Book Reviews by Today, I Read…

So. I was cruising the blogosphere and I happened upon this video. And it made me laugh so hard I almost cried a little. And it would be a crime not to share it with you. (The end is a little…eewww…but it’s still pretty darn funny.)

Enjoy. You may thank me after you’ve caught your breath.

Happy Tuesday! It’s time again for another edition of Teaser Tuesdays…

Here are the rules:

• Grab your current read
• Let the book fall open to a random page
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• You also need to share the title of the book where you get your teaser from…that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given
• Please avoid spoilers

This week’s teaser:

"Removing evidence of their crime would be as easy as breaking into the control booth and stealing the tapes that recorded the break-in. Best yet, the guards clearly marked the videotapes with the month and day–rather than a code–so it would be simple to steal the correct ones." pg. 81 of Flawless by Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell

You may not be able to tell from this blog, but I love true crime. The mind of a criminal, their decisions, and what drives them has always been interesting to me–can’t figure out why–so I try not to pass up an opportunity to read a good true crime story if I can help it.  This is one of those cases.

After reading as much fiction as I have lately, it’s time to balance it out. Plus, I absolutely love the book’s cover. You can’t tell from the picture, but the diamonds on the cover actually sparkle a bit and reflect a rainbow as you flip it around in the light. (I know, it’s the littlest things with me.)

Last week I had an opportunity to make a couple more padded journals. They were quick and helped to calm my nerves. (And more conservative than my previous creations.)

The blue one I made for my sister and the white with green stripes, I made for Belle (aka Ms. Bookish).

If you’d like me to make a padded journal for you, there’s still time to enter the giveaway.

It’s Thursday and you know what that means…another edition of Booking Through Thursday is here.

This week’s question is: Which do you prefer? Lurid, fruity prose, awash in imagery and sensuous textures and colors? Or straight-forward, clean, simple prose?

Florid or unadorned prose? It’s a difficult decision to make if you enjoy both. But, my preference often depends upon mood and whether said florid prose shifts into the realm of purple and whether the unadorned prose is so sparse as to remove all color.

Two good examples to illustrate my point are The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (review) and I heart you, You haunt me by Lisa Schroeder (review). (Bet you thought I was going to say Shakespeare and Hemmingway, didn’t you?) I enjoyed both of these books although the former was especially florid:

The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea.

While the latter was spare in its language:

I pull out the bikini.
The one Jackson bought me.
The one I wore that day.

I can’t wear it.
I won’t wear it.
Never
ever
again.

I should throw it away.
But Jackson gave it to me.
It’s the last thing he gave me.
So I’ll keep it.
But I won’t wear it.

To me, it all boils down to deftness of the writer and whether I’m in the mood to savor a book or devour it.

Thanks to Jill at Breaking the Spine, I present another edition of Waiting on Wednesday…

This book’s description called out—or should I say sang?—to me. I knew instantly that I wanted to read it. Now, I grow impatient waiting for the day it shall arrive.

The Long Song by Andrea Levy is scheduled for publication on April 27, 2010 and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.

THE AUTHOR OF SMALL ISLAND TELLS THE STORY OF THE LAST TURBULENT YEARS OF SLAVERY AND THE EARLY YEARS OF FREEDOM IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY JAMAICA

Small Island introduced Andrea Levy to America and was acclaimed as “a triumph” (San Francisco Chronicle). It won both the Orange Prize and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award, and has sold over a million copies worldwide. With The Long Song, Levy once again reinvents the historical novel.

Told in the irresistibly willful and intimate voice of Miss July, with some editorial assistance from her son, Thomas, The Long Song is at once defiant, funny, and shocking. The child of a field slave on the Amity sugar plantation, July lives with her mother until Mrs. Caroline Mortimer, a recently transplanted English widow, decides to move her into the great house and rename her “Marguerite.”

Resourceful and mischievous, July soon becomes indispensable to her mistress. Together they live through the bloody Baptist war, followed by the violent and chaotic end of slavery. Taught to read and write so that she can help her mistress run the business, July remains bound to the plantation despite her “freedom.” It is the arrival of a young English overseer, Robert Goodwin, that will dramatically change life in the great house for both July and her mistress. Prompted and provoked by her son’s persistent questioning, July’s resilience and heartbreak are gradually revealed in this extraordinarily powerful story of slavery, revolution, freedom, and love.