In My Mailbox (4-10-11)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. You get to show off all your finds/wins/borrows from the past week. This week, I got quite a few books, and my wishlist grew even longer (unforunate for my wallet, haha). The books that I purchased this week:

 

Bossypants by Tina Fey

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer

(I got this at Half-Priced Books, hardcover, for only $8! I was so excited!)

Book I won (this was from a few weeks ago, but I kept on forgetting to post it):

The Anti-Romantic Child by Priscilla Gilman

So, what was in your mailbox this week?

Book Blog Hop and Follow Friday!

Happy Friday everybody! Time for the book blog hop and Follow Friday! The Book Blog Hop question will be posted later today so make sure to check back later and see my answer to that question. In the meantime, this week's question from Parajunkee is:

Do you judge a book by it's cover?

Absolutely! I have no shame in admitting this. It's the cover of the book that will grab my eye. But I don't buy a book based on the cover alone. I will read the description on the back of the book, and I also read a few pages to see if I'm going to like it. If a book doesn't have a good cover, then chances are that I won't pick it up.

Do you judge a book by it's cover? Let me know!

Waiting on Wednesday (4-6-11)

Happy Wednesday everyone! Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It's a way to highlight new releases and books that you just can't wait to read! This week, my pick is In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson (expected release date: May 10, 2011).

Synopsis (from borders.com): The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.
 
A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.
 
Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming--yet wholly sinister--Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.

I have read Larson's other book, The Devil in the White City and couldn't believe at how it read like a work of fiction! I definitely cannot wait for this book to come out!

So, what are you waiting on this Wednesday?

Top Ten Tuesday (4-5-11)

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week, they post a topic, and you get to create your own top ten list. It's a lot of fun, and a great way to get to know other bloggers. This week, the topic is book covers I wish I could redesign. I will try and hit 10, but no guarantees!

1) The Great Gatsby - I love this book, and for being an American classic, the cover is very confusing. The first time I saw this cover, I thought it was about a ghost named Gatsby.

2) The Twilight series - I don't know why, but these covers have never really appealed to me. Especially the cover for the fourth book, with the chess piece.

3) Jane Eyre - I have seen this version of Jane Eyre in several bookstores, and each time, it totally turns me off from the book. I just recently read it, and I feel like this cover does no justice to this classic.

5) These Things Hidden - I also read this book recently, and it wasn't because I liked the cover that I bought the book. It was because I had previously read the author ... after finishing the book, I just felt like the cover could have been better.

I can't think of anymore right now, but I know there are lots out there!

The Weekend by Bernhard Schlink

 The Weekend
Author: Bernhard Schlink
Translator: Shaun Whiteside
Publisher: Pantheon
Published: 2008 (translated version: 2010)
Hardcover: 215 pages


My Rating: 2.5 stars


Synopsis (from borders.com): Old friends and lovers reunite for a weekend in a secluded country home after spending decades apart.
 
They excavate old memories and pass clandestine judgments on the wildly divergent paths they’ve taken since their youth. But this isn’t just any reunion, and their conversations about the old days aren’t your typical reminiscences: After twenty-four years, Jörg, a convicted murderer and terrorist, has been released from prison. The announcement of his pardon will send shock waves through the country, but before the announcement, his friends—some of whom were Baader-Meinhof sympathizers or those who clung to them—gather for his first weekend of freedom. They have been summoned by Jörg’s devoted sister, Christiane, whose concern for her brother’s safety is matched only by the unrelenting zeal of Marko, a young man intent on having Jörg continue to fight for the cause.

My Thoughts: I really didn't know what to expect from this book, so I went in with no expectations. I read the synopsis and thought that it sounded intriguing, and having read Bernhard Schlink's The Reader a few years ago, I thought that I might enjoy this work. Now, the 2.5 stars rating that I gave this book is a bit misleading. It's not that I didn't enjoy the book, but it wasn't something that had me rushing back to it. I felt no pull from the plot or characters, which is why it took me so long to finish. I think the plot for the book was a great one, with old friends reuniting after one of them has been released from a 20 year prison stay. How would they all interact? Would it be like the old times, or would it be awkward now? But there was no pull, nothing that made me want to know what happened.

Schlink's writing style reminds me a bit of Hemmingway, with short, descriptive sentences.  His writing did seem a bit jumpy to me in this one, and it took me abour 40 pages to figure out from whose point of view the story was being told. But he describes the setting so wonderfully, I felt like I was at this old house in the German countryside along with the characters. Schlink is also a master at not having an opinion on his characters. You are unable to tell if you should root for Jorg (the reformed convict and terrorist) or hope he winds up back in jail. It really is up to you to decide if the character is good or bad, and I believe that demonstrates the strength of Schlink's abilities as an author. 

There are a lot of characters in this book, and the German names sometimes had me confused as to who was married to whom and what the relationships were between the characters. I felt that each person contributed something to the story, an opinion that allowed you to constantly question yourself as to whether or not you like Jorg. For being such a short book with a large cast of characters, it's hard to say if there was any growth among them. I felt like there was some development with a few characters at the end of the book, but it felt too rushed.

The plot is great, and I felt like I was reading a movie script the whole time. In fact, if this were made into a movie, this would be one that I would want to see. It has all the makings of a great movie, with the cast of characters, the scenery, and the issues that each characters is battling.

It's Monday! What are you reading? (4-4-11)

Happy Monday everyone! What are you reading is a weekly meme, hosted by Shelia at Journey Through Books. It's really easy to participate and see what other bloggers are reading! Just write down what you read this past week, what you are currently reading, and what you plan to read this upcoming week! It was a slow reading week for me ... not sure why, but I just wasn't feeling it this week. Hopefully, I will be able to get back into the swing of things this week and make a bit more headway on my TBR pile!

What I Read This Past Week:

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (reviewed)

The Weekend by Bernhard Schlink (review will be up later today, maybe tomorrow)

What I Am Currently Reading

Emma by Jane Austen

What I Plan to Read This Week

All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve

So, what are you reading this week?

Book Blogger Hop: April 1-4

Another week, another hop! This weekly meme is hosted by Jen at Crazy for Books. It's pretty simple and a lot of fun: each Friday, Jen posts a question, you respond and add your link to her blog, and then check out other people's blogs! It's fun and a great way to meet other bloggers. This week's question is:

"Since today is April Fool's Day in the USA, what is the best prank you have ever played on someone OR that someone has played on you?"

Hmm, good question! I'm not much of a prankster, but the one prank I remember happening on April Fool's Day was in college. A professor told us the class before that he had to move the exam up so that we would be able to have time between the last exam and the final. Everyone studied like crazy for those two days, freaking out about the exam being moved up, and when we got to class on April 1st, there was no test. I remember at the time how upset I was because I just spent the past two days cramming! Oh well, at least I was prepared a week later for the actual exam!

Have you ever played a prank on someone, or had one pulled on you? Let me know!

Have a great weekend and happy hopping!