• VistaPrint Desk Calendars

  
  Nothing brightens the office more than the family photos on your desk calendars!

• Grab My Blog Button

  
  
  
• 

  Follow this blog

• Currently Reading…

• From My Library

• My Blogging Essentials

They Say It’s Your Birthday, Neil!

Today is “The Neil’s” birthday!

Here at The Literate Housewife Review, we wish Neil Gaiman the happiest of days.  I have only read two of his books as of today (The Graveyard Book and Neverwhere – review coming Friday).  I’m looking forward to even more in the month ahead.

In celebration of this momentous day, two lucky people who leave a comment within the next 24 hours wishing our man of the month a happy birthday will win a Coraline bookmark (see prizes post) as well as a hand made “WWND” (What Would Neil Do) bookmark that I’m making.  I don’t have the prototypes completed, but I think they’ll be appropriate for the author and subject matter. LOL!

All those who leave comments on this post can also enter for the big drawing (again, see prizes post) at the end of the month.  The code is N&B-HB.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Neverwhere and Beyond: The Literate Housewife Discovers Neil Gaiman (literatehousewife.com)
• TSS ~ Neverwhere and Beyond Prizes (literatehousewife.com)
• #211 ~ The Graveyard Book (literatehousewife.com)
• Neil Gaiman’s Birthday, More ‘Modern Warfare 2,’ And Todd Nauck Art In Today’s Twitter Report (splashpage.mtv.com)
• Neil Gaiman Discusses The Graveyard Book (shoppingblog.com)

#211 ~ The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Bod, although named Nobody Owens, isn’t a nobody.  Someone wants him dead.  The Man Jack killed his parents and sister one dark night.  Bod was just a toddler and narrowly escaped The Man Jack’s knife when he wandered off into the cemetery just across the way from his parent’s home.  It was highly unprecedented, but Mr. and Mrs. Owens, both ghosts who have already lived in the graveyard for many years, agree to adopt Bod when the ghost of his mother begs Mrs. Owens to care for him.  The graveyard as a whole did not agree to accept Bod and give him the freedom of the graveyard only after Silas also agrees to be his guardian.  Silas, unlike the ghosts inhabiting the cemetery, has access to the world outside of the graveyard and can ensure that Bod is fed and educated.  Thus begins Bod’s unconventional upbringing.  Despite the circumstances, Bod is a typical boy and that often gets him into trouble.  It is just that which teaches him what he needs to know to survive within and without the walls of the graveyard.

I had intended to read Neverwhere as my first Neil Gaiman novel, but when I found myself with a credit at Audible.com and noticed that the author himself narrated The Graveyard Book, I had to buy it.  Once it was on my MP3 player, I couldn’t stop myself from listening to it.  I couldn’t be more thrilled that book was my introduction.  It was alive in place and character.  I loved Bod, Silas, Mrs. Owens, Scarlett, and Liza.  I even enjoyed the less savory characters Bod meets along the way.  One of my favorite chapters was when he meets up with the ghouls.  I loved the imagination that went into creating their existence, their means of transportation, and their names: The Duke of Westminster, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, the Lord High Mayor of London, and The 33rd President of the United States (poor President Truman – I had to look that up because I had to know).  The dialog was equally delightful – not just with the ghouls, but with all of the characters.  While I’m sure that the dialog would have stood out if I had read the print version of this book, Gaiman is fantastic in his narration and really brought out the interplay and poetry in his prose.

I cannot say enough about this book.  I listened to it on audio as narrated by Neil Gaiman himself.  I listened to Bod’s story on my way to and from work and whenever I got a chance in between.  I was enthralled by the different worlds I got to explore along with Bod.  It really captured my imagination.  I looked forward to my time in the graveyard and was very impressed by the author’s narration.  In many ways, I think that made the experience for me.  To hear the accents of the ghouls, the Owens’, Silas, and Scarlett made them all come to life.  I have a print version of this novel as well and I found myself going to it to reread what I had heard that day and getting excited all over again.  The ending, in so many ways, was bittersweet for me.  I miss Bod, all of his friends, and all of the things to see and explore in his adoptive home.  I look forward to the day that my daughters are old enough to listen to this story along with me, not that I think I can wait that long to read The Graveyard Book again for myself.

To enter for a chance to win the prizes for this theme month, go to the Neverwhere and Beyond page and use the following code: N&B-R1.

*******

I read the audio version of this book through a purchase on Audible.com.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Neverwhere and Beyond: The Literate Housewife Discovers Neil Gaiman (literatehousewife.com)

TSS ~ Neverwhere and Beyond Prizes

I’m finally and truly back in the swing of things and getting geared up for this month’s theme:  Neverwhere and Beyond.  I announced it on Monday and will have a full week of coverage next week.  I promised a post about the prizes and I think they’re pretty darn exciting.

Instead of holding several different contests throughout the month, I’m going to give out all of the prizes on December 1st.  I’ve created a separate page for signing up using Mr. Linky.  You can go there for the logistics, but you’ll basically get one entry per comment per any post that displays the Neverwhere and Beyond graphic and a bolded code number at the bottom.  Check out my introductory post for its code.  I’ve updated that post.  I’ll use the code number to identify the post and then verify that the winner did leave a comment before awarding a prize.  Verifying only the winning entries will be easier than verifying each entry.  This is a trial to see if this seems to work well for everyone.  Please feel free to let me know what you think via email.

Without any further ado, here they are the prizes up for grabs during Neverwhere and Beyond month:

1 Coraline bookmark (25 winners)

I ordered these bookmarks from the American Library Association because I thought they were adorable.  They come in packs of 100.   I wanted to include a picture here, but the image is funky from the ALA’s website.  Here is a picture:

51 Coraline bookmarks  (one for the winner and 50 for the public library of the winner’s choice)

1 Neil Gaiman poster (1 winner)

This poster is from the ALA as well.  Here is picture:

1 Copy of the 3D version of the movie Coraline (2 winners)

Grand Prize:  A collection of each of the Neil Gaiman books I review this month (1 winner)

Jennifer from Book Club Girl has graciously provided a copy of each of the Neil Gaiman books I’m reviewing this month!  Thank you so much, Jennifer!  This collection will include (covers may vary):

The Graveyard Book

Neverwhere

American Gods

Stardust

Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders

Coraline

To enter for a chance to win these prizes, go to the Neverwhere and Beyond page and use the following code: N&B-P.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Neverwhere and Beyond: The Literate Housewife Discovers Neil Gaiman (literatehousewife.com)
• The myth-making genius of Neil Gaiman (guardian.co.uk)

The Sunday Salon ~ TGFF (Thank God For Florida)

For once, I’ve had a great week.  I spent most of it in Orlando at Ektron’s Synergy ‘09 Conference at the Disney Grand Floridian.  I spent five days and four nights learning more about CMS 400 version 8.0 (the content management software I wish I could afford to power literatehousewife.com), networking with consultants and meeting new people.

Ektron really knows how to put on a conference!  We registered on the beach at dinner the first night, which was fun and relaxing.  Tuesday night was Customer Appreciation Night and they scheduled a special event at the Indiana Jones  attraction at Hollywood Studios.  We watched the show and got to eat dinner on the sound stage.  It was a great time.  The conference closed with raffling off a lot of wonderful prizes.

I didn’t win a prize at the conference, but I was extremely lucky nonetheless.  I knew heading down that Sandy from You’ve GOTTA Read This! lived in Orlando and I hoped to get a chance to meet her in person while I was there.  What I didn’t know was that Elle from Blithely Babbling was down there with her family.  Elle was one of my first non-friends to consistently leave comments on my blog when it was “52 Books or Bust.”  Most importantly, she has stuck with me after the disastrous books I selected for my first foray into the online book club world.  She lives in Canada and I never thought we would ever meet.  Imagine my surprise when I got an email from her after she saw me tweeting about the conference!  We were able to meet up at Downtown Disney on Wednesday after Synergy ended and while her beautiful daughter took her nap.  We got frozen lemonade and sat down on a bench to talk.  We first discussed our children, but our conversation turned to  books and blogging before long.  Elle is considering creating a new blog just for her book reviews and she has got me prepped for reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon in January.  She’s a huge fan and I cannot wait to see what has her all fired up.  Most importantly, I’m so happy that I can now call her my friend without having to mention “online.”  That was a touch of Disney magic for me.

After my visit with Elle, I went back to my hotel room and packed while waiting for Sandy to arrive for our dinner.  I was so excited and that helped me not mourn over the beautiful place I would be leaving very early the next morning (the Magical Express loses a lot of magic when you have to be up and ready to check out by 5:30AM).  I was packed and ready to go just as she was calling me and we met in the lobby.  We ate at Citricos and had a wonderfully funny waiter named Joe.  From the very first moment, Sandy felt like an old friend to me.  We had such a great time talking about family, blogging, and reading.  I got to hear all about her wonderful cruise and how she grew up in Indiana.  It was just a great time in a really nice atmosphere.  The nearly three hours we were together flew by.  Just like with Elle, I’m so happy to have met Sandy in person.  She is every bit as funny and delightful IRL as she is online.

I hope to post more pictures during the week.  My co-worker Lauren attended Synergy with me and she has some fun pictures on her camera that I’m hoping to snag from her when she gets back on Monday.

I hope you all had a wonderful week, too!

#210 ~ Ruined

Ruined: A Ghost Story by Paula Morris

Rebecca is a typical high school sophomore.  She is active in her school and is extremely upset and resentful when her father uproots her from her New York City home to live with a friend and her daughter in New Orleans.  She doesn’t understand why her father sends her to live with the woman she calls Aunt Claudia because they don’t know each other well.  New Orleans, especially in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, is small peanuts compared to NYC and Rebecca finds that she doesn’t fit in as well amidst the children sent to the Temple Mead Academy by New Orleans society families.  About the only thing that interests her about her surroundings is the Lafayette Cemetery.  When Aunt Claudia strictly forbids her from going there, she is determined to do just that.  It is there where she runs into her first friend, Lisette, who just happens to be a ghost.

I really enjoyed Ruined.  Despite part of the story being predictable, I grew to care for Rebecca and Lisette.  I wanted to know Lisette’s story and see what Rebecca would do  with it.  While I think that young adults may relate better to Rebecca than I did at first, I didn’t feel that this novel was directed specifically at younger readers.  There was  much to enjoy.  I found the information about New Orleans’ history and race relations, the role and place of the city’s grand and established families in modern society, and the background on the city’s Mardi Gras parades very interesting.  Most importantly, Rebecca and Lisette are interesting characters and strong at heart.  I was never scared while reading this book, but I was always entertained.  I would strongly suggest Rebecca and Lisette’s story to the young and the young at heart alike.

+++++

This is my third review for the R.I.P. Challenge.

*****

I want to thank Dina from Big Honcho Media for sending me an Advanced Reader Copy of this novel.

#209 ~ The Brother’s Boswell

The Brothers Boswell by Philip Baruth

Samuel Johnson and James Boswell are well known literary figures and friends.  James Boswelll’s brother John is less widely known.  It was the combination of a novel about two authors I didn’t know very well combined with an unstable, hidden brother that intrigued me immediately when I was offered a review copy of Philip Baruth’s novel entitled The Brothers Boswell. I selected this novel for the Historical Fiction Lover’s book club in September, coinciding with Johnson’s 200th birthday.  Baruth wrote a wonderful guest post in May in preparation for reading his novel.  I was happy to crack the book open when September rolled around.

While reading the novel, I learned quite a bit about the Johnson and Boswell. I didn’t end up enjoying the read as much as I had anticipated, though.  As I started reading, I found it difficult to get in rhythm with the language.  After the first few chapters I was able to read more comfortably and the story started to pick up when John arrived on the scene.  The potential of what might happen with John as he tracks his brother and Johnson like unsuspecting rats in a London maze kept me reading despite the slow going.  I found the sections directly about James Boswell the most difficult to read.  I did not care for him at all.  I found him nearly repulsive in his own self-importance.  In fact, I was almost hoping he’d find his comeuppance at the hands of his younger brother.  Unfortunately, the conclusion didn’t pay off for me.  While this novel might appeal to those with more intimate knowledge of Johnson and Boswell, I wasn’t the right reader.

*****

I want to thank Soho Press for sending me a review copy of this novel.

Neverwhere and Beyond: The Literate Housewife Discovers Neil Gaiman

Until I made plans to attend the National Book Festival in 2008, I had never heard of Neil Gaiman.  Well, that’s not exactly true.  Emily, one of the girls’ baby sitters read them The Day I Swapped My Dad for a Goldfish before then, but that doesn’t count because I wasn’t paying attention.  Sometimes the damnedest things happen when you’re not paying attention. Others like Jena and my husband were so excited that he was going to be there.  In fact, Jena ordered me a copy of Neverwhere and herself a copy of American Gods in hopes of getting his autograph.  I was excited to get his autograph because Jena was excited.  Then I discovered something about Neil Gaiman that made me freak out ever so little.  Ever since I became a Tori Amos fan, I wondered who “Neil” was.  Thanks to the power of the Internet and Wikipedia, I found out that Neil Gaiman is THE NEIL!  If I remember correctly, I discovered this the night before the festival because I was hoping to have something intelligent to say to him.  It took me quite some time and an odd look from Danny to veto the idea of bringing my liner notes from “Little Earthquakes” so he could sign them.  I’m shameless, I know.

Neil was at the festival promoting his Newberry Award winning novel, The Graveyard Book.  He was speaking when Danny and I arrived on site.  We walked near that tent, but we really couldn’t hear what he was saying.  Besides, why would I be all that interested in a children’s book anyway?  Yeah, the damnedest things happen when you make assumptions, too.  Honestly though, I was very intent on getting to the Fiction tent for Philippa Gregory.  Regular readers will not be surprised by that one bit…

After listening to Philippa, which I loved, Danny and I headed over to the book signing area.  Being a NBF virgin, I happily assumed I’d get most of the autographs I wanted, Neil’s, Salman Rushdie’s, James McBride’s, and Philippa’s with little problem. I was wrong.  Very wrong.  We first went to Neil’s line and I was shocked by how many snakes there were in his queue.  He had initially agreed to signing books for an hour or an hour and a half.  Because there were so many people wanting to meet him, he agreed to extend his book signing until the end of the festival.  Even though Danny waited in his line while I got smart and got in Philippa’s, we never did get his autograph.  I was impressed by him as a person all the same.

Later on, our beloved Dewey passed away.  She was a huge Neil Gaiman fan.  I’m not sure how it came about, but those involved with the movie “Coraline” sent Dewey’s family a box of memorabilia.  When her husband posted about the box, he mentioned that he wished that Neil knew how much his wife loved him.  I wish I could link to this, but her site is no longer available.   Neil left a comment on his post and I will never forget that.  It was then that I decided I needed to make reading his work a priority. So many people think he’s a brilliant writer.  From the little I have observed of him, I think he’s a wonderful human being.

After learning that his birthday is in November (11/10 to be exact), I decided that I would dedicate November of 2009 to his work.  Since I had never read any of his work, I could easily devote an entire month to reading his novels.  I originally planned to post only Neil Gaiman-specific content this month, but I’m not sure how practical that is.  “Neverwhere and Beyond” will, however, most definitely be my theme for the month.  I will be reading and reviewing the following books:

The Graveyard Book (finished early)
Neverwhere
American Gods
Fragile Things
Stardust
Coraline

I will also be reading the following to my daughters this month:

Crazy Hair
The Dangerous Alphabet
The Day I Swapped My Dad for a Goldfish
Blueberry Girl

I cannot tell you how excited I am now that November is here!  Tuesday I’ll post a little more about how others are getting involved in Neverwhere and Beyond and, of course, prizes.  If you haven’t already gotten to know this author, why not join me?

*******

To enter for a chance to win these prizes, go to the Neverwhere and Beyond page and use the following code: N&B-I.

Literate Housewife’s R.I.P. Wrap Up

This year I participated in Carl’s R.I.P. Challenge for the first time.  I dove in feet first, too.  I decided to take up his Peril the First challenge and read at least four books in any of the following categories:

Mystery

Suspense

Thriller

Dark fantasy

Gothic

Horror

Supernatural

I have always thought of myself as someone who did not really get into books that would fall into the R.I.P. Challenge, because I think only of Supernatural, Horror, or Fantasy.  I was so wrong.  First of all, I have always loved Gothic fiction from the first time I ever picked up Poe.  That genre captures my imagination like no other.  I may not often read mysteries and suspenseful thrillers, but I get a hankering to read them every so often and I’m always glad when I did.

R.I.P. Recap

I read and reviewed the following books during September and October:

Her Fearful Symmetry – What really makes this one exciting for me is that my review was selected by Ms. Niffenegger’s publicist as one of the top 10. I was sent a signed hard copy edition as a prize. I keep meaning to take a picture and post it. Hopefully I will remember to do that when I get home this weekend.
The Devil’s Company

I read the following books and hope to post my full reviews very soon (here is a brief synopsis, though):

The Girl Who Played with Fire - loved!
Ruined - pleasant, easy read
The Brother’s Boswell (mystery/suspense) – a tad boring
The Graveyard Book – adored and miss now that I’m finished with it!
The Secret Speech – predictable, yet not

While I may have missed the mark by not posting all of the reviews, I actually overshot the mark by reading six books for the challenge.  I want to thank Carl so much for hosting this event.  There were some wonderful prizes along the way, too.  Congratulations to all those who won.  I’m already looking forward to next year.  In fact, there are a few that I wanted to read for this year (Woman in White and The Historian) that I may try to read in November.

Back in the Land of the Blogging

Since my last Sunday Salon post, things got much, much worse.  Let me just say that I do love my children very much.  This is evident in the fact that we are all still alive.  While I’m so glad that my parents came to visit, the entire week was nothing but exhausting and oh, so stressful.  This is why I have only posted twice in the past 10 days (and only then because I’d committed to the book tours ahead of time) and have been a non-entity around the book blogosphere.

Thankfully, I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  Case in point:

• I’ve left three comments in the past three days (as opposed to  no comments the 7 or more days before).
• I am starting to think about the reviews for some of my finished books that aren’t on a book tour deadline.
• I am starting to think about the post I’m going to write about my newest reading gadget.
• I am listening to Nicole and Trish’s Blog Talk Radio show instead of sleeping.
• I’m looking forward to my month of November, which will be (mostly) dedicated to Neil Gaiman.  I’ll be posting more about that later this week, too.
• I’m leaving for Orlando on Sunday (4 nights at the Disney Grand Floridian!) for a conference.  Reading by the pool awaits me!

I want to thank my loyal readers and blogging friends for sticking with me this month.  I really appreciate it.

#208 ~ Looking After Pigeon

Looking After Pigeon by Maud Carol Markson

Today it is my great pleasure to be Maud Carol Markson’s host on her TLC Book Tour for her novel, Looking After Pigeon.  I would like to thank her for sending me a copy of her book for review.  Please see the end of my review for a list of the blogs who are on this tour with me.

I have a lot of fun working as a tour host for TLC Book Tours.  They always have great books and authors on tour.  Check out their website for more information on this tour and the others that they are hosting.

My Review

Pigeon is five.  She is the youngest of three children, all named after birds.  Her sister Dove is about 10 years older than her and her brother Robin is 10.  Her mother, Joan, married their father to get away from her family and has found herself disillusioned with motherhood.  Things only get worse when Pigeon’s father loses his job and leaves the family with no means of support.  They are forced, in the dead of night, to flee their New York apartment to go live with Joan’s brother Edward, who lives in a beach house not far from Atlantic City.  It is there that those left in her family are forced to pick up the pieces and figure things out on their own.

At the beginning of the novel, an adult Pigeon is encouraged by her unnamed live-in boyfriend to write about the summer she moved to live with her Uncle Edward when she refuses to see a psychiatrist.  That, in conjunction with the book’s title, leaves me waiting from the first page for something extremely terrible to happen to Pigeon.  What I imagine never takes place.  Part of me is relieved because of this as I finished the book, but part of me is also wondering why the novel began that way.  Having a father desert you at the age of five and then be left alone a good deal of the time to take care of yourself would be traumatic.  Still, I never was able to relax into the story because I was waiting for the “real” reason summers made her blue and her lover wanted her to do something to look after her mental health.  I could never really warm up to Uncle Edward or her mother’s boyfriend Cary for fear of what they were going to do to her.

I never really warmed up to Dove or Pigeon’s names, although Robin’s name seemed like a good fit.  He was by far my favorite character in the book.  Likewise, I never really warmed up to Joan.  Even in the scene after Pigeon comes back from her trip to New York City with Edward, I found her extremely cold.  Just that little  bit of warmth wasn’t enough to change my opinion of her.  Living that summer the way she did, lost in the current of everyone else’s  drama, I can also understand why Pigeon holds everyone at arm’s length, even down to leaving her current day lover nameless.  He could be anyone from her romantic life past, present, or even future.  Despite the glimmer of hope that she might one day open herself up more fully to someone else, she never names him.  I found that quite sad, yet authentically Pigeon.

I wish I could say that I enjoyed Looking After Pigeon more than I did.  The detachment I felt from the narrator from the very beginning carried through for me as a reader.  Because I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop as soon as Uncle Edward entered the picture, I didn’t really engage with otherwise sympathetic characters.  There was one touch I found very nice.  Pigeon would make her own paper dolls from people in magazines and spend her time creating stories of their lives.  More than anything else, it was in this detail that I felt closest to Pigeon.   Still, I found myself wondering how this story would have been told from Robin’s perspective.  There was that touch of magic in his soul that might have added just the right touch for me.

******

Maud Carol Markson’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS

Wednesday, October 21st: Dolce Bellezza

Monday, October 26th: A Sea of Books

Thursday, October 29th: Steph and Tony Investigate

Monday, November 2nd: A Reader’s Journal

Tuesday, November 3rd: The Scholastic Scribe

Wednesday, November 4th: Raging Bibliomania

Monday, November 9th: Clever Girl Goes Blog

Tuesday, November 10th: Book Club Classics

Thursday, November 11th: Caribousmom

Related articles by Zemanta

• Norma Fox Mazer; novels captured troubles associated with youth; at 78 (boston.com)

Next Page »

• Search for:

• Contact Literate Housewife

  Please feel free to contact Literate Housewife by sending an email to jennifer at literatehousewife (dot) com. I would love to hear from you!

  ---

• 

  Devourer of Books

  Fyrefly's Book Blog

  Medieval Bookworm

  The Book Lady's Blog

  Book Chatter and Other Stuff

  Passages to the Past

  For more great blogs, check out my Address Book.

  ---

• WE Magazine’s A Woman Blogger to Watch

  

• Upcoming Reviews…

• Literate Challenges

  R.I.P. IV ~ Peril the First
  

  War Through the Generations
  

• In My Mailbox…

• Archives

  Select Month November 2009  (8) October 2009  (13) September 2009  (26) August 2009  (35) July 2009  (18) June 2009  (23) May 2009  (21) April 2009  (31) March 2009  (31) February 2009  (31) January 2009  (20) December 2008  (19) November 2008  (24) October 2008  (28) September 2008  (37) August 2008  (46) July 2008  (41) June 2008  (27) May 2008  (26) April 2008  (13) March 2008  (12) February 2008  (14) January 2008  (4) December 2007  (6) November 2007  (17) October 2007  (9) September 2007  (17) August 2007  (9) July 2007  (5) June 2007  (19) May 2007  (10) April 2007  (9) March 2007  (6) February 2007  (4) January 2007  (5)