Book Giveaway of CINDER by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cinder : Book I of the Lunar Chronicles (Audio CD, Unabridged) by Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Macmillan Young Listeners; January 3, 2012
Reading level: for teens and up

I gave 5 stars to this book in my review: "I wasn't sure about this reworking of the Cinderella fairy tale, but I was hooked by the cover and by the opening sentences. I wanted to know more about this futuristic version, a Cyborg Cinderella...." more...

Macmillan is offering readers a giveaway of the audio unabridged CD of Cinder, Book I in the Lunar Chronicles Series. Macmillan has also provided an audio sample of the book, so you can start listening to this audio clip .

GIVEAWAY: For a chance to win the audio of Cinder, Book I in the Lunar Chronicles Series, by Jan. 3, leave a comment with an email address. Macmillan's giveaway is limited to U.S. residents. No P.O. box addresses, please. (I will contact the winner by email on Jan. 4 and ask for an answer within 2 days, after which another winner will be chosen.) Do enter, and good luck!

UPDATE: Congrats to stacibuckeye for winning the Audio CD.

Found Books: The Opium War

Title: The Opium War by Julia Lovell
Hardcover: 352 pages; Kindle 
Publisher: Picador; First Edition edition (2011)

The full title is The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of China and I found it while browsing on the web. The impact of the early 19th Century war when China was forced to open trade to the west and import opium into the country is examined by the author to determine its effect on the China of today. I'd love to get my hands on this book; it seems the book may be critical of the present Chinese government for being too skeptical of Western countries today!

The Opium War reminded of another new book, an historical novel that also covers the Opium War, Amitav Ghosh's River of Smoke,  the title probably referring to the smoke from the smoking of opium.

Title: River of Smoke: A Novel by Amitav Ghosh
Hardcover: 528 pages; audio and Kindle  
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (September 27, 2011)

Publisher's book description: "The Ibis, loaded to its gunwales with a cargo of indentured servants, is in the grip of a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal; among the dozens flailing for survival are Neel, the pampered rajah who has been convicted of embezzlement; Paulette, the French orphan masquerading as a deck-hand; and Deeti, the widowed poppy grower fleeing her homeland with her lover, Kalua.

The storm also threatens the clipper ship Anahita, groaning with the largest consignment of opium ever to leave India for Canton. And the Redruth, a nursery ship, carries Frederick “Fitcher” Penrose, a horticulturist determined to track down the priceless treasures of China that are hidden in plain sight: its plants that have the power to heal, or beautify, or intoxicate. All will converge in Canton’s Fanqui-town, or Foreign Enclave: a tumultuous world unto itself where civilizations clash and sometimes fuse. It is a powder keg awaiting a spark to ignite the Opium Wars.

Spectacular coincidences, startling reversals of fortune, and tender love stories abound. But this is much more than an irresistible page-turner. The blind quest for money, the primacy of the drug trade, the concealment of base impulses behind the rhetoric of freedom: in River of Smoke the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries converge, and the result is a consuming historical novel with powerful contemporary resonance."

We listened to River of Smoke, the second in the Ibis Trilogy, on a long trip to Canada, but had to return it to the library before finishing it. Unfortunately, we may have to wait on another trip to hear the other half of the audio! The weaving of personal stories with history is compelling, though, and a major plus in this trilogy.

Book Review: Cinder (Lunar Chronicles, Book 1) by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cinder (Book One in the Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer
Reading level: Ages 12 and up
Hardcover: 400 pages; Feiwel & Friends
Release date: January 3, 2012
Objective rating: 5/5

I wasn't sure about this reworking of the Cinderella fairy tale, but I was hooked by the cover and by the opening sentences. I wanted to know more about this futuristic version, a Cyborg Cinderella.

"The screw through Cinder's ankle had rusted, the engraved cross marks worn to a mangled circle. Her knuckles ached from forcing the screwdriver into the joint as she struggled to loosen the screw one gritting twist after another. By the time it was extracted far enough for her to wrench free with her prosthetic steel hand, the hairline threads had been stripped clean." (from an uncorrected proof. Final copy may differ).

Cinder is virtually enslaved to her wicked stepmother, selling cyborg parts and repairing robots in the open market to make money for the household. Things begin to change for her when the Prince comes to her market stall wanting someone to fix his antiquated android. She catches his eye but Cinder is determined to hide her steel hand and foot from him, fearing rejection. Cinder, however, is only 35% cyborg, fixed and renewed with mechanical parts as a very young child after surviving a house fire that killed her real mother. She knows little about her parents or her past, just that her stepfather, now deceased, had been responsible for saving her, mending her, and bringing her home to his family.

The Prince in the meantime befriends Cinder, his "mechanic", hoping she will help him avoid the beautiful but dreaded Lunar Queen, queen of the moon people, who is determined to forge an alliance with Earth through marriage to the Prince. The real conflict and danger for Cinder is not her stepmother, as in the original fairy tale, but this queen who uses magic and "glamour" to control and manipulate everyone who sees her.

Comments: The well-written and entertaining book shows how Cinder escapes dangers after finding out her true identity. I was totally entranced with this futuristic version of the Cinderella story, and I am way past being a teenager or young adult, the targeted audience. I recommend it for its highly imaginative plot, which made it very enjoyable reading.

GIVEAWAY of the Audio CD: enter now through Jan. 3, 2012 at this link: Enter to win the Audio CD of Cinder.

 A complimentary ARE of this book was sent me for possible review

© Harvee Lau  of Book Dilettante. Please do not reprint without permission.

Sunday Salon: Music from Around the World

Welcome to the Sunday Salon. Click on the logo to join in.

I've discovered a way to listen to radio from across the globe, using my trusty computer and the web of course. I am listening to really good jazz right now, from a Japanese radio station, which is remarkably clear, all the way from Tokyo. I also good good signals from a Bogota radio station in Columbia, which plays lively Spanish love songs. Signals from India, Africa, andChina were not too good on some stations or not available in some of the cities I tried. The ones that came through were talk radio in languages I don't understand though I was looking primarily for music.

In any case I recommend Musashino FM 78.2 from Tokyo for good jazz plus Brazilian jazz, and Besame in Bogota, Colombia for Spanish songs
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On the reading front, I've fast forwarded through a couple of cozies and a sci-fi thriller, read a mystery novel and a sci-fi fantasy, and am now starting a new novel by Douglas Kennedy, The Moment.

I've sent out all my holiday cards, including eCards. How about you?

Book Review - Me Again: A Novel by Keith Cronin

Title: Me Again: A Novel by Keith Cronin
Hardcover: 322 pages
Publisher: Five Star (August 17, 2011)
Rating: 4/5

"But it's different for you than for me," she said. "I know I've changed, but it was my personality that changed - my feelings. But I didn't lose my memory. For you, it's the opposite, You did lose your memory, but you didn't change as a person"

"I kind of hope I did," I said. (ch. 12)

This novel is both a love story and a story of survival, about two people who suffer life-threatening strokes that change their personalities and their lives. Jonathan and Rebecca meet during their hospital stay, at physical therapy sessions, and become friends who support each other's attempts to recover and share what they remember of their past lives.

Jonathan remembers almost nothing about his former life after awakening from a six-year long coma. He has trouble understanding numbers although he used to be a successful accountant. Rebecca has not lost her memory, but her personality has drastically changed, and she is no longer the person her husband remembers or wants.

How these two move toward each other on their way to recovery is the story of Me Again. There is some mystery involved as Jonathan is visited in the hospital by a former co-worker who  demands money he says they embezzled from their accounting clients. Jonathan also hides from his mother the fact that he does not remember her or his father, and tries to find out more about his past, including his brother Teddy and his ex-girlfriend Victoria. And he has to solve the problem of the missing money he supposedly embezzled.

Comments: This book reminds me of at least one other book on memory loss that I've read and liked - What Alice Forgot.  Both stories involved drastic personality changes, for the better, I might add. Me Again is a story of hope and determination, of loss and renewal - an inspiring book that is also a love story.

Visit the author, Keith Cronin at http://www.keithcronin.com/
I won this book through a contest held by Staci at Life in the Thumb.

Book Review: Teed Up for Love by Barbara Weitz

Title: Teed Up for Love by Barbara Weitz
Paperback and e-Book 
Publisher: Champagne Rose (April 28, 2011)

"A man who thought me a thief then turns around and sears my lips with unbearable passion. Top it off with learning Dad and Laine were teenaged lovers, and I had to admit, a recipe for disaster was brewing." (ch. 13)

Book description:
A WORKING GIRL JUST HAS TO BLOW HER LID... Using her quick wit and take-charge attitude, Miranda Stiltgaard lands a marketing job for Stuart Golf Enterprises in Chicago determined to prove a well-educated girl raised in a small Alaskan town can succeed in a big city.

WHEN ACCUSED OF A CRIME SHE DIDN'T DO... Embezzlement of company funds sends aloof London bachelor, Keegan Stuart, roaring into Chicago to ferret out a thief and protect the family business.

THEN RISKS HEARTBREAK TO BOOT... Miranda hates that this unreadable Brit sees her as a backwoods frontierswoman dragging bear home for dinner. Or that she's capable of a crime. But if it's a fight he wants, she'll show him how it's done. Never does Keegan expect a woman of fortitude to rock his resolve and steal his heart...a heart he doesn't intend to lose.

Comments: This is a romance coupled with a mystery, not a murder mystery, but a crime of embezzlement that cries to be solved. Miranda is at first accused, the suspicions are later dropped, but the problem remains to be resolved. The novel takes us to different world cities and places in England and the United States, thus enhancing its international appeal.

About the author: Barbara Weitz lives in a suburb of Chicago. Visit her at www.barbaraweitz.com.
Visit Pump Up Your Book virtual book tours for more Blog tour stops and reviews.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel for the Pump Up Your Book virtual book tour.
© Harvee Lau 2011

Book Review: So Far Away: A Daughter's Memoir of Life, Loss, and Love by Christine W. Hartmann

Title: So Far Away: A Daughter's Memoir of Life, Loss, and Love
Author: Christine W. Hartmann
Vanderbilt University Press (2011), Paperback, 224 pages

Comments: I was totally amazed by this author's situation - having a physically healthy mother who made a conscious decision to end her life at age 70, coupled with a father who became disabled after several strokes and had to be cared for in a nursing home. The father's situation seemed not out of the ordinary - many people are faced with the care of an elderly parent who becomes seriously ill and who may even develop dementia. The mother however, seemed to be out of the ordinary although the author seemed to feel she was healthy psychologically, just with a determination to end her life and to have a say in how and when she would die.

I had to admire the author for coming through this situation and deciding that her mother's action showed her self-absorption, while her father cared more about communicating with her, his child. I would have liked to see what other medical personnel thought about her mother, as it's hard to see her mother's decision as a normal reaction to life and death.

The book was well written and described the family situation very well. It left me, however, with quite a few more questions.

About the author: Christine W. Hartmann is a research health scientist at ENR Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford, Mass. and assistant professor in the School of Public Health at Boston University. She has published articles on health care quality improvement, focusing on long-term care.
I received a complimentary review copy of this book for the tour by TLC Book Tours.

For other stops on the tour, visit TLC Book Tour reviews.

© Harvee Lau 2011