Better late than never.. Thanksgiving pics

This year we decided to make the great annual trek north from Florida to Mass (1340 miles one way) to visit family for Thanksgiving. Although we stay on the Cape, we always manage to visit Plymouth because it's so pretty and we like to eat at a restaurant overlooking the harbor.

So, one cold, raw and misty afternoon on the way to Scituate, we stopped and got a few shots. Not only was it misting, down by the harbor it was very windy. Four school buses were there with a lot of elementary kids seeing the sights, running around making a lot of noise so we took the photo of the Mayflower II from the edge of the harbor as we could not get close up to it. Can you imagine being on this ship for months? We've toured the ship before and I can't imagine more than 20 people living there but there were 102 pilgrims bravely making their way to the new land. The first winter 51 died. Luckily for me being a direct descendant, John and Priscilla Alden made it. But conditions were very, very harsh.

Plymouth rock itself is somewhat small; I think people envision this massive rock some where out in the harbor but not so. A structure was erected quite a while ago and you have to look down to see the rock. I took a few pics for those of you who may never have seen it before. When we first took our youngest daughter's hubby to see the sights, he had the same exclamation that all first time viewers have. "That's it?" Ayuh, that's it!

Our camera battery was starting to weaken so we just got a couple of shots of two monuments, one to a pilgrim and the other to Massasoit, the great Sachem of the Wampanoags, protector of the pilgims. If it weren't for Massasoit, I don't know if any of the pilgrims would have survived.

So there you have it! If you have never been to Plymouth before and do make the trip, I would suggest early fall. The foliage is beautiful and there is a lot to see just in Plymouth alone. Plymouth Plantation is definitely worth your trip. It's a replica of the first settlement with actors in period dress. When you see how they had to live, you will definitely be thankful for basic modern conveniences; like grocery stores, heat and electricity. There are also some very interesting old cemeteries in the area. Call me weird, but I like to visit old cemeteries and read the headstones. The neighboring town of Duxbury has a great old cemetery to roam around in. The Alden house is also in Duxbury.

Teaser Tuesday: Dead Pan by Gayle Trent

It's Tuesday, Where are you ? is hosted Raider girl3
I am in bed peacefully snoozing when a shrill noise wakes me up. Is it the oven timer? No! Who the heck is calling at this miserable hour? It 's my friend Ben telling me to turn on the t.v. to channel 2 right away. It's coming up after the break, he says.


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading and asks you to :
1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page 3
. Share 2 "teaser"sentences also citing the title of the book and the author and in that way people can have great recommendations if they like the "teaser.
4. Please avoid spoilers!

"I have no idea what "it"is; but unless a meteorite fell on the Save-A-Buck during the middle of the night or confectioner's sugar has been deemed an illegal substance, I'm not sure I care. I could suddenly see myself in a black trench coat meeting a seedy-looking character in a dark alley to buy a ten-pound bag of confectioner's sugar, dampening my ring finger and tasting the sugar to make sure it was "pure" before handing over the money."

Mental note: Lay off the cop shows.

Today's teaser is from Dead Pan by Gayle Trent. To read a Q&A with Gayle and enter the contest for this fun cozy, see here. Deadline is December 22nd and is open internationally.* See rules.

Chunkster Challenge 2010

For the coming year I decided to join 2010 Chunkster Challenge. This challenge runs from February 1st, 2010 to January 31st, 2011. Here are the details from the challenge page:

Definition of a Chunkster: A chunkster is 450 pages or more of ADULT literature (fiction or nonfiction) ... A chunkster should be a challenge.
* If you read large type books your book will need to be 525 pages or more ... The average large type book is 10-15% longer or more so I think that was a fair estimate.

The Rules:

• No Audio books in the chunkster. It just doesn't seem right. Words on paper for this one folks.* No e-Books allowed - we are reading traditional, fat books for this challenge.
• Short Stories and Essay collections will not be counted.
• Books may crossover with other challenges
• Anyone may join. If you don't have a blog, just leave me a comment on this post with your progress (and to let me know you are playing)
• You don't need to list your books ahead of time.
• Once you pick a level, that's it...you're committed to that level!

You must pick a level of participation:

• The Chubby Chunkster - this option is for the reader who has a couple of large tomes on their TBR list, but really doesn't want to commit to much more than that. 3 books is all you need to finish this challenge
• Do These Books Make my Butt Look Big? - this option is for the slightly heavier reader who wants to commit to 4 Chunksters over the next twelve months.
• Mor-book-ly Obese - This is for the truly out of control chunkster. For this level of challenge you must commit to 6 or more chunksters OR three tomes of 750 pages or more. Now doesn't this sound like fun!

After reading the rules for this challenge, I decided to sign up for the Mor-book-ly Obese level. I've got this one covered by the remaining three books from my Russian list. War and Peace alone is 1,455 pages.

Here is a record of my selections:

1. War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy

2. Russka by Edward Rutherford

3. ? The Karamazov Brothers is still a viable alternative unless something better comes along. I wasn't too crazy about Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.

December trip to Russia: Midpoint

For my magic carpet ride to Russia, I had the overly ambitious plan to read books from my shelves set in Russia during the month of December. It's not even the middle of the month and I can see already that this will take me much longer. It should probably be a year long challenge as I keep finding more books that look interesting. Maybe one on Siberia, Catherine The Great or Rasputin. Since The Russian Concubine is actually set in China, I took that one off the list. Who knows, maybe I'll steer the magic carpet towards Asia one of these days.

I didn't plan on doing a full review on each book separately but just give you my overall impressions and recommendations. The first book I started with was:

Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie. This book definitely put me in the mood with it's gorgeous descriptions of Imperial Russia and depictions of Russian life starting in the year 1894. Massie portrays Russia as a dichotomous society in which peasants would take the thatch off their roofs to feed the livestock during the famine while others were decked out in furs and jewels attending opera, lavish balls and numerous other cultural events.

When Nicholas's father, the autocrat Alexander III, passes away at 49 years of age, 26 year old Nicholas becomes Tsar of all the Russias; a role he is not prepared for nor does he really want. A week after the funeral, Nicholas marries Queen Victoria's granddaughter; Alexandra, Princess of Hesse Darmstadt. Theirs is a true love match instead of a political alliance marriage that were common at the time among royalty.

The story takes us through the reign of Nicholas II witnessing the ever changing face of Russia. Massie gives us a complete picture of the evolving political scene as the fabric of Russia unravels, the country hurtles toward revolution and a tragic ending to the Romanov dynasty. Behind the scenes we see the internal thoughts of the characters as simply human beings in a family not just as mighty rulers. I felt like the proverbial fly on the wall seeing this all happen in such fascinating and intricate detail, heart wrenching though it was. I absolutely loved this book! Highly recommended reading .

My second choice was:

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Translated by Jessie Coulson and with an intro and notes by Richard Peace.

From the back cover: Crime and Punishment (1866) is the story of a murder committed on principle, of a killer who wishes by his action to set himself outside and above society. A novel of great physical and psychological tension, pervaded by Dostoevsky's sinister evocation of St. Petersburg. It also has moments of wild humor.

Dostoevsky's own harrowing experiences mark the novel. He had himself undergone interrogation and trial, and was condemned to death, a sentence commuted at the last moment to penal servitude. In prison he was particularly impressed by one hardened murderer who seemed tohave attained a spiritual equilibrium beyond good and evil: yet witnessing the misery of other convicts also engendered in Dostoevsky a belief in the Christian idea of salvation through suffering.

After Raskolnikov commit the murder he considered his punishment to have started immediately; the fear that he would be found out. He's convinced the police know the whole story but are toying with him to drive him insane; a psychological game of cat and mouse between murderer and the police. Several times he is so tempted to just turn himself in and "get it over with".

I guess I must have missed the wild humor part because I didn't find any in this story. It was an okay read but if I hadn't read it, I wouldn't feel that I had missed anything special. I know, I know ; it IS one of the world's classics, but still it dragged a little too much for me. Melodramatic overkill would be two words I would choose. I also have The Karamazov Brothers by Dostoevsky on my list. I hope it's a lot better than this one.

One of the more interesting parts of the book, though, was in the introduction about Dostoevsky himself. Like his character, Raskolnikov, he was an abjectly poor student who fled abroad to escape his creditors. While in Wiesbaden, he turned to gambling and lost what little he still had. This is when he conceived the idea for Crime and Punishment.

Needing a break from reading about the Russians, I managed to read a few other books in between but then watched two travelogues on Russia. One of them was Russia: Moscow, St. Petersburg and Murmansk. The close ups of St. Basil's cathedral, Red Square and the Kremlin were particularly beautiful but the rest of the video was amateurish and could have had a lot more depth to it.

The second video was A Russian Journey. This one was much more professionally done, had some beautiful photography and was very interesting. Did you know the trans-Siberian railway crosses through 8 time zones or that there are 129 different ethnicities in all of Russia? Or the fact that the onion domes actually have a purpose other than just being aesthetically pleasing? The shape of the roofs deters snow from collecting on them and possibly causing roof damage. I really enjoyed this one.

Since I just came across the Chunkster challenge for 2010 I decided to save the other books on the list for that challenge. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy is 1,455 pages long. That's three chunksters in itself! That's okay because I really like Tolstoy. After all, he wrote my favorite book, Anna Karnenina. The Karamazov Brothers is up in the air as to whether I am going to read it or donate it somewhere.

Disclosure: All of these books are from my personal library and have been purchased by me.

Show Me 5 Saturday: Sail by James Patterson & Howard Roughan

That's A Novel Idea has started a new MEME called Show Me Five Saturday. This meme will give each blogger an opportunity to give a brief description of a book they have read or reviewed during the week. It will work like this: Each Saturday you will post the answer to these questions. The number indicates the number of answers you will provide.

1. Book you read and/or reviewed this week

Sail by James Patterson and Howard Roughan

2. Words that describe the book

Mystery, thriller

3. Settings where it took place or characters you met:

Dr. Katherine Dunne: heart surgeon, mother of three whose new husband is okay with her taking two months off to go on a sailing trip with her late husband's brother James and her three kids, hoping to assuage her guilt at almost never being home for them. Peter Carlyle: a very successful, persuasive attorney and Katherine's second husband who has a side to him that Katherine has never seen. The Dunne children: Mike, a teen with a drug and motivational problem. Carrie: a bulimic who is nearly suicidal. Ernie: a loveable precocious ten year old whose idea would be their salvation.

4. Things you liked and/or disliked about it:

The premise of reconnecting with her kids before it is too late was admirable. The kids' transformation when hardships occurred during the trip and the ensuing appreciation of family was very well portrayed. Although parts of it were a little predictable, the story really held my attention and I did like the surprising twist at the end.

5. Stars or less for your rating?

4****

Interview & Giveaway: Gayle Trent, author of Dead Pan

Today I am thrilled to welcome Gayle Trent to Pudgy Penguin Perusals. She was kind enough to answer a few questions before we get to the giveaway. I have to say I read the first book in this series, Murder Takes the Cake and it was a riot! Here's a link to the review. I've already read Dead Pan and I can tell you right now, the winner is in for such a treat. It's just a delightful series. And the included recipes are really the icing on the cake. *Groan*, I couldn't resist that one! But first here is a little bit about Gayle.

Bio: Gayle Trent writes the Daphne Martin Cake Decorating Mystery series for Bell Bridge Books. The second book in that series is Dead Pan. Thorndike has released the first book in that series, Murder Takes the Cake, in large-print, hardcover format. An audiobook version of Gayle's book Between A Clutch and A Hard Place is due out from new publisher AlwaysKeepers Press in February of 2010. Gayle also writes an embroidery series under the pseudonym Amanda Lee for NAL/Penguin. The first book in that series, The Quick and The Thread, is due to be released in August of 2010.

Kaye: Tell us about Dead Pan.

Gayle: Dead Pan is the second book in the Daphne Martin Cake Decorating Mystery Series. When the book opens, a police officer is questioning Daphne about a cake she took to the Brea Ridge Pharmaceutical Company Christmas party. Many people at the party got sick, but most recovered after being treated with a vaccine manufactured by the company. Only one, Fred Duncan, went into a coma and died. Coincidence? Or did somebody have it in for Fred?

Kaye: What would you like to overhear people saying about your book?

Gayle: "I laughed so hard when--" A local book club selected Murder Takes the Cake as one of their books; and when I attended the meeting, I was delighted to hear that they thought this or that part was funny. I also love it when people say, "I never guessed ______ was the villain." Also, there was a review where a woman said she loved the main character's relationships with various members of her family--that they were beautifully or realistically drawn. I felt like, "Oooh, she got it!" Actually, I'll take anything that's not negative. :-)

Kaye: Well, you know how much I loved Murder Takes the Cake but what inspired you to write Dead Pan?

Gayle : I was reading an article in Wired magazine about clinical drug tests. I did some further investigation, and I came across some fascinating stuff.

Kaye: What do you advise new writers to do?

Gayle: Read the genre they're interested in writing. For instance, when my agent pitched my first three chapters of the embroidery mystery to the editor, the editor said she liked it but didn't love it. I needed to revise it to make her love it in order for her to buy the book. I asked my agent who the editor had published recently. With two names in hand, I went to the bookstore and bought two books. I read them and found they were more descriptive than my own books. I went back, added more description and gave the heroine a bit more spunk, and the book sold. Sometimes you have to be flexible. Also, check out my coaching page (http://www.gayletrent.com/coaching/) to sign up for my monthly writing newsletter.

Kaye: How do you hold readers' interest between books?

Gayle: I try to hold readers' interest through my blog. Both series' heroines have their own bi-weekly newsletters on my blog. Daphne Martin's newsletter is called Killer Cakes and publishes every other Monday. Marcy Singer's newsletter is called Sew Deadly and publishes every other Wednesday. And, I hope readers of one series will check out the other!

Kaye: Thank you so much for visiting with us, Gayle. Also, thank you for being so generous is allowing me to host the give-away.

Just leave me a comment that you would like to win. Please read instructions at the end of the post. Bonus entries can be earned by:

+2 Becoming a new google friends connect follower
+2 Already being a follower ( remind me, please)
+ 2 Post about contest and leave me a link
+1 Put contest in sidebar or tweet and leave me a link

****Giveaway is open internationally. However, only residents of the US & Canada will be eligible to win a hard copy of the book. The international winner will be eligible for a PDF copy. Isn't that clever of Gayle to include our international friends! Must have active e-mail address. No P.O. Boxes.

Deadline to enter is December 22nd at 5 P.M. Please put all info in ONE box and be sure to include an e mail address. No e-mail, no entry. Good Luck!

Reading from My Shelves Project 2010

Since I have only successfully completed 2 out of 3 challenges (bad Kaye, bad) for this year, I had vowed not to do any in 2010 and instead concentrate on reading the books I already own.

But Diane from Bibliophile by the Sea has come up with the perfect challenge: Read from your shelves project for 2010. I am committing myself to 24. I should certainly be able to read 2 a month for the challenge but I hope to get more off the shelves than 24.

Does this sound like something you'd like to do as well? If so, feel free to join in:

• grab the button
• decide how many books you want to read from your shelves (minimum of 20 - no maximum)
• find a new home for the books once you read them
• post the titles and the authors of books you've read and passed on
• project runs from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010
• crossover challenge books are allowed

Here is my tentative list:

1. Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran
2. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett
3. Midnight Fugue by Reginald Hill
4. Gate House by Nelson DeMille
5. If There be Dragons by Kay Hooper
6. Damas, Dramas and Anna Ruiz by Belinda Acosta
7. Evenings at the Argentine Club by Julia Amonte
8. The Water's Lovely by Ruth Rendell
9. Tell Me Something True by Leila Cobo
10. Run For Your Life by James Patterson
11. Stirring up Strife by J.B. Stanley
12. State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy
13. Siam Nights by by J.F. Gump
14. Cross Country by James Patterson
15. Hunter's Moon by Don Hoesel
16. The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran
17. Spellbinder by Helen Springer
18. The Richest Season by Maryann McFadden
19. Saffron Dreams by Shaila Abdullah
20. Run For your life by Andrea Kane
21. Stand in for Murder by Lynn Bradley
22. The Innocent Man by John Grisham
23. Stand the Storm by Breena Clarke
24. This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart
    

Show Me 5 Saturday: Malice by Lisa Jackson

That's A Novel Idea has started a new MEME called Show Me Five Saturday. This meme will give each blogger an opportunity to give a brief description of a book they have read or reviewed during the week. It will work like this: Each Saturday you will post the answer to these questions. The number indicates the number of answers you will provide.

1. Book you read and/or reviewed this week

Malice by Lisa Jackson

2. Words that describe the book

Thriller, police procedural

3. Settings where it took place or characters you met:

New Orleans and Los Angeles. Rick Bentz: ex LA cop now living in LA with his second wife Olivia and working on the local police force is convinced he has seen his late first wife Jennifer. When he gets a death certificate in the mail with a question mark on it, he begins to wonder if she is really dead and follows a trail that will lead him back to LA to find out the truth. Olivia: Rick's second wife who eventually follows Rick to LA to find out what Rick is up to and gets much more than she bargained for.

4. Things you liked and/or disliked about it:

A wonderful wealth of characters; some good and some bad which makes for a nice balance to the plot. A well crafted thriller that kept my attention to the end even though I did figure out who the perpetrator was. The relationship between Rick and Olivia felt very believable. Character development of the late Jennifer.

5. Stars or less for your rating?

4****

Note: although this is a series, it is a stand alone novel but I liked it so much I want to go back and start at the beginning.

Giveaway: The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee

Last year I received an arc of The Piano Teacher and loved the story. This was Janice Y.K. Lee's debut novel and I sure hope she has a lot more in store for us. Such a talented writer!

To celebrate the paperback release of The Piano Teacher, (11/17/09) Gabrielle at the Penguin Group is generously allowing me to give away 2 copies of the book. If you haven't read it yet and would like to see my thoughts, here is the link to my review. Now that you've read that and realized that you need this book, you want this book, here's the scoop on the giveaway. Just leave me a comment that you would like to win. Please read instructions at the end of the post.

Bonus entries can be earned by:

+2 Becoming a new google friends connect follower

+2 Already being a follower ( remind me, please)

+ 2 Post about contest and leave me a link

+1 Put contest in sidebar or tweet and leave me a link

****Giveaway is open to residents of the USA only. No P.O. Boxes. Deadline to enter is December 20th at 5 P.M. Please put all info in one box and be sure to include an e mail address. No e-mail, no entry. Good Luck!

Review: The Wildest Heart by Rosemary Rogers

From the back cover: Lady Rowena Dangerfield travels from the exotic palaces of India to the splendor of the Royal Court of London to the savage New Mexico frontier to lay claim to her inheritance and live freely as only she would dare. In the violent, untames American South,west meets a man as strong as she is: Lucas Cord, a dark, dangerously handsome, half-Apache outlaw. Fighting scandal, treachery, and murder, Luke is determined to have Rowena for his own, and as their all-consuming passion mounts, no one is going to stop him...

My thoughts: The beginning of this story, set in India in the late 1800's, really grabbed me with the wild and reckless nature of Lady Rowena being discussed by several English women. When Rowena moved to England after the death of her grandfather, I was still enamored of the character; strong, fiercely independent young woman who could certainly take care of herself and make up her own mind. All of the lesser characters were well described and easily imaginable.

When her father sends for her to travel to New Mexico, Rowena finds herself in different circumstances than she is used to. At first I thought she adapted well to the wild roughness of the era. Then somehow, Rowena began to really annoy me with her waffling thoughts and emotions. After being engaged to two different men, she was so attracted to Luke but declared she hated him after begging him to kiss her. This goes back and forth too often in my opinion. At this point in the story, it started to drag a little for me. Enough is enough already; make up your mind! Of course, once she acknowledged her feelings for Luke, there were no holds barred. Talk about tempestuous passion!

The author, Rosemary Rogers, has been dubbed the queen of historical romance and maybe rightly so. This is the first of her books for me. Her writing flows easily off the page and I did find myself able to vividly picture the scenes. For me, it was an okay book, easy to put down but not one to rush back to. The parts I did like were the historical descriptions. If you like sweeping sagas, long involved romance stories and don't mind some dated attitudes, this may just be what you are longing to read. 3***

Disclosure: Book was supplied for review by publicist from Sourcebooks, Inc. Thank you, Danielle!