Why I don't check my voicemail anymore...

Thanks to Ashton Kutcher on Twitter and Redux.

Book Review: Tatiana and Alexander

*Spoiler Alert for The Bronze Horseman*

Last week, I reviewed The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons. I shared with you how much I loved it. However, I didn't share with you that the ending was beYOND sad... it was so heart-breakingly, dramatically heart-rending that fifty pages before I finished reading it, I nearly put it down (with sobs, mind you) because I didn't know if I could withstand the ending (of this fiction novel... what can I say... I'm a sap...). But I finished it, cried a few more buckets and mourned the loss of the characters the way I always do when I finish a really engaging book.

So I went online to look for other books by Simons, and guess what I found out... The Bronze Horseman is only one book in a TRILOGY! There are two more books about Tatiana and Alexander to read!

Hooray!

I immediately purchased a used copy of the second book, Tatiana and Alexander. At $20 plus shipping, I felt this was a bit high... but it turns out this book is a little bit hard to find... not in libraries, etc. Perhaps it was published in the UK. The third book in the series, The Summer Garden, couldn't be had for less than $70 when I looked, but a friend was able to find a less expensive copy. I've already read the second book (in a record three days... haven't read this fast since I read Breaking Dawn...) and will be starting on the third this weekend. (Can't wait!)

Anyway, Tatiana and Alexander did not disappoint... me at least. This book weaves together the stories of the two main characters in two veins: their lives 1) before they met and 2) after they parted at the end of The Bronze Horseman. It is FILLED with war and gulags and post WWII New York and daring European rescue attempts, tempered with (steamy) memories of the characters' time together along with creation of a few more. I will not spoil for you how this one ends... you'll have to read it yourself.

For the Mixology 2010 Challenge, this book will count as as a book about another culture. So, one down... fourteen to go!

Some Days You Gotta Dance: Part II

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Same concept as last week's post, different song... I so would love to happen upon one of these! I love spontaneous dancing!

Some Days Are Just Much Too Much

Some days are just much too much.

Book Review: Ten Things About "The Bronze Horseman"

Ten Things About The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons

1. This is one long story. At 800 plus pages though, it kept me happily reading through a long snowy weekend and several nights after the snow was cleared away. Simply put, I could not stop reading this book... very inconvenient when read during the midst of a busy holiday season. (This book will not count toward my Mixology 2010 challenge because I read it in December.)
2. Taking place in the Soviet Union just as it enters World War II, there is no shortage of strife, famine, misery or destitution in this novel. Take heed: it is not for the faint at heart.
3. There is no shortage of, um, er, romance either. If you're looking for a story that will heat you up on these longs winters nights, well, I'll just leave it at that and let you read for yourself.
4. No hot love story is ever as sweet as an innocent love story.
5. I never realized before, but the USSR was a cruel, unusual, machine that took away every freedom that I enjoy as an American. The masses were pacified not with any small comfort or assurance that life would be better, but with liberal distribution of vodka. If people weren't paranoid, hungry, or lacking basic needs of privacy, it is only because they were too drunk to notice.
6. People will do strange things for the people they love.
7. Hope floats... a lot and for a long way.
8. I am lucky to be a citizen of the United States of America, and I am grateful to all of the public servants and warriors who have secured my place in its history.
9. I am always amazed to learn how crude life was for people all over Europe in the 1940s and 50s... not just in the USSR.
10. No matter what the cost, I always believe that honesty is the best policy.

Mixology Challenge

Last week, I told you about Babbette's Book Blog and about her Mixology 2010 Challenge. Well, in the spirit of participation, I've made my choices.

In 2010, it is my goal to read 15 books. I know, this is not a lofty challenge... but at least it's a goal.

The categories and numbers I would like to read are:

• classics - 2
• non-fiction - 3
• books about other cultures, fiction or non-fiction - 2
• book club choices (this is like a random field because we don't limit our selections to any certain category or genre) - 12

Now, I realize if I meet these goals, it will give me more than fifteen books. But I already know some of the ones I plan to read cross categories, so I'm going to stick with the plan.

In addition, I am adding my own component of the challenge which is to give you a short review of each of the books I've read. I've already read two this year (I was on a trip...) and I'll start getting those reviews together soon.

If you are taking the Mixology Challenge with me, post a comment and let me know!

Some Days You Gotta Dance

Some times you gotta dance... love how this gets bigger and bigger... then *poof* it's gone.

The Music in My Soul

Have you ever met a soul friend for the first time who you feel like you've known longer than forever?

Have you ever seen a cracked, sepia photo of a place in the grainy, distant past that seems uncannily familiar, as if you were there at that time, even though it is impossible for you to have been?

I am reading a book about the cast of characters who populated Paris around the turn of the 20th century and they made a reference to the music of Erik Satie. Being the good student that I am, I looked it up and found this song... as the pianist slowly and plaintively unfurled the song's lucid melody, I felt breath slowly collecting around my heart... stopping there - time swirling all around yet standing still - and upon resolution of this sweet refrain, I heaved a great sigh... the song of my soul.

Press play to hear this song.

Swestie Loves a Good Book

I went to a small private elementary school that embraced several "alternative" learning styles. When other kids were learning math facts, we were learning sophisticated ways to count on our fingers. When other kids were using stilted reading primers we were (forced to be) reading real books... fifty of them each year.

Yes, fifty. Now, if a kid already appreciated the escape of reading, this was great news. But I was not one of those kids. I, who was generally a cheerful and diligent student, slugged through my way through fifty books for three years, with all of the joy of a pig in a bath. As a matter of fact, the one time I remember being sent to my room as a kids was one weekend when I had until Monday to read 5 books... my mom brought my meals to my room on a tray so I wouldn't be distracted. After the third year of forced indenture to books, I equated reading with torture... and luckily changed schools too.

I would willingly pick up about one book per year after that, but encountered a change when I heard some friends in high school talking about a novel they were reading for English class... it wasn't at classic! (Gasp!) It wasn't a text book! (Oh my!) It was a current bestseller at the time! (Almost cool!) I read that book, and it was the first piece of fiction that spoke to my adolescent heart in a way that made me want to read more and more and more.

As an adult, I have loved vacation for the chance to put the feet up and read non-stop, but I've always been a little disappointed that I haven't made time to read more. Recently I became a part of a reading group that has been so much fun and gotten me regularly reading again! Yea! Thank you book club! I love reading suggestions that I wouldn't have necessarily found myself and going on the journey of a book with friends around me.

Well, along these lines, I've reconnected with an old friend and she has a wonderful book blog called Babbette's Book Blog. And for 2010, she's posed a reading challenge which I hereby accept. Read about it here.

I'm going to devise my plan for the challenge and let you know... we'll have to see how it goes! Happy reading!

Welcome to my world...