cadaver’s head during a routine medical demonstration, and is overwhelmed by what’s staring back at him: The face of his best friend, Andy Baer.

Stunned, McCrae races back to Seattle to discover that Andy is in fact missing and may have been murdered by a gang of body snatchers who operate a legit funeral business and make a fortune by selling recovered body parts to medical researchers. 

McCrae teams up with an unlikely pair—a beautiful but hardnosed female cop and a gang member whose family was victimized by the cadaver ring—to try and expose a macabre web of corruption that involves law enforcement, politicians, funeral home curators and murdered prostitutes.

Internationally renowned neurosurgeon Allen Wyler takes us deep into a nightmarish scenario, shockingly ripped from recent headlines, to deliver a horrifically plausible, page-turning thriller.
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EDITOR’S NOTE

Medical research has always been a cornerstone of medical innovation, and thus of our society. But throughout history, many suspect that the gathering of human bodies for research has never been purely ethical or legal. Many believe that today, sophisticated international syndicates exist that traffic in body parts for medical research; the most recent incident appearing in the New York Times just weeks ago. ( HYPERLINK "http://nyti.ms/NfU5kU" http://nyti.ms/NfU5kU

We feel this crime has been elusively clandestine, easily dismissed, and in many cases overlooked for cynical reasons. We would like to go on record as agreeing with ethics scholars that everyone involved in the medical community, be they students practitioners, media or affiliates should remain vigilant and forthright; and embrace the high standard of responsibility inherent in the ethical conduct of medical research, especially when it involves human remains.
Happy Reading!
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FTC Disclosure: Clicking on book title and/or image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page.

2012 Challenges Wrap Up post

I completed my Challenges!!! Yay. I wasn't sure I would but I managed it. I am very proud of myself. :) It hasn't been a good year for reading, but I am happy that I met these and already have more than 25 books read. How did you all do with your challenges this year?




Literary Escapism's New Author Challenge
My goal: try for 15 books by new-to-me authors. 



1. Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
2. JoJo Moyes, The Last Letter From Your Lover
3. Hilary Thomson, A Will to Murder
4. MJ Rose, The Book of Lost Fragrances
5. Ethan Coen, The Day the World Ends: Poems
6. Darby Rae, Merciful Law
7. Lucinda Riley, The Orchid House
8. Susan Straight, A Million Nightingales
9. Deborah Davis, Guest of Honor
10. Susan Straight, A Million Nightengales
11. Theodore Weesner, The Car Thief
12. Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus
13. Elizabeth Haynes, Into the Darkest Corner
14. Allen Wyler, Dead End Deal
15. Posie Graeme-Evans, The Island House





Rose City Reader'sEuropean Reading Challenge
My goal: attempting the Five Star (Deluxe Entourage)- Five books by different European authors or books set in different European countries.


1. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larssen (Sweden)
2. The Last Letter from Your Lover by JoJo Moyes (England)
3. Are You Somebody? by Nuala O'Faolain (Ireland)
4. The Orchid House by Lucinda Riley (England/France)
5. The Island House by Posie Graeme-Evans (Scotland)

Thanks to Rose City Reader and Literary Escapism for some great challenges this year!

Happy Reading!
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FTC Disclosure: Clicking on book title and/or image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page.