Waiting On Wednesday - October 7

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My "can't-wait-to-read" selection for this week is:

True Blue by David Baldacci

Release: October 20, 2009


What can I say - I love David Baldacci's books - and this looks like another good one!

A mysterious high-profile homicide in the nation's capital collides with the dark side of national security in David Baldacci's new, heart-stopping thriller.

Mason "Mace" Perry was a firebrand cop on the D.C. police force until she was kidnapped and framed for a crime. She lost everything-her badge, her career, her freedom-and spent two years in prison. Now she's back on the outside and focused on one mission: to be a cop once more. Her only shot to be a true blue again is to solve a major case on her own, and prove she has the right to wear the uniform. But even with her police chief sister on her side, she has to work in the shadows: A vindictive U.S. attorney is looking for any reason to send Mace back behind bars. Then Roy Kingman enters her life.

Roy is a young lawyer who aided the poor until he took a high-paying job at a law firm in Washington. Mace and Roy meet after he discovers the dead body of a female partner at the firm. As they investigate the death, they start uncovering surprising secrets from both the private and public world of the nation's capital.

Soon, what began as a fairly routine homicide takes a terrifying and unexpected turn-into something complex, diabolical, and possibly lethal.

So what are you waiting on this week?

Book Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith


My rating: 4.5/5.0
Very amusing and fun look at what if zombies were a problem in the world of Eliza Bennett and Mr. Darcy.




About the Book:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains." So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—& the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty & arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—& even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Can she vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism & thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read.

My Review:

A lot of the story is the same as it should be but the addition of zombies and girls being trained in the violent arts makes it interesting. Nothing can replace Pride and Prejudice as a wonderful love story, but this fun look at it is definitely amusing. Some of the off color comments that Mr. Darcy makes had me rolling with laughter. Nothing took away from the book at all - it just added an extra layer to it.

A fun and enjoyable read for Pride and Prejudice fans who like a little violence and horror. It's really not too bad about the violence and horror though - it's still about society and the interplay between Darcy and Eliza.

Challenges:
Support Your Local Library Challenge
100+ Book Challenge
RIP IV Challenge
Countdown Challenge 2010

Teaser Tuesday - October 6

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"Right, I understand that, Mrs. Freeman." Mia twirled the phone cord around her fingers and resisted the urge to use profanity with a client. "But if you'll try to understand my position here. I cannot force the school district to recognize selling drugs as an after-school activity."

From Stretch Marks by Kimberly Stuart

I just thought these lines were too funny (Mia is a social worker). The book is really cute so far and I can't wait to read more of it.

What are You Reading Monday - October 5

Come post weekly and see what others are reading too just so you can add to your tbr - I always do! For more information see J.Kaye's Book Blog and join in!

Books Completed Last Week:
Silent Killer by Beverly Barton (for Bookreporter.com)
Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain (library)
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (audiobook with DS)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen (library)
Tonight on the Titanic by Mary Pope Osborne (audiobook with DS)

Reading Now:
Buffalo before Breakfast by Mary Pope Osborne (audiobook with DS)
Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris (audiobook)
Against All Odds by Irene Hannon (booksfree)
The Maze Runner by James Dasher (review)

Next:
Stretch Marks by Kimberly Stuart (review for First Wild Card Tours on Thursday)
Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz (library)
Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella (library)

Summary -
3 books and 2 audios make a good week. I should easily finish several more audios with DS this week and finish Dead to the World. I have to get caught up with reviews and due library books, so I need to get busy reading.

I had planned to read on Saturday but the sewing bug bit and I sewed most of the day. But I did get some reading time in on Sunday.

Mailbox Monday - October 5

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. To see this weeks list of participants go here.

ARCs of:





Wins I received:



From Booksfree:

Review Copy Arrival: Children of Dust by Ali Eteraz

Children of Dust: A Memoir of Pakistan by Ali Eteraz

I received this from Julie Harabedian of FSB Associates.

Published by HarperOne
October 2009; $25.99US; 978-0-06-156708-7

An extraordinary personal journey from Islamic fundamentalism to a new life in the West.

Ali Eteraz's Children of Dust is a spellbinding portrayal of a life that few Americans can imagine. From his schooling in a madrassa in Pakistan to his teenage years as a Muslim American in the Bible Belt, and back to Pakistan to find a pious Muslim wife, this lyrical, penetrating saga from a brilliant new literary voice captures the heart of our universal quest for identity.

Children of Dust begins in rural Islam at the lowest levels of Pakistani society in the turbulent eighties. This intimate portrayal of rustic village life is revealed through a young boy's eyes as he discovers magic, women, and friendship.

After immigrating with his family to the United States, Eteraz struggles to be a normal American teenager under the rules of a strict Muslim household.

In 1999, he returns to Pakistan to find the villages of his youth dominated by the ideology of the Taliban, filled with young men spouting militant rhetoric, and his extended family under threat. Eteraz becomes the target of a mysterious abduction plot when he is purported to be a CIA agent, and eventually has to escape under military escort.

Back in the United States, with his fundamentalist illusions now shattered, Eteraz tries to find a middle way within American Islam. At each stage of Eteraz's life, he takes on a different identity to signal his evolution. From being pledged to Islam in Mecca as an infant, through Salafi fundamentalism, to liberal reformer, Eteraz desperately struggles to come to terms with being a Pakistani and a Muslim.

Astonishingly honest, darkly comic, and beautifully told, Children of Dust is an extraordinary adventure that reveals the diversity of Islamic beliefs, the vastness of the Pakistani diaspora, and the very human search for home.

Author Bio
Ali Eteraz, author of Children of Dust: A Memoir of Pakistan, was born in Pakistan and has lived in the Middle East, the Caribbean, and the United States. A graduate of Emory University and Temple Law School, he was selected for the Outstanding Scholar's Program at the United States Department of Justice and later worked in corporate litigation in Manhattan. He is a regular contributor to True/Slant; has published articles about Islam and Pakistani politics in Dissent, Foreign Policy, AlterNet, and altMuslim; and is a regular contributor to The Guardian UK and Dawn, Pakistan's oldest English-language daily. His blog in the Islamosphere received nearly two million views as well as a Brass Crescent award for originality. Eteraz has spoken publicly about the situation inside Pakistan, Islamic reform, and Muslim immigration. He currently divides his time between Princeton, New Jersey, and the Middle East, and is working on a novel.

For more information please visit www.alieteraz.com.

Come help Fiona Robyn with Blogsplash!

Fiona Robyn is going to blog her next novel, Thaw, starting on the 1^st of March next year. The novel follows 32 year old Ruth’s diary over three months as she decides whether or not to carry on living.

To help spread the word she’s organising a Blogsplash, where blogs will publish the first page of Ruth’s diary simultaneously (and a link to the blog).

She’s aiming to get 1000 blogs involved – if you’d be interested in joining in, email her at fiona@fionarobyn.com or find out more information here.

I've joined in, come help Fiona meet her goal of 1000 blogs.