Naming Conventions Challenge Wrap Up

Yeah - another challenge finished! This challenge started in September and went as many months as there were letters in your name (or the name you were using!)- so mine ended this month. I used Kristi and you can see the books that I read below.



K -King, Stephen - Duma Key

R - Rose, Karen - Scream for Me

I - Ishiguro, Kazua -Never Let Me Go

S - Simpson, Stephen - Assaulted by Joy

T - Tyndall, M.L. - The Red Siren

I - Ibomu, Afya - Get Your Crochet On! Hip Hats and Cool Caps



I was glad to finish this one - and these were not my original picks for the authors!

Get Your Crochet On! Hip Hats and Cool Caps - Afya Ibomu (Book Review)

Title: Get Your Crochet On! Hip Hats and Cool Caps

Author: Afya Ibomu

Publisher: The Taunton Press

Ok - normally I wouldn't review a craft book - but I needed an I author for the Naming Convention challenge, which for me is ending on Saturday. I didn't think that I was going to make it when I saw the author of this book that I had checked out this month from the library!

I love to crochet (and knit and needlepoint and cross-stitch) but of course, no one has as much time as they would like!

This book starts out with the basics - covering what you need to crochet (yarn, hooks and all the extras people who are addicted have to have). It then has a nice section on color with a real quick lesson on color theory and the color wheel. This will be helpful to me in the future!

The next section covers how to actually crochet. It seems like an easy lesson - covers all of the stitches that are used in the book - but I know how to crochet, so that might be why it seemed easy. . . It also has some neat tips for changing yarn colors, or weaving in ends, joining seams. All of those things necessary to create a hat (or bag or garment as you expand your crocheting!)

Next up is the best section - the patterns! As in all craft books, you always have some patterns that make your eyebrows go up wondering who in the world thought of THAT one. This book has its share of - No Way Would I Ever Wear That - but there are also those - cool patterns, the ones that make you have to own the book! I checked this out with the good intention that I was going to make my daughter a hat. But seeing as it's the end of February and that hasn't happened yet - there is always next year.

Scream for Me - Karen Rose (Book Review)

Title: Scream for Me

Author: Karen Rose

Genre: Romantic Suspense Fiction

Publisher: Hachette Books - Thanks Renee and Hachette!

First sentence: A bell dinged.

This was book 2 in a series with Agent Daniel Vartanian, but it read well as a stand alone. The first book, Die For Me, I have on reserve at our library, so that should tell you that I really enjoyed this book!

Daniel Vartanian is a Special Agent with the GBI, Georgia Bureau of Investigation. He has just returned from a case which involved his parents and his brother (I have a sneaky suspicion that this is what Die For Me is about...) He isn't even home a day before a murdered girl is discovered in a ditch and the investigation lands in his lap. It appears to be a copycat murder from 13 years earlier.

Alex Fallon is the twin sister of Alicia Tremaine, who was killed 13 years ago. She has received a call that her stepsister, Bailey, is missing and she is listed as the emergency contact for her 4 year old niece, Hope. This comes as quite a shock, as she didn't even know she had a niece. The last time she saw Bailey was to get her into a rehab program 5 years earlier.

Daniel's investigation and Alex's missing stepsister lead them on a collision course to each other - and the sparks start to fly. As the bodies pile up, will Alex ever find Bailey? Can Daniel catch the murderer? And can they both confront the ghosts of their past so that they can move into a better future?

This was a quick read for me, even at 569 pages! It was great the way all the suspects fell into place one-by-one. It was like watching dominoes fall in slow motion. I almost just typed a spoiler here - so I will just end on that note! Great book!

The Red Siren by M.L. Tyndall (Book Review)

Title: The Red Siren (Charles Towne Belles/Book 1)

Author: M.L. Tyndall

Genre: Christian fiction/Romance

Publisher: Barbour Publishing Inc.

Available: January 2009

First sentence: This was Dajon Waite's last chance.

I thought twice about giving you more than the first sentence - but I want you to read the book! So now you are thinking... last chance for what? Love? Life? the Lottery? (ok.. so that last one is a little corny.. I was going for some alliteration.. )

The Red Siren is the name of a pirate ship, and also the lady pirate that commands her. She has a dual identity as the daughter, Faith (1 of 4) of an Admiral by day - and the captain of the Red Siren whenever there is a ship to plunder.

After her father married off her older sister Charity to a vile man, and Faith's mother died, Faith vowed to protect her 2 remaining sisters Hope and Grace from the same fate. She feels that she needs to acquire enough wealth, so that they will not need to rely on men to take care of them. So Faith becomes a pirate.

One of her first conquests is a ship captained by Dajon Waite. Not only does she take all of his goods, but his ship as well. This changes the course of Dajon's life and puts them back on a collision course 5 years into the future.

Can Faith save herself and her 2 sisters from Charity's fate? When Dajon reenters her life, as a captain in the British Royal Navy, will he be forced to arrest her for being a pirate? Or can the God-fearing Dajon Waite help the faithless Faith Westcott rediscover the God she thought had abandoned her?

I really liked the way the author named the daughter's Charity, Faith, Grace and Hope. We don't learn a lot about Charity in this book - just that she has been married to someone the other sisters do not like (for good reason.. ). Faith is the main character in The Red Siren, and is the one that has lost her faith. Grace is full of God's grace and does much to help the less fortunate. Hope is the youngest, and though she has been through some terrible travesties, she still has hope that there is love for her - either the love she is yearning for from her father, or from Lord Falkland.

I enjoyed reading The Red Siren - it grabbed me quick, kept up the pace throughout the book and wrapped the main story up nicely, but also left a hanger for the second book - The Blue Enchantress coming in the fall of 2009! For a peek at the cover of the Blue Enchantress - visit the author's blog here.

Come back on Monday, Jan 19 for the First Wild Card Tour!

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go - by Kazuo Ishiguro

From the cover: As a child, Kathy - now thirty-one years old, lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for the society they would eventually enter. Kathy had long ago put this idyllic past behind her, but when two of her Hailsham friends come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory.

And so, as her friendship with Ruth is rekindled, and as the feelings that long ago fueled her adolescent crush on Tommy begin to deepen into love, Kathy recalls their years at Hailsham. She describes happy scenes of boys and girls growing up together, unperturbed-even comforted-by their isolation. But she describes other scenes as well: of discord and misunderstanding that hint at a dark secret behind Hailsham's nurturing facade. With the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about thier childhood-and their lives now.

My review (contains spoilers below) - At first, I did not like this book- it took awhile for me to get into the storyline, but once there, I wanted - needed - to know what happened to these three friends and how the story was going to end. It is told sort of in flashbacks by Kathy, so we really only get her point of view of what her friends were thinking or going through. The book definitely kept my attention and was different from any story that I had read before. Although the book is kind of a downer, I would recommend it. With all the advancements in medical technology, it is not hard to imagine a world such as that described. I would hope that humankind would not ever be able to think that they could create a child that would be without a soul though!

Spoiler alert -

The children themselves were clones who were being raised specifically for organ donation -which, after so many donations (usually 4) they would "complete" or die. As children, they did not seem to realize the seriousness of this, or that their lives would be any different or shorter than normal children. The school, Hailsham, that they lived at was hoping to show the world that these "clones" had souls just as normal humans had souls.

It sounded as if every donor first became a carer- sort of a traveling nurse who looked after the donors - once they left the school for their first assignment, book didn't discuss how or where they lived or by what means they lived - so I was lead to believe that they were "taken care of" throughout their lives because of the fact that they were clones. Somehow in the cloning process though, they were not able to have children - so it seemed that sex to them was purely recreational and not really attached to any feelings..

It isn't until the end of the book that I can see that Tommy and Kathy had real feelings for each other and they were finally realizing the frustration of their lives and the hopeless, non-existent future that they will never share. Never Let Me Go was a very apt title! 5/5 stars

Assaulted by Joy

Title: Assaulted by Joy - The Redemption of a Cynic
Author: Stephen W. Simpson
Publisher: Zondervan
Copyright: 2008

Assaulted by Joy is my first ARC that I am reviewing. What an exciting book! The question that was posed when I was asked if I would review this book was "Is this the perfect gift for the man in your life?" and I must answer with a resounding "YES!" I have already asked my husband if he would read it. But let me back up a little here. The author accepted Christ at the age of seven - (I love it when he says that this is where the story begins.) "When I walked down the aisle of a Baptist church as a boy to receive Christ as my Saviour, nobody told me that being a Christian is difficult, dangerous even. . .the closer you were to God, the happier you would be. The less you sinned and the more you followed God's Word, the more your life would be meaningful, happy, and complete. In my years as a follower of Christ, however, I've discovered that the opposite is often true. Don't get me wrong - the most ecstatic, victorious moments of my life resulted from having a relationship with Jesus, but so have the most aggravating and painful ones."*

His story, about his sometimes painful high school years (can everybody relate?), to college, losing a close friend, and meeting his wife and starting a family is engaging, humorous, in many instances I caught my self shaking my head in agreement - and is full of insight and wisdom that touched my life. I would like to share two of those nuggets here.

From chapter 3: What we don't realize is that we teach one another wisdom even when we hurt each other. We learn how to love in the midst of brokenness and imperfection. Those who hurt us sometimes teach us far more than those who love us. Sometimes they're even the same person. Those we care about have the greatest capacity to hurt us. Love creates the possibility of pain like nothing else. It's just like our relationship with God.*

From chapter 6: We could only make the best decision in a situation where there was no obvious choice. He told us that either choice involved potential guilt and loss. We might have to ask forgiveness from God regardless of what we chose.*

Now -for the question about a perfect gift for my husband. I would hope that this book would bring him a little closer to accepting Christ. He has been on the journey for awhile now and I have hope that letting him see someone else's walk with Christ (other than mine..) would open his heart even more.

I highly recommend this read for where ever you are in your personal journey -

*any quotes from this book are from an Advanced Reader's Copy and may not reflect the final published version.

This book also fulfills a book for the following challenges: What's in a Name, From the Stacks, Unread Authors, Countdown Challenge.

Duma Key by Stephen King

How do you write a review for a 600+ page book? Especially one by Stephen King!? This was a terrific book in true Stephen King style - he has a way of building the tension (or the terror) and then backing off.. only to start it up again. As I was reading, I thought I was coming to climax of the book, only to realize that I had 200 pages left - in which a lot of ground was covered! Ok - let's try to sum it up.

This is the story of a man(Edgar Freemantle) from Minnesota who lost his right arm as well as messing up his brain in a construction accident. The rage that comes with the accident causes him to lose his wife/marriage. He relocates to Duma Key after his psychologist suggests a "geographic cure".

He rents out a house which he names "Big Pink". Here he begins to draw and then to paint - many of the paintings are preceded by a burning itch in his phantom arm that can only be appeased by painting. From here I cannot explain it better without giving away too much than what is on the cover:

A visit from Ilse, the daughter he dotes on, starts his movement out of solitude. He meets a kindred spirit in Wireman, a man reluctant to reveal his own wounds, and then Elizabeth Eastlake, a sick old woman whose roots are tangled in Duma Key. Now Edgar paints, sometimes feverishly, his exploding talent both a wonder and a weapon. Many of his paintings have a power that cannot be controlled. When Elizabeth's past unfolds and the ghosts of her childhood begin to apear, the damage of which they are capable is truly devastating.

The tenacity of love, the perils of creativity, the mysteries of memory and the nature of the supernatural - Stephen King gives us a novel as fascinating as it is gripping and terrifying.


I highly recommend this book! 5/5 stars

Naming Conventions Challenge

Ok - one more challenge, then I really must stop!

K -King, Stephen - Duma Key
R - Rose, Karen - Scream for Me
I - Ishiguro, Kazua -Never Let Me Go
S - Simpson, Stephen - Assaulted by Joy
T - Tyndall, M.L. - The Red Siren
I - Ibomu, Afya - Get Your Crochet On! Hip Hats and Cool Caps