Teaser Tuesday - The Protector's War by S. M. Stirling

Teaser Tuesdays are hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

It asks us to:

(1) Grab our current reads.

(2) Let the book fall open to a random page.

(3) Share two (or three) teaser sentences from that page somewhere between lines 7 and 12 (avoiding spoilers).

We're also supposed to share the book title and author so others can find the book themselves.

Here's my teaser for today:

"Then hear my sentence," Havel said coldly. "You settled and built this place ... but now it's mine. You'll hold it from me, and be my man in all things. you and all yours; and your heirs will do the same for mine. This is now the northern border of Bearkiller territory and you're subject to the Outfit. Understood?"

The heavy swarthy face blinked at him in astonishment, then nodded with a quick decisive movement, fighting down a grin. "Yes, Lord Bear. I hear, and I will obey."

This is from The Protector's War by S. M. Stirling. It's the second book in a series describing how humanity (specifically groups in the Washington / Oregon area) survives after electronics, guns, and complex machinery stop working. The first book in this series is Dies the Fire (that's a link to my review), which takes place right when the "Change" happens. The Protector's War is set 8 years after the Change, so the survival techniques and societies that emerged right after the chaos are now becoming more formalized. People like Mike Havel, who started out as a bush pilot, are now local warrior kings.

I like the characters in these books and it's also very interesting to see Stirling's take on how societies would adapt to a huge change like this. It's also been interesting to see a wider view on how the Change affected other places, like England and Australia / Tasmania / New Zealand.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

This story is based on an actual 500 year old Jewish prayer book, now known as the Sarajevo Haggadah, which is on permanent display at the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The book was created around 1350 and has survived the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, travel across Europe, the book burnings of World War 2, and the war in Sarajevo.

Geraldine Brooks wrote an article for The New Yorker magazine that was published December 3, 2007 called "The Book of Exodus," telling part of the history of the book during World War 2, when Dervis Korkut saved the manuscript and a young Jewish girl, Mia Papo, from Nazi officials.

Geraldine's historical fiction version of the Sarajevo Haggadah's journeys and protectors was published as People of the Book on January 1, 2008.

Plot Summary: We are introduced to the Haggadah through book restorer Hannah Heath, who is selected by the United Nations to restore the book after it has been found in 1996 at the end of the Bosnian war. (The book was actually restored under UN supervision and Geraldine watched Andrea Pataki work on restoring the ancient manuscript.) Like Geraldine, Hannah is an Australian. She was brought in based on her expertise and because an Aussie would be seen as more neutral than a restorer with strong ties to a European country or Israel.

Through Hannah's eyes, we see war-torn Sarajevo and experience her excitement about the book's survival and the clues in its pages to its history: a butterfly wing; evidence the book was intended to have clasps on its binding; official approval by a Catholic inquisitor in Venice; wine stains; salt residue; and the writing and illustrations themselves.

As Hannah investigates each of these clues to the book's past, we are taken back in time to experience the rescue of the book during World War 2, a prior restoration, it's other travels, and through it all, the people who interacted with the book. These flash-backs become short stories or novellas set in the context of Hannah's continuing story. People of the Book tells a story of the manuscript's survival, but also gives readers windows into the historical interactions among Christians, Jews and Muslims going back to the 1300s.

My Reaction: First of all, I listened to this book on CD and loved the Australian accent of the reader -- really made it easy to "hear" Hannah's voice.

Hannah's stories were the most relatable to me and I love the way they framed the other stories. In addition to her description of the preservation work, we meet Hannah's mother -- who reminded me most of Meredith's mother from Grey's Anatomy, i. e. brilliant surgeon, but crap at personal relationships. I think Geraldine did a great job of giving us enough technical details to follow Hannah's restoration work (or at least why she found such small details to be clues to the book's past) without letting Hannah's personal story or the history of the book be overwhelmed.

Each of the flash-back stories was fascinating on its own, too. While Hannah was ultimately left to speculate about the results of her investigations into the various clues, readers were shown what happened through the eyes of the people involved with the Haggadah during that era. The Jewish struggles shown during each of these time periods was amazing to me. It was difficult, however, to listen to the section dealing with the Spanish Inquisition. (If I'd been reading instead of listening, I'd have probably skimmed over some of the descriptions during that section.)

Throughout the story, the interaction of people who were devout Muslims, Jews and Christians and their impact on the Haggadah was remarkable. The book's history, from its creation in Muslim-ruled Spain (with the inclusion of Christian-style illuminations and Jewish prayers) to its rescue during the 20th Century by a Muslim curator, shows how appropriate the Haggadah is in its eventual home in the museum in a display showing the interplay among these faiths.

Bottom Line: Geraldine did a fantastic job mixing historical facts and restoration details with compelling stories of both modern and historical people who interacted with the Haggadah over the centuries. I'm off to look for her Pulitzer prize-winning March!

Author's Website: Geraldine Brooks

Pictures of the Haggadah: Sarajevo Haggadah

Other Reviews of this Book:

• At Home With Books
• Linus's Blanket
• She is Too Fond of Books

Wordless Wednesday - Rodeo

Click to see my TexasRed Quilts Wordless Wednesday and click here for Wordless Wednesday Headquarters.

Teaser Tuesday - Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang

Teaser Tuesdays are hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

It asks us to:

(1) Grab our current reads.

(2) Let the book fall open to a random page.

(3) Share two (or three) teaser sentences from that page somewhere between lines 7 and 12 (avoiding spoilers).

We're also supposed to share the book title and author so others can find the book themselves.

Here's my teaser for today:

"You're all insane," I said, looking around for help. Kristoff shuddered in my arms, his knees pulling up as he fought an almost overwhelming wave of purest agony.

"Please." He gasped. "I can't stand your being here much longer."

"Well, life is full of trials," I snapped at him, too overwhelmed with anger and pain at his insult to temper my words.

This is from Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang by Katie MacAlister. The main character, Pia, was married to vampire Kristoff in a prior book of the series, but they haven't seen each other for months. When she's brought before the vampire council at the beginning of the book, she finds that there's been more going on than she realized.

Bloggiesta! Wrap-Up

Friday I posted about the Bloggiesta project hosted by Natasha at Maw Books and with mini-challenges hosted by a dozen other book bloggers.

I thought this was a great idea. I've been so impressed from the beginning with the camaraderie and helpfulness of the book blogging community and having a special project aimed at helping us all improve our presentation and preparedness is just one fabulous example of that.

Timing for me this weekend was tough -- my parents arrived for a Father's Day visit about 8 hours after Bloggiesta started and stayed until this morning. (We had a great visit, but that's a story for another post.) Still, even with a few hours to focus on blog improvement, I'm happy with what I accomplished -- which was basically getting my awards and my received books in a format on the page that I was happy with and can update going forward.

I have been thwarted by Technocrati, which keeps giving me error messages that their monster is out. It let me create a profile and "claim" my quilting blog, but not this one. Go figure. We'll see if their support people can help me out. I did not get any additional posts written, but knew that goal would need to wait until this week before I'd have an empty house and time to focus.

The biggest benefit to me, though, is having the community sharing information. Even though the project is officially over, I'm headed to the Twitter hashtag page now to check out everyone else's ideas and improvement projects and find some new blogs to read!

Big thanks, again, to Natasha and all the hosts of the mini-challenges!

Bloggiesta! Blog Improvement Project

Natasha, over at Maw Books has created the Bloggiesta! party, led by the mascot Pedro in the logo picture.

For this online party PEDRO stands for Plan, Edit, Develop, Review and Organize.

Party participants are using Natasha's Blogging Tips group and Twitter hashtags to discuss blog improvement goals and activities.

Check out Natasha's post to see the dozen or so Mini-Challenges that are being hosted as part of Bloggiesta! Most of these challenges are being hosted and talked about by book bloggers, but goals such as creating a bank of future opinion posts, avatars for comment use, and other tools are not specific to any type of blog. Go check them out!

Natasha even has prizes and sponsors for this party, which will continue until Sunday June 21 at 8am (check out the details here)!

Here at TexasRed Books, I have several blog improvement goals at the begging of this challenge:

• Finish reviews of the half-dozen books I have sitting by my desk;
• Create a better tracking system for the books I've reviewed and received;
• Update my awards display; -- DONE
  
• Get the Technocrati thing sorted out; -- IN PROCESS
  
• Create some future posts: and
• Check out the suggestions other bloggers have for improvement.
  

Do you have improvement goals for your space?

Recently Received Goodies

Here are the fantastic books that I've received in the mail recently.

Circle of Friends -- Book III by L. Diane Wolfe

Summary from the book cover: "The future appears bright for James Sheppard. Emerging from a troubled childhood, he is blessed with talent and a good work ethic. Excelling in his classes and at the campus newspaper, James' goal of editor appears within his grasp. However, years of abuse and loneliness have dampened his spirit. By the time Maria enters his world, James is nearing the breaking point. Her innocent love slowly fills the void in his life, boosting his confidence and giving him hope. When a crisis abruptly forces him into adulthood, James is saddled with more responsibility than expected. Struggling to cope with the situation, the past returns to haunt him. Will James find peace before the mistakes of his father destroy him completely?"

Secret of the Sands by Rai Aren & Tavius E.

Summary from the cover: "An ancient prophecy, thousands of years old, told of the coming of the Chosen one, but she will be both loved and feared, and some will stop at nothing to defy everything she represents. A secret power that once proved too deadly, was hidden away deep beneath the sands of Egypt, only to be revealed by its sworn guardians when the time came the knowledge would be safe. Two young archaeologists fatefully unearth unusual artifacts dating over 12,000 years old. The exhilarating find however, is wrong -- very wrong. The artifacts should be there... they shouldn't even exist at all. Now after remaining dormant for 12,000 years, the secret has been uncovered, and its true purpose suspected. What will be the greatest discovery in human history will either change us forevfer or destroy us for trying..."

Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife by Nava Atlas Sample tongue-in-cheek "recipes" include:

• Beans 'N' Weenies of Sexual Tension
• Midlife Stress-Stuffed Cabbage
• Control-Freak Cookies
• Souffle of Fallen Expectations
• A Fairly Satisfactory Family Stew
  

Reviews will be upcoming!

Wind Turbines and West Texas

Take a look at this France24 clip about the wind turbines in West Texas:

This was pointed out to me on Twitter by @WestTX -- a Twitter feed all about our area of the country!

Here's my picture of the turbines out by us (from the air).

Wordless Wednesday - Texas-Sized Weeds

For my quilt-y Wordless Wednesday, click here. For other Wordless Wednesdays, check these out.

Teaser Tuesday - Death's Daughter by Amber Benson

Teaser Tuesdays are hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

It asks us to:

(1) Grab our current reads.

(2) Let the book fall open to a random page.

(3) Share two (or three) teaser sentences from that page somewhere between lines 7 and 12 (avoiding spoilers).

We're also supposed to share the book title and author so others can find the book themselves.

Here's my teaser for today:

I hadn't really given much thought to the kidnapping until now because I'd been so intent on completing the tasks, but with Jarvis in custody, I was going to have to get on a stick and play detective. Otherwise, the jerk from the Psychical Bureau of Investigations was going to totally screw my whole life up.

This is from Death's Daughter by Amber Benson. Calliope Reaper-Jones is contacted by her family after several years of silence because her father and sister have been kidnapped. Now it's up to her to fulfill several challenges and set everything right again.

Monday Q & A Meme

DeSeRt RoSe from DeSeRt RoSe BoOkLoGuE tagged me with this meme.

Here are the rules:

* respond and re-work;
* answer questions on your blog
* replace one question
* tag others

(1) What is your current obsession?
I'm getting ready to re-do one of our bathrooms. Just decided at the end of last week to do this, so my head is swirling with paint color ideas, hardware changes, etc.

(2) Which item of clothing do you wear most?
Blue jeans, although with the 100+F temperatures we've been having, I've been switching to more floaty long skirts. Much better air circulation!

(3) What's for dinner?
Need to make a run to the hardware store in the next town, so I'll probably get a dinner out as part of the whole trip!

(4) Last item you bought?
Paint rollers and cauk for the bathroom. (I wasn't kidding about the obsession, huh? Just trying to remind myself that I CANNOT start this project before my parents get here this weekend. Well, I can cauk, but not paint... or maybe I can try some of the sample paint, but not make a mess... you see the dilema!)

(5) What are you listening to?
Fight Like a Girl by Bomshel (country)

(6) What is your faborite reading spot?
Walking around the house tidying up -- makes it go much faster -- although sometimes I can't remember where I've put things.

(7) What are your favorite guilty pleasures?
Bright-colored toenail polish. Books with a guaranteed happy ending.

(8) What have you been procrastinating lately?
I need to get the spare room ready for my parents' visit. Clean sheets have been waiting by the bed for a month or so. I did take steps today by getting the comic books cleaned up off the bed and organized.

(9) What's your favorite film?
No good answer for this one because I love too many films, although High Fidelity is my favorite currently waiting in the DVR for me.

(10) What are you reading right now?
Death's Daughter by Amber Benson and The Turkish Gambit by Boris Akunin.

(11) What fictional character has made the most lasting impression on you?
Meg from A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L'Engle.

(12) What is the funniest thing you've ever seen?
Lately, I've been most amused watching the prairie dog. He's getting a little braver now and will play-attack our hands as if we were prairie dogs, too.

(13) What is your lucky talisman?
A charm bracelet my husband gave me.

(14) Who is your hero/heroine?
My mother.

(15) Words of wisdom?

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." ~ Plato

"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally betting bewildered as to which may be the true." ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

(16) What four words would you use to describe yourself?
Silly, shy, dedicated, creative

Consider yourself "tagged" if you want to play along and link back to me.

Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center

I read The Bloggess pretty regularly and was surprised when she took part in an unusual book promotion. She is friends with Katherine, who painted the words of the last paragraph of her new book, Everyone is Beautiful, on The Bloggess to make the words come to life. What an impact!

Pictures were by their friend Chookooloonks. Now I want to check out this book!

Green Lantern -- The Movie

My brother knows my addictions too well. He fed me this trailer to a Green Lantern movie:

Then pointed out that it's a fan compilation, not a real Green Lantern movie trailer. So disappointed!

jaronpitts, the creator of the trailer, says on YouTube:

This is my vision for a Green Lantern movie with Nathan Fillion as Hal Jordan. He won't be Hal for real, but all the more reason for a fan trailer! For the record, I did this purely for fun, with NO intention of "fooling" anyone or covering the fact that I used clips from other movies. The whole point of it for me was to imagine what it would be like to see a great Green Lantern movie.

He then explains the movies, computer programs, music, etc. that he used to create the clip. He ends with this statement:

This is an independent, non-profit, artistic expression created purely for fun and is in no way connected to, or endorsed by Warner Bros. or DC Comics.

Definitely impressed with the trailer and I'd love to see this movie in the theaters! According to IMDB (the Internet Movie DataBase), there is a Green Lantern movie in the works, with pre-production scheduled to begin next month for a 2011 release.

Wordless Wednesday - Skunk!

My other Wordless Wednesday is here and the WW headquarters is here.

Teaser Tuesday - The Turkish Gambit by Boris Akunin

Teaser Tuesdays are hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

It asks us to:

(1) Grab our current reads.

(2) Let the book fall open to a random page.

(3) Share two (or three) teaser sentences from that page somewhere between lines 7 and 12 (avoiding spoilers).

We're also supposed to share the book title and author so others can find the book themselves.

Here's my teaser for today:

In the end, a thousand rubles were bet on the Irishman, and the Frenchman was left without any backers. Varya felt sorry for poor Paladin, but neither she nor Petya had any money. Shen went across to Fandorin, who was still leafing through his page of Turkish squiggles, and whispered angrily: "Why don't you do something?"

This is from The Turkish Gambit by Boris Akunin. It is the second of the Fandorin Mysteries, which tell the stories of Russian dectective Erast Fandorin. It is a sequel to The Winter Queen, but only to the extent that the first book gave us the background on Erast. The Turkish Gambit starts off following Varya Suvorova on her cross-country train and stagecoach trip from Russia into Turkish territory in 1877, during the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, to visit her fiance at the army headquarters.

Award Roundup

I have had such great awards & have been a slacker at getting them posted and passed on. I'm so sorry. Here's the new batch!

Friendly Blogger Award: Caspette, from The Narrative Casualty, gave me this fantastic award as one of the main commenters on her page. I so appreciate Caspette's comments and encouragement. Thank you!

Here are the other friendly bloggers I'm passing this award on to:

• Michele at A Reader's Respite
• Storyheart at Across the Pond
• Katy at Alpaca Farm Girl
• DeSeRt RoSe at DeSeRt RoSe BoOkLoGuE
• Kate at Kate's Quilting and other Fiber Arts
• Daryl at on the m104
• Rachel at p.s. i quilt
• Janie at Sounding Forth
• Lily at Reading Extravaganza
• James at The Sky's The Limit

The Lemonade Award: Lily, from Reading Extravaganza, gave me the Lemonade Award. Here are the rules for this award.

1) Put the Lemonade Award logo on your blog or post.

2) Nominate blogs that show great attitude or gratitude.

3) Link to your nominees within your post.

4) Let the nominees know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5) Share the love and link to the person from whom you received your award.

I'm passing this award along to:

• Jill at Jill Jill Bo Bill
• Mrs. Flinger
• Amanda at Music and Baseball
• The Gypsy Mama at My Fabulous Baker Boys
• Kat at Sassy Irish Lassie
• Melonie at Wandering Quail Road

Literary Blogger Award: DeSeRt RoSe passed on this beautiful award to me.

The Literary Blogger Award acknowledges bloggers who energize & inspire reading by going the extra mile. These amazing bloggers make reading fun & enhance the delight of reading!


The Rules:

1) Put the logo on your blog/post.
2) Nominate up to 9 blogs.
3) Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4) Let them know that they have been nominated by commenting on their blog.
5) Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award.

• Alaine at Queen of Happy Endings
• Chris at book-a-rama
• Smash at Great Books and Fresh Coffee
• Trish at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin?
• Jo-Jo at Jo-Jo Loves to Read
• Natasha at Maw Books Blog
• Amy at My Friend Amy
• Eaton at Passionate Fiction
• S. Krishna at S. Krishna's Books
• Caspette at The Narrative Casualty

Thank you again, and congratulations, everyone.

Dies the Fire by S. M. Stirling

I was introduced to S. M. Stirling by Smash of Great Books and Fresh Coffee -- or more accurately, my husband was introduced to S. M. Stirling by Smash's husband while Smash and I were having our meet-up in Dallas and I was loading up on other books.

That meant I had to wait to read Dies the Fire until my husband finished it -- and then until my father-in-law finished it (b/c my husband loved it enough that he had to pass it on).


Plot Summary: The book takes place in the American Northwest -- Oregon, Washington, Idaho. Everything is business as usual until March 17, 1998, when a bright flash signals a world-wide event. No one knows what caused it, but suddenly electronics and combustion engines have stopped working. That means no cars, no lights, no guns.

We follow two groups of people as they try to deal with The Change:

The first is a former marine-turned-tourguide, Mike Havel, who is taking millionaire Ken Larsson and his family from Idaho toward the Montana wilderness so that they can vacation on a ranch. The family is made up of Ken, his wife, twin 18-year-olds Eric and Signe, and 14-year-old Astrid. They are in the plane when The Change hits -- not a good place to be. Fortunately, it's a small bush-plane that has more glide to it than a huge aircraft. Mike's able to land the plane on some water and get the family -- even the cat -- out safely. From his military past, Mike figures the plane was knocked out by an EMP, but that doesn't explain why the rifle doesn't work. Fortunately, Astrid is a Lord of the Rings fan & has brought her archery equipment.

The second group is a group of friends who were gathered at the Hopping Toad Tavern in Corvallis, Oregon (a small city near Portland) for an evening of music and fun. Juniper Mackinzie was scheduled to play guitar for the pub that evening and several of her family and friends were there -- although her husband was on a plane headed out of town. Juniper and her friends help out when the power goes out in town, including helping with victims of a huge planecrash in downtown Corvallis. After doing what they can to help out, Juniper and her friends, many of whom are part of her Wiccan community, decide they need to get out of town until things get back to normal. Juniper has a family farm a few hours drive out of the city, but now the group needs to take the horse and cart they've used for Renaissance Festivals to get there. They still figure it will be a better option than staying in the city where fresh water and food will get scarce quickly.

We don't get any answers as to what caused The Change, although the characters speculate about it. What we do get is a description of how people survive when technology steps back 200 years in an instant. This is the first book in the Emberverse series, which also includes The Protector's War, A Meeting at Corvallis (the other two books in the original trilogy), The Sunrise Lands, The Scourge of God, The Sword of the Lady, and The High King of Montival (due out in 2010).


My Reaction: It surprised me how quickly civilization in this book evaporated after The Change, although (as my husband pointed out), it wasn't any quicker than things went to hell in a handbasket after Hurricane Katrina or other natural disasters. It also took a little suspension of disbelief to accept that these groups either had or ran across people with the perfect skills needed to survive the change (archery, sword and armor making, fencing instructor, veterinarian/doctor, etc.) The groups did run across plenty of others who did not have such skills -- usually dead on the side of the road -- so I guess part of it was that there was no point following the development of a group unless it acquired the skills it needed to survive.

To me this is part of the best tradition of science fiction because it asks "what if" we took our regular society but with one specific change. It made me think about all the technology we take for granted here -- not just the ability to communicate over long distances via the internet and phones. Specifically, it tied into some of the other books I've been reading talking about our food supply and how industrialized and dependent on national supply lines we've become. Definitely an incentive to keep working on our garden!

It was also interesting to think about the loss of skills that are no longer relevant to society and how some, like the songs and skills practiced for Renaissance Festivals, are being preserved in part as part of our leisure time activities. At least if the world collapses, I'll have my hand quilting, right? And my husband? He's working on this:


Bottom Line: No way I'm letting my father-in-law get to the sequel before I do.

Red-Headed Stepchild by Jaye Wells

I started hearing about this book from other book bloggers (see some of the links below). I couldn't resist the redhead connection -- especially from a Texas author! I finished this book last week during my travels (airports are so good for chipping away at the To Be Read list).


Plot Summary: The main character, Sabina Kane, lives in a world where humans exist alongside non-humans. The main players in the non-human world are the vampires and mages (although there are a smattering of demons, nymphs, and others floating about).

To create the origins of this world, Jaye says she drew from Christian and Jewish stories. Both the vampire and mage races are descended from Lilith, according to folklore, the first wife of Adam before Eve was created. Some legends also say that the "mark of Cain" referenced in early Jewish and Christian writing was red hair. In Sabina Kane's world, this plays out with all vampires (descendants of Lilith and Cain) having some version of red hair -- strawberry blonde for young vamps, getting darker and brighter as they age.

Sabina' hair is both black and red, evidence that she is the daughter of a vampire and mage. She's been raised by the vampires as an assassin to serve their aristocracy, headed by her grandmother. Although she is part of this royal lineage of vampires, Sabina will always be under suspicion because of her mixed heritage.

This suspicion of divided loyalty makes her a perfect agent for her grandmother to send undercover to investigate and kill a man preaching peace among the non-human races. The more Sabina pretends to rebel against the vampire culture, though, the more she learns about the other side of her family -- and a new perspective about the people who raised her.


My Reaction: It took me a little while to warm up to Sabina. Her standing as an assassin and unquestioning servant of the vampires is established in the first chapter when she kills one of her friends on orders from her grandmother. I've gotten so used to characters who question authority that it took a few chapters to adjust to one who had bought into a system that was so authoriarian and so clearly not in her best interest. It did give Jaye a good chance to explain some of the vampire power structure and history through Sabina's eyes. Fortunately, it didn't take too long before Sabina started to question her upbringing, too.

I liked the other characters in this world, too. We see the handsome mage / potential love interest early in the book, as he's watching Sabina at a vampire bar after the chapter 1 assination. I'm always a fan of dark, smoldering strangers, but I especially liked the questions Sabina started asking about her mage prejudices after meeting him.

The only character I wasn't fond of was Giguhl, a demon that was sent to try to kill Sabina, but who ends up hanging around. I was concerned that he would end up being like the demon dog Jim in some of Katie MacAlister's books, and was very glad Jaye ended up going in a different direction with Gighul.


Bottom Line: Sign me up for Mage in Black, the sequel coming out in 2010

Other Reviews:

• Everything Distills into Reading
• Bitten by Books
• SciFiGuy
  

You can find Jaye at: http://jayewells.com/ and on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jayewells

Wordless Wednesday - Garden Time

Haven't killed it all yet!

Squash

Lettuce
Broccoli

For my other Wordless Wednesday, click here. For the WW headquarters, click here.

Teaser Tuesday - The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

Teaser Tuesdays are hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

It asks us to:

(1) Grab our current reads.

(2) Let the book fall open to a random page.

(3) Share two (or three) teaser sentences from that page somewhere between lines 7 and 12 (avoiding spoilers).

We're also supposed to share the book title and author so others can find the book themselves.

Here's my teaser for today:

Hermes raised his cattle prod. He began to grow until he was ten feet tall. I thought, Well, that's it.

This is from The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan. We started reading this series over the winter because my husband picked up the first book in the series -- The Lightning Thief. That was quickly followed by a plea that I find another book store and get books 2 , 3 and 4.

The fifth book in the series has the same protagonist, Percy Jackson, who has become even more caught up in the battle between the Olympians and Titans. Still loving the Greek mythological characters re-set in modern America. Looking to see how this turns out (and if the "Disney" logos mean we have a movie version coming).