Enlightenment for Idiots; A Novel, Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to choose two sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

"Lie down on your backs and close your eyes," I instructed my students, as I walked among them handing out silky eyebags stuffed with flaxseeds. "Let the weight of your body surrender into the embrace of gravity."  (yoga class, p. 20)

from Enlightenment for Idiots: A Novel by Anne Cushman

Goodreads book description: "Nearing age thirty, Amanda thought she’d be someone else by now. Instead, she’s just herself: an ex-nanny yogini-wannabe who cranks out “For Idiots” travel guides just to scrape by. Yes, she has her sexy photographer boyfriend, but he’s usually gone—shooting a dogsled race in Alaska or a vision quest in Peru—or just hooking up with other girls. However, she’s sure her new assignment, “Enlightenment for Idiots,” will change everything; now she’ll become the serene, centered woman she was meant to be. After some breakup sex, she’s off to India to find a new, more spiritual life.

What she finds, though, is an ashram run by investment bankers, a yoga master who trashes her knee, and a guru with a weakness for fashion models. She escapes a tantra party at the Taj Hotel, has a nasty argument outside the cave where the Buddha used to meditate, then agonizes through the ten-day silent retreat that’s supposed to make her feel better.

No, India is not what she had pictured. But she finds a friend in Devi Das, a redheaded sadhu who refers to himself as “we.” And when a holy lunatic on the street offers her an enigmatic blessing, Amanda realizes a new life may be in store for her—just not the one she was expecting." (Goodreads)

2011 Books Read, a List

Keeping track of all the books I've read this year. At least, that's the plan.

So far: (*books reviewed)

1. Random Acts of Senseless Kindness, a novelette by Graham Parke, eBook
2. Crashed (The Junior Bender Series) by Timothy Hallinan, eBook
3. Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes by Robert Louis Stevenson, eBook
4. 9 Gold Bullets (Vincent Calvino Crime Novel)by Christopher G. Moore, eBook
5. The Lotus Eaters: A Novel by Tatjana Soli*
6. To Be the Poet (The William E. Massey, Sr. Lectures in the History of American Civilization) by Maxine Hong Kingston
7. Enlightenment for Idiots: A Novel by Anne Cushman*
8. Delirious by Daniel Palmer*
9. A Heartbeat Away by Michael Palmer*
10. Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris*
11. The Sari Shop Widow by Shoban Bantwal*
12. Sometimes I Feel Like a Nut: Essays and Observations by Jill Kargman
13. Murder in Passy: An Aimee Leduc Investigation Set in Paris by Cara Black
14. Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan*
15. Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth by Lisa Napoli*
16.  Beaglemania (A Pet Rescue Mystery) by Linda O. Johnston*
17. Dead Light District by Jill Edmondson*
18. I Love a Broad Margin to My Life by Maxine Hong Kingston
19. Red Jade: A Detective Jack Yu Investigation by Henry Chang*
20. A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley*
21.Threads West: An American Saga by Reid Lance Rosenthal*
22. Call Me Irresistible: A Novel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
23. Cat Sitter Among the Pigeons: A Dixie Hemingway Mystery (Dixie Hemingway Mysteries) by Blaize Clement*
23. Zero Day: A Novel by Mark Russinovich*
24. Fashion Unraveled: How To Start, Run And Manage An Independent Fashion Label by Jennifer Lynne Matthews*
25. Shift; 13 Exercises to Make You Who You Want to Be by Takumi Yamazaki*
26. 



 
There will be another list for book reviews!

Reading Challenge: Mystery & Suspense 2011

Reading 12 mystery or suspense novels for 2011 shouldn't be too hard as I read over 50 each year. Sign up for the challenge HERE.

My reads this year:

1. Crashed (The Junior Bender Series) by Timothy Hallinan, a new eBook.
2. 9 Gold Bullets (Vincent Calvino Crime Novel) by Christopher G. Moore, eBook.
3. Delirious by Daniel Palmer
4. A Heartbeat Away by Michael Palmer
5. Dead Light District by Jill Edmondson
6. Red Jade by Henry Chang
7. A Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradley
8. Cat Sitter among the Pigeons by Blaize Clement
9. The Thieves of Darkness by Richard Doetsch
10.Beaglemania by Linda O. Johnston
11.Murder in Passy by Cara Black
12. Death of a Chimney Sweep by M.C. Beaton
13. The Headhunter's Daughter by Tamar Myers
14. Scones and Bones by Laura Childs
12.The Beloved Dead by Tony Hays
13. The Shepherd by Ethan Cross

Thanks to Book Chick City for another year of this challenge.

Books: Travels with a Pet and Other Animals

Besides downloading more than 250 books so far from Kindle, most of them classics for free, I've bought and am reading a few that cost $2.99 or less and one just downloaded for $7.95.  Keeping costs down, but then two days ago I spent over $30 in the bookstore!

I'm now re-reading and enjoying Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes by Robert Louis Stevenson, in which the author roams through mountains in France with his pack animal, a little donkey he names Modestine.

 Another travel book that I've read a couple of times is Travels with Charley in Search of America: (Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck, who motored across America in the 1960 with his dog, a standard poodle named Charley.

Wish I knew more books about traveling with a pet or animal. Do you know of any?

Teaser Tuesday: Threads West by Reid Lance Rosenthal

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to choose two sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

"That's it? asked Johannes. "We're going on a five-month-long journey, to an area that I hear is like the Alps, in a country where half the citizens dislike the other half, filled with hostile Indians based on one man's assessment? How do you know what you're going to find when you get there?" (p. 173)

Threads West: An American Saga, Book One
Author: Reid Lance Rosenthal
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Rockin SR Publishing (October 12, 2010)
Genre: Historical fiction, western
Source: publicist, the Cadence Group

Product description: The romance of America, her people, her spirit, and the West. The ongoing story of us. This first book and namesake of the six-novel series is being compared by reviewers and authors to Lonesome Dove and Centennial. The tale bursts with the adventure, romance and promise of historical America and the West. The epic saga of Threads West begins in 1855 with the first of four richly-textured, complex generations of unforgettable characters. The separate lives of these driven men and independent women are drawn to a common destiny that beckons seductively from the wild and remote flanks of the American West. They are swept into the dangerous currents of the far-distant frontier by the mysterious rivers of fate, the power of the land and the American spirit. Their turbulent journeys are heartbreaking quests intertwined with romance and adversity, passions and pathos, despair and triumph.

Comments: The author weaves many different characters and personalities, native and immigrant, into the story to give a full picture of what the West was like in the mid 19th century. Recommended for those interested in American history and stories of the opening up of the West.

Sticker Shock: Keeping Track of Books Bought in 2011

Memoirs

I hardly buy new books these days, preferring the library and used book sales! However, with my new Kindle, I bought several eBooks in 2010, though nothing more than $2.99 each, and I've downloaded over 200 free classics.

So far in 2011, I've made the following purchase(s):

1. A Haunting Smile (Land of Smiles Trilogy) by Christopher G. Moore, eBook, $2.99.
2. Good Poems by Garrison Keillor, $16.20.
3. Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems (Edición bilingüe), $15.30.
4. 9 Gold Bullets (Vincent Calvino Crime Novel) by Christopher G. Moore, eBook, $7.95.









UPDATE: I have just found there are free e-Book downloads at Many Books and at Project Gutenberg.

Thanks to Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea for the idea of keeping track of book buys/costs. I hope to shock myself by spending as little as possible! We'll see.....