Review: The Car Thief by Theodore Weesner

* From Publicist for review *

Alex Housman is sixteen and when he's not at home with his divorced alcoholic Dad, he's at the 24 hour movie theatre or out driving a stolen car around the city following girls.

This is a coming of age story about Alex as he tries to navigate his way through school with the shame of living where he does and having a father who drinks way too much and too often.  Separated from his brother and then sent to a boy's home for stealing cars, Alex is wrenched from the only home he has ever known.

Whilst I found the story rolled along quite well, I don't believe it quite lives up to the following quote from one enthusiastic critic: "one of the great coming of age novels in the twentieth century."

What I enjoyed most from Theodore Weesner's The Car Thief was the relationship between Alex and his father.  It was complex and painful, layered and superbly written.  Alex is torn between loving his father, being proud of the way he dresses and presents himself, ashamed of his drinking, and feeling pity for the way in which his wife (Alex's mother) left him.  Their interactions are mostly sparse but seem to communicate so much, and for me these were the richest sections of the novel.

Second to that was the relationship Alex has with his younger brother.  Again this relationship is precious to Alex and deeply layered and Weesner is able to paint the tension and hurt onto the page in a scene as benign as a boat ride and a game of pool.

These two relationships were rich and moving and I enjoyed being in them more than I enjoyed reading the scenes where Alex was on his own.  Reading the author's note at the end, it seems most of this novel was autobiographical which makes this reader wonder if this was a restriction when writing The Car Thief.  

What I'll take away from reading The Car Thief is one of the best father son relationships in fiction I've read in quite a while, however this is secondary to the coming of age story of Alex Housman.

My rating = ***

Carpe Librum!

My Hundred Lovers Read-Along

I'm very excited to be participating in the Allen & Unwin My Hundred Lovers read-along being hosted by 1 Girl, 2 Many Books.  

The read-along commences on 1 June and I'm just one of many book bloggers participating in the event.  We're all very excited to be taking part, and many of us have been visiting each other's blogs, saying 'hi' on Twitter and leaving comments here and there.  

Incidentally, I noticed that Cheryl Akle has selected My Hundred Lovers by Aussie author Susan Johnson as the June book club book on The Circle, and I'll be looking forward to watching the segment online after the read-along.

So, what's the book about you might be wondering?

Blurb:  A woman on the eve of her fiftieth birthday, reflects on one hundred moments from a lifetime's sensual adventures.  By turns humorous, sharp, haunting and wise, this is an original and exhilarating novel from one of Australia's premier writers.

If you'd like to join me in the read-along, leave a comment below and I can post updates on my progress.  Counting down now until 1 June.

That's my four bucks!

Review: Horseradish - Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid by Lemony Snicket

This little book is a collection of quotes, phrases and stories divided up into categories, and as the title suggest, some are bitter truths tinged with humour whilst others are steeped in simple wisdom.

For those that don't know, Lemony Snicket is a pen name and some will have heard it associated with A Series of Unfortunate Events, a children's series narrated and penned by Lemony Snicket.

This book, Horseradish - Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid is a collection of short writings, each confined to a single page and each amusing whilst delivering advice or imparting wisdom at the same time.

I've chosen two of my favourite excerpts to share for the purposes of this review, to give you just a taste of the content, after which I'm sure you'll want to discover the rest for yourself.

"Deciding whether or not to trust a person is like deciding whether or not to climb a tree, because you might get a wonderful view from the highest branch, or you might simply get covered in sap, and for this reason many people choose to spend their time alone and indoors, where it is harder to get a splinter."  Page 84, Chapter 7, TRAVEL

"If an optimist had his left arm chewed off by an alligator, he might say, in a pleasant and hopeful voice, "Well, this isn't too bad. I don't have my left arm anymore, but at least nobody will ever ask me if I am right-handed or left-handed," but most of us would say something more along the lines of "Aaaaah! My arm! My arm!"   Page 92, Chapter 8 EMOTIONAL HEALTH

I really enjoyed making my way through Lemony Snicket's pages, laughing and pausing to reflect along the way. Highly recommended for all ages, and best enjoyed with others.

My rating = *****

Carpe Librum!

Interview with John M. Green, author of Nowhere Man and Born To Run

John M. Green

Thanks to John for joining My Four Bucks today.  John is the author of two novels reviewed on My Four Bucks, Nowhere Man and most recently, Born to Run.

In your bio, we learn that during your 30 year career you were a very successful banking executive and partner in 2 major law firms before deciding to leave the business sector and become a writer.  What gave you the courage to leave all that behind and plunge into the uncertainty of being a writer?
My wife was the trigger, my role-model. She gave up a successful business career to follow her artistic passion, sculpting, and encouraged me to do likewise with my own passion for writing. It’s a thrill to be able to inhabit two entirely different worlds, the business and the artistic, and to get to do it together is pretty rare.

What can you tell us about your writing habits?  Do you ever like to write outside or in public? 
When I’m in ‘the zone’ I’m fairly oblivious to my surroundings (unless they’re part of a scene I’m writing), so I’m not prissy about where I write. My third novel, The Trusted (out in November 2012), was written at home at my desk, in bed, in the garden, on boats, trains and planes, in airports, hotel rooms, and in places where I’ve set it, such as Saint-Petersburg, Paris, Venice, Athens, New York, Boston – even North Narrabeen beach in Sydney. 
But my main routine – how I write mostly – is by hopping out of bed around 4am when the world around me is dead quiet, and sitting at my computer for as long after that as I can. Some days I’ll write for a couple of hours, some for 16 hours, sometimes I’ll write nothing – perhaps fiddling, plotting, researching. Other days I’ll write maybe 1,000 or 2,000 words and there have been days when the characters won’t stop doing what they do and they’ve given me way more.

Do you listen to music when you write?  Do you take any handwritten notes?
Because I wanted to get into Tori Swyft’s head—she’s the hero of my 3rd novel, and will be the mainstay of my new series—and she was world junior women’s surf champion at 13, I wrote a lot of The Trusted with surf rock instrumentals crashing over me: classics like the Atlantics (Bombora, Pipeline) and the Surfaris (Wipeout) and more recent works like The Break’s Church of the Open Sky – The Break’s members are from Midnight Oil and Violent Femmes, and one is a mate.
Thatcher, another character in The Trusted—a professional hacker – has a thing for Brandenburg Concerto No 4, so that was another course of my musical diet for this book.
My first novel, Nowhere Man, was driven quite a bit by Midnight Oil’s Power and the Passion (and there’s a chapter set to it) and Puccini’s Nessum Dorma.

One My4Bucks reader would like to know how you came up with the idea for Nowhere Man and why it took so many years to publish after you completed it in 2001.
I started with a question ‘What if I were the Time Traveler in the HG Wells classic, where (or rather, when) would I go to live an enjoyable life?’ And I decided it would have to be in Australia, and today. Despite the politicians, we Aussies do live in a postcard, right?
Why so long? I finished it in August 2001, but in that original version of the story, my fictional terrorists destroyed the World Trade Centre in New York. And when that terrible event actually happened a few weeks later, it was also literally the end of the story. I had some strong emotional connections to that horror, which I explain in my Author’s Note in the book, so it took me quite a while to come back to the manuscript to find a new catastrophe and embark on a rewrite. Funnily enough, I settled on a global financial crisis, and ‘finished’ in 2006/7, just before it happened, so when it actually happened, once again I had to rewrite the book before it got published.

A second My4Bucks reader would like to know if you're planning to write a sequel for Nowhere Man, as she'd like to know more about how the program works, how people can travel through time using it and what happens to Sam Sing.
I’d like to know, too! A lot of readers have asked me about a sequel, and it may come, but I’m not working on it yet. I’ve got too tied up with my new character, Tori Swyft.
One reader even emailed joking that his copy of Nowhere Man was defective because the stock price chart on page 104 stopped too early, and he wanted the copy that showed the share prices going forward a couple of years from now so he could use it for stock trading.

I imagine being a co-founder of Pantera Press requires you to read submissions from writers much of the time.  How do you decide when a writer is worthy of being published by Pantera Press?
Because it’s so tough even for great writers to get published, we expressly set up Pantera Press to focus on debut authors, with the aim of nurturing and continuing to publish them, and building their readership over time. What we’re on the lookout for are great stories – plot is critical to us – with characters who readers will care about, and strong writing. We also need to ‘click’ with the writers; developing personal relationships with our writers is critical to us.

When you're not reading for work, what are some of your favourite books/authors?
I have an eclectic taste. I happily go from Kate Grenville, Geraldine Brooks, Edmund de Waal to Michael Crichton, Marele Day and Harlan Coben (and Pantera Press’s other authors, of course, who I read for the pleasure as much as for work). I read loads of non-fiction too.

My favourite character in your political thriller Born to Run was the little boy Davey, and my favourite part in the novel was when Davey was telling the King Kong joke in ASL (sign language).  It really had me laughing out loud, can you tell me your inspiration for his character?
I’m thrilled you loved Davey, and the humour. Because I had a seemingly “ideal” couple – Isabel, hot favourite for the White House and her ex-general war-hero husband – I didn’t want it to be a plastic set-up, I needed tension at home, so I used the humour for lightness, to contrast with the darkness that Davey’s disability stemmed from psychological distress over his father’s first marriage break-up. 
One of my favourite actresses is deaf actress Marlee Matlin, who won an Academy Award for leading actress in Children of a Lesser God and was also fabulous in The West Wing. Subliminally, she might have inspired me. To paint Davey as realistically as I could, I consulted a US expert on hearing-impaired kids.
By the way, because I needed a US president in my next novel, The Trusted, little Davey and his mother, President Isabel Diaz, get a small role, but it isn’t a sequel to Born to Run.
I really like it when authors have a crossover of characters in unrelated novels; it's like a little treat for loyal readers who have read all of their work.

In Born to Run, you were able to write about your love of US presidential elections, do you have any other interests that you'd like to explore or focus on in your next book?
Saving the planet is a justifiably hot topic. So in The Trusted I pitch light green against very dark green. The story is about brilliant eco-terrorists, PhDs, who spend ten years as sleepers, getting themselves into positions of great influence and power from where they hope to turn back the planet’s gas-guzzling clock – by destroying the financial system, food supplies, shipping, you name it. They’re trying to save the planet, though their methods are extreme. When I started researching this, I discovered there are many extremist green groups, though none as sophisticated as my fictional one – at least none I’ve found so far, and fingers crossed, it will stay that way.

Having now published two books, do you have a favourite?  Has one sold more than the other, or is that akin to asking a parent which is their favourite child?
I think that’s right. Maybe when I have a few more books under my belt, I might have more perspective to answer that question.

What do you have planned for the rest of the year?
I’m going to be overseas for a bit of it, mainly in NY so I can enjoy the run-up to the presidential elections, but also to get the vibe for the novel I’m just about to start. It will be the second Tori Swyft thriller.

Anything else you'd like to share with your readers?
A surprise for me, a pleasant one, has been how readers can sometimes read what you thought you’d written quite differently to how you see it. For example, a few readers have told me they wished Nowhere Man had a happy ending, but for me it is a really happy ending. I won’t explain that to your readers, Tracey, since it gives the ending away, but I suspect you know what I mean.

Thanks so much for joining us here at My Four Bucks John, it's been a pleasure having you.
My pleasure, Tracey. Thank you for the opportunity, and also for taking the time to read my stories.

Review: The Midnight Club by James Patterson

First published in 1989, I somehow missed reading The Midnight Club by James Patterson, not to be confused with his series the Women's Murder Club.

The protagonist in The Midnight Club is John Stefanovitch, a New York cop confined to a wheelchair after being shot and left for dead by the Grave Dancer. Despite losing his wife to the Grave Dancer on the same chilling night, and undergoing years of rehabilitation, John is still on the force and as determined as ever to get his man.

While John was fighting and clawing back his life, the Grave Dancer was climbing the ladder of success, and is now part of an elite and secretive international unit of organised crime lords, otherwise known as the Midnight Club.  

I thoroughly enjoyed having a male protagonist in a wheelchair who was attractive, strong, protective and driven without feeling sorry for himself or drinking himself into oblivion. Patterson steers clear of all the possible traps and cliches here, which makes The Midnight Club feel like a fresh piece of writing, despite it being 23 years old.  

There are references to the twin towers and a few other things that remind the reader of the passage of time however on the whole, this was an enjoyable crime novel with a very likeable good guy in New York cop John Stefanovitch and an equally well written bad guy.

My rating = ***

Carpe Librum!

Review: Before I Wake by Robert J. Wiersema

Before I Wake from Canadian author Robert J. Wiersema is a story about young Sherry, a 3 year old girl who is seriously injured when she is involved in a hit and run accident on a traffic crossing by a pickup truck driver.

Sherry's parents Karen and Simon Barrett face their worst fears when their only child won't wake from her coma and unfortunately their marriage fractures under the pressure.  Karen takes Sherry home, hires a nurse and settles into a steady routine with daily visits from Simon.

The plot really starts to pick up pace when Sherry's nurse Ruth begins to suspect that Sherry has had a role in curing the painful arthritis in her hands.  Ruth's sister is dying of cancer so she brings her to Sherry's bedside and places the comatose little girl's hand on her chest in an attempt to heal her.

Before long, news crews, journalists and pilgrims are outside the front of Karen's house asking for statements about the reported miracle healings and asking to see Sherry.  However, along with them come religious protestors led by a shadowy figure, Father Peter who claims Sherry is a false idol.

He threatens the Barrett family and is never far away when bad things start to happen.  Father Peter travels all around the world, following reports of miracle healings, and shuts them down by whatever needs necessary.  Father Peter believes he's doing God's work and clearing the way for the return of Jesus.  However as one character put it, "how do you know you haven't already met Him?"  Wiersema has given us an interesting look here at religion, in terms of the Church, faith and miracles.

Meanwhile the driver of the truck is consumed with guilt, but when he decides to take his own life, he jumps from a cliff only to find a mysterious hand pulling him back.  The driver finds himself living in the 'in between' and must find himself and his purpose.  I enjoyed the supernatural/fantasy element to this novel and the so-called true identities of the truck driver's mentor Tim, and Father Peter.

Before I Wake isn't a sunny, bright story.  This is a 'what would you do' story, and a thought provoking tale that makes you think about bigger issues.  I especially liked the identity twist and the men living in the 'in between' at the library. I was really curious to know their stories and to be left wanting more at the end of a book is certainly the mark of a great read.  

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!

Kate Morton's novel The Secret Keeper is coming soon

It's no secret that author Kate Morton is one of my favourite Australian authors. Her novel The Forgotten Garden (5 stars) is one of my Top 20 favourite novels and I also enjoyed reading The Distant Hours (5 stars) and The Shifting Fog (4 stars).

Well, I'm very excited about Kate Morton's latest book The Secret Keeper, due to be published later in the year.  

Until now, the cover designs for The Secret Keeper have been a well kept secret, but they've just been released so I thought I'd share them on My Four Bucks.

Which cover design do you like the most? I prefer the green and blue design best, but that's just me. I can't wait to read The Secret Keeper when it's published in October 2012. Will you be adding it to you your TBR pile too?

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory

The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory is the second book in the Cousins' War series and follows on from my reading of The White Queen which completely swept me away a few weeks ago, earning the novel four stars here on Carpe Librum.

The Red Queen of the title is Lady Margaret Beaufort, devout from a very young age she takes pride in her saints' knees, calluses on her knees from the hours spent in prayer on hard surfaces.  Pious and determined to devote her life to God and be as influential as Joan of Arc, she is horrified when her Mother tells her that her lineage as descendant of Edward III and her being a girl means she has no choice but to be wedded and bedded, her sole duty to produce an heir for the throne.

Her dreams of being an Abbess now destroyed, Lady Margaret marries Edmund Tudor and gives birth to Henry Tudor at the tender age of just thirteen.  She is lucky to survive the birth at all; at one point the mid wives even toss her in a blanket ten times making her vomit.  The birth is so hard on her little body she will never be with child again.

The houses of Lancaster and York both fight for the throne and Lady Margaret plots for years to place her son Henry Tudor - in exile for most of his childhood - on the throne for the House of Lancaster against Elizabeth Woodville aka The White Queen and her King Edward IV and later against King Richard III and the sickly Queen Anne Neville.

Lady Margaret is punished for a failed uprising and we experience her hopes, disappointments, plans for rebellion, secret alliances and historical events from the Red Queen's perspective this time; whereas in Gregory's previous novel The White Queen, we viewed this dangerous and exciting period in history through the eyes of Elizabeth Woodville.

Lady Margaret Beaufort and Elizabeth Woodville were both powerful women in their own right although incredibly different from each other; Lady Margaret was pious and devout with a lineage directly from Edward III whilst Elizabeth Woodville was a commoner, a widower prior to marrying the King, a fertile woman of infinite beauty and reputed to be the daughter of a witch.

I thought it would be difficult for an author to write a book and character that was at such odds with their previous heroine so to speak, nevertheless, Philippa Gregory was able to remain unbiassed and create two completely different voices, overlapping in time and place but without favouring one or the other.  Quite a feat of writing actually.

Historical fiction is my favourite genre and I'm excited to say that I've found my new favourite author in Philippa Gregory!   The next in the Cousins' War series though is The Lady of the Rivers, which is the story of Elizabeth Woodville's mother Jacquetta.  And after that she has a back catalogue of 20 books for me to choose from, phew!  Do you have any recommendations?

My rating = ****1/2

Carpe Librum!

Dark Tower series has arrived!

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King

Last week I won the Hachette Australia competition on Twitter, and was the lucky recipient of Stephen King's entire Dark Tower series!

Well, today my books arrived and I just had to take a photo of them all.  The spines look so beautiful lined up next to each other, don't you agree?  The last one you can see on the end is the most recent of the series, The Wind Through The Keyhole. 

This is my best competition win ever and I'm looking forward to reading them all.  A huge thank you to Hachette Australia!

That's my four bucks!

Review: Born To Run by John M. Green

* From publisher for review *

After reading and reviewing Nowhere Man by John M. Green, I received a personal email from the author and Pantera Press - an Australian publishing house - asking if I was interested in reviewing his second book Born to Run.

Nowhere Man is an economic thriller set in Australia and Born to Run is a political thriller set in the USA so I knew before opening to the first page that I was in for a very different ride this time.

Plot Summary
Isabel Diaz had a poor childhood - with the scars to prove it - and is now a philanthropist and America's favourite in the lead up to the presidential elections.

She is set to become the first female US President in history until it is all ripped from her grasp in a carefully researched and live TV show.  Also happening at the same time is a carefully plotted terrorist attack on New York City that has the potential to bring the city to its very knees; but how are the terrorists connected to the politicians and who's pulling the strings?

Analysis
What was noticeably different between Nowhere Man and Born to Run was that Nowhere Man had an identifiable destination in terms of plot; there was a mystery that needed solving and therefore the reader was aware of the direction the novel was heading.  This isn't the case with Born to Run.

In Born to Run, you are never sure what is going to happen next; events take place but the reader is never permitted to peek around the corner or even get half a step in front of where the author wants you.  This had the effect on me of a slow burn thriller, and I found that the last third of the book went by in an absolute rush and the heady climax was reached.

My favourite character in the novel was Isabel's deaf son Davey who added such dimension to the plot and a fresh perspective on parenting when one parent understands ASL (sign language) better than another.  Davey even had me laughing out loud when he tells a King Kong joke in ASL.

I was also surprised at the Australian author's ability to fall into US politics so seamlessly despite his comment in the Author's note that he's: "...addicted to US presidential elections..." I must've tried at least half a dozen times in my life to understand how US government operates and then six months later, I've forgotten it all again.  (This also happens to me with the rules of cricket).

Nevertheless, you don't need to be an expert in politics to enjoy Born To Run, but if you have an interest it may enhance your enjoyment of this political thriller.

Stay tuned as I'll be interviewing the author John M. Green very soon.

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!

Author John M. Green talks to My Four Bucks about his two novels, his writing and more, click here to read the interview.

New Design & New Pages

I thought it was time for a design change so I hope you like it!  The first thing you'll probably notice is that the old wallpaper has gone and it's in with the new!

I've created a new Challenges page to incorporate the reading challenges I'm participating in at the moment and I'll be keeping them up to date as I progress throughout the year.

A short while ago I also created an About Me page to the blog to add to the reader experience.

In addition to the new pages, I've added a 'Follow Me on Pinterest' button and a new GoodReads window together with a few minor tweaks here and there to fonts.

If you have any suggestions on things you'd like to see or articles you're interested in, please let me know.

That's my four bucks!

Review: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

It's time for another classic and this time it's the gothic ghost story by Henry James, The Turn of the Screw. Referred to here and there, I've always wanted to read it and find out if it's still scary by today's measures.

Background
Henry James wrote too many novels and short stories to mention, most notably The Portrait of a Lady in 1881. Published in 1898, The Turn of the Screw has an ambiguous ending, but of course in my arrogance I believed I would finish the last page with a firm idea of what had happened and little room for any doubt.  

You see, I dislike ambiguous endings and I always have an opinion, so if a book requires the reader to decide the ending then I make a decision and get on with it. If the author doesn't tell me the ending of the book then I decide for myself, but in The Turn of the Screw, it wasn't as easy as all that.

Plot Summary
A governess is hired to look after a young boy Miles and his younger sister Flora in a large gothic house (pictured above) after the death of their parents. The children are charming, well behaved and a pleasure to teach and look after. It comes as a shock then when the governess is notified that Miles has been expelled from boarding school, although the letter is vague regarding the reason for his expulsion. This was the most intriguing part of the novella for me and a great cause for discussion amongst academics and students alike.

While this has been happening the governess has been seeing a female and male presence on the estate and begins to suspect they are ghosts and that the children are aware of their presence but won't admit it.  With the help of the housekeeper, the female ghost is identified as Miss Jessel - the previous governess - and the male ghost as Quint - also a previous employee -  both who mysteriously died.

The governess tries to protect the children from their evil presence while Miles seems to know more than he is letting on. Late in the story, Miles says he was expelled from school for telling something to those he liked, who then told those they liked. Some argue this is evidence Miles was expelled for homosexual behaviour but discovering this hypothesis after finishing the book was such a shock that I just find it difficult to believe.

I won't spoil the ending, but here are the possibilities I came up with:  

• Miles could have told his classmates that he killed Miss Jessel and Quint; the classmates then going on to tell their friends and so on, resulting in his expulsion. 
• Another possibility is that Miles could have told his friends that he was seeing ghosts; his friends could have spread the gossip, laughed and teased him, leading to his expulsion for being of unsound mind.
• Miles was incredibly manipulative and his expulsion could have been related to his devious and manipulative behaviour.

Was it scary?

So, was The Turn of the Screw scary? Well, it was certainly creepy, I'll give it that much! Miles was a manipulative character and a believable one. I enjoyed the gothic evocation of place, and the conversations Miles had with the governess made me squirm.

Immediately after finishing the novella (it's a short read) I went online to seek out discussions related to The Turn of the Screw and the ending in particular. I'm still not satisfied and I just wish the author had organised for the answers to be printed upside down at the back of the book.

My rating = ***

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Juice Master - Over 100 Delicious Juices and Smoothies by Jason Vale

I recently purchased a juicer and a family member gave me this book to read for recipe inspiration. I've really enjoyed it, and I'd go so far as to say that The Juice Master goes further than a regular recipe book in that it provides details on the vitamins contained in each juice and the way in which it will 'juice' those that drink it.  

The easiest way to demonstrate this is to share a recipe from the book. Today feels especially cold so I'll share a juice called 'Cold War'.

Cold War
1/4 pineapple
1 orange (peeled but leave the pith on)
1 inch of lemon (with skin on if unwaxed)
1 teaspoon Manuka active honey
4 ice cubes

Juice the pineapple, orange and lemon.  Pour the juice into the blender and add honey and ice. Blend until smooth.

Look what's in it!
Vitamins B6 and C, calcium, folic acid, iron, potassium, magnesium, beta-carotene, natural sugars, plus active antibacterial honey.

How will it help ward off my cold?
This juice is loaded with vitamin C, which is not only a natural antibiotic but also helps dissolve mucus.  The active Manuka honey also has powerful antibacterial properties. The impressive showing of the anti-cancer king - beta-carotene - and the enormous quantity of anti-oxidants all help to build your natural defences.

With over 100 recipes in this format, this is more than just a recipe book, it's a treasure trove of information and also contains juices designed with particular health benefits in mind. With an index sorted by name of fruit and vegetable, it is easy to find what you are looking for.

The documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead has made juicing very popular again although I didn't hear about it until I was buying my juicer. Watching it I found it very inspirational; have you seen it?  Excited by the documentary, I asked my Doctor if I could do the juice fast and she gave me an emphatic 'no.' Oh well.

In summary, this is a gem of a juice book and I'm reluctant to return it.  If you have a favourite juice recipe you'd like to recommend, please share it in the comments section, I'd love to try it out.

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!

Review: Vanish by Tess Gerritsen

This is my first encounter with the increasingly popular author Tess Gerritsen and her series of books featuring Detective Jane Rizzoli and Dr. Maura Isles.  The series of novels have been developed into a TV series called Rizzoli & Isles which I have been following; so when a member of the family offered to lend me one of Gerritsen's novels I thought why not?

As I know from experience, the book is always different from the movie/TV show and it was no different here.  In Vanish, Detective Rizzoli is heavily pregnant which is quite a departure from the character from the TV program and I don't think I ever quite got used to the idea of Jane as a mother in the novel.

Taken hostage in the hospital while in labour - which was a little unbelievable - Jane does her best to stay alive, however the case is taken over by the highest powers and Jane and her FBI husband try and work out what is behind the clean up attempts and hidden evidence.  There are allusions to terrorism and a visit with a Senator however the ending was extremely disappointing - spoiler alert - in that it all boiled down to a sex/snuff tape featuring the most powerful man in the Intelligence arena.  

This is an average crime story, but nothing more than that.  It did contain a moving sub-plot of a young girl struggling to seek freedom however it was mildly entertaining at best.  My cover is different to the image above (no naked image of a woman) and contains the following quote:

'This is crime writing at its unputdownable, nerve-tingling best.'                                                                                                                - HARLAN COBEN

Unfortunately I didn't find Vanish unputdownable or nerve-tingling and I'm not sure if I'll be giving Gerritsen a second chance in the future; not for a while anyway. I think I'll stick to the TV Show for now, which I enjoy very much.

My rating **1/2

Carpe Librum!

Aussie Author Challenge 2012

I participated in the Aussie Author Challenge 2012 hosted over at Booklover Book Reviews blog in 2012.  The challenge ran from 1 January 2012 - 31 December 2012, and the two levels of participation were:

Tourist - read and review 3 books by at least 2 different Aussie authors
Dinky Di - read and review 12 books by at least 6 different Aussie authors

I achieved the first level easily, but unfortunately they didn't have a middle level so pushed through to achieve the Dinky Di level of participation, and made it on the last day of the year, phew!

Here is a list of the books I read for the challenge:
 1. The Blood Countess | Tara Moss
 2. Nowhere Man | John M. Green
 3. The Light Between Oceans | M. L. Stedman
 4. Born To Run | John M. Green
 5. Killing Richard Dawson | Robin Baker
 6. My Hundred Lovers | Susan Johnson
 7. Rocks in the Belly | Jon Bauer
 8. The Crossing | B. Michael Radburn
 9. Bitter Greens | Kate Forsyth
10.Blackwater Moon | B. Michael Radburn
11.Back From The Dead - Peter Hughes' Story of Survival and Hope After Bali | Patrick Lindsay
12. Crimeson | Justin Gardner

Review Published in April 2012 Edition of Good Reading Magazine

Review published in Good Reading Magazine (top of page)

I'm excited to announce that Good Reading Magazine has published my book review (right) of Caught in the Crossfire by Matina Jewell.

The review was published in the April 2012 edition of the magazine (pictured below) and is now on sale.  

Being such an avid fan of the magazine - and reading the reviews every month - it was a thrill to have my own review published; particularly given the high regard in which I hold the author, Matina Jewell.  

 

April  2012 Cover of
Good Reading Magazine

If you've ever thought       about writing a review  yourself or have a goal to publish a poem or story in a magazine, I highly recommend you push any self doubt aside and just go for it!

The excitement of success makes it all worthwhile but you'll never reach your goal unless you take your first step and give it a try.  I'd love to hear about your goals so leave me a comment and tell me what your writing goals are for the remainder of 2012.

Review: The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

As a fan of historical fiction I've admired the work of Philippa Gregory from a distance for a long while now, and enjoyed the film The Other Boleyn Girl based on her novel of the same title.

I'm excited to have finally made her acquaintance so to speak after receiving two of her books from The Cousin's War series for Christmas last year: The White Queen and The Red Queen.

To be honest, I'd been procrastinating about reading The White Queen, enjoying the fantasy that Philippa Gregory could be my next favourite historical fiction author and at the same time prolonging any chance of disappointment.  When I finally found the courage to take the plunge, I was both pleased and excited to find she exceeded my expectations in every possible way.  Phew!

England in the late 1400s during the time of the House of Lancaster and the House of York is rich with material although some authors seem to drown in the details of court politics, rebellions and uprisings and end up confusing the hell out of their readers.  And then there are authors like Philippa Gregory and Robin Maxwell who delight in the narrative and tantalise us with their tales of secrets and betrayals, war, love and sieges.

Elizabeth Woodville is a widow who meets King Edward IV on a roadside in an attempt to speak with him about her dead husband's land when a spark of attraction is ignited between them.  They fall in love, although Elizabeth won't risk her reputation to lay with him and so the King proposes and they secretly marry.  Elizabeth goes on to give birth to two sons; the Princes disappearance years later will mystify historians for centuries to come in the mystery known as the 'Princes in the Tower.'

Elizabeth is fiercely loyal to her family and protective of her children, ending her association with the House of Lancaster when she marries the King and joining the House of York; continuing to work out who she can trust and who to build alliances with until the very end.

Philippa Gregory walks us through complicated history with remarkable ease and I got a real sense of what it must have been like to live during these times of political unease and uncertainty.  One day Elizabeth is a Queen and the next she is in sanctuary fearing for her life.

Regardless of the subject matter, The White Queen was easy to follow and the love story was quite a feature which I happened to quite enjoy; another surprise from Gregory (I don't usually handle the romance section of a novel too well).

Another bonus is that this novel contributes towards my Historical Fiction 2012 Reading Challenge, which is great news given I signed up for the Struggling the Addiction level of ten books.  Click here if you'd like to join the challenge with me.

The next novel in this series is The Red Queen and I can't wait to read it soon.  Have you read any books by Philippa Gregory?  What were they and did you enjoy them?  Drop me a line and share your reading experience.

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman

* From publisher for review *

I finished reading M. L. Stedman's The Light Between Oceans last night, and I now understand why it was the subject of a bidding war and I am certain it is destined to become a huge bestseller in the months to come.

Tom Sherbourne returns from World War I with his limbs intact but carrying psychological scars and seeks to get as far away from people as possible. He seeks refuge on Janus Rock as a Lighthouse Keeper, where the regulations and routine of lighting up, maintaining the light and recording everything that happens in the log book, calm him.

Tom meets Isabel at Point Partageuse and they soon marry. Izzy joins him on Janus Rock for three years at a time, and they have no contact from the outside world except for the quarterly visits from Bluey and Ralph on the supply boat.

Shortly after a miscarriage, a small row boat washes ashore with a man and baby onboard. Unfortunately the man is dead but miraculously the baby is still alive. Did God answer their prayers for a baby? Should they report it? What if they disagree? Tom and Izzy's actions that follow the surprise discovery ultimately change the course of their lives forever.

It's easy to judge what you would do in such a situation, but in reading The Light Between Oceans it was painful to see the chain of events unfold and the toll on their relationship. Sometimes there is no right or wrong, and in the end there are no winners.

This was an incredibly moving story. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about what it was like to be a Lighthouse Keeper in Australia during this period. The isolation and the weather were beautifully captured and written however didn't feature so much as to become tiresome for the reader. I loved the references to the night sky and Tom's love of astronomy in addition to Tom's - and the fellow lighthouse keepers' - love for the light. A life 'on the lights' was something I knew nothing about prior to picking up this book and I feel my life is richer for having read about this aspect of our history.

Born and raised in Western Australia, Stedman now lives in London, however there's no doubting she's an Aussie. She has captured the Australian lingo of the period exceptionally well, and I truly felt transported back in time with words like: 'girlie', 'humdinger' and 'stepping out.'

I was captivated and swept away by Stedman's writing style, and I'd like to share my favourite section from The Light Between Oceans. It is an extract from Page 24, and in the lead up to this section the author is writing about the death of children:

"The town cemetery had always recorded this truthfully, and its headstones, some lolling like loose, grimy teeth, told frankly the stories of lives taken early by influenza and drownings, by timber whims and even lightning strikes. But in 1915, it began to lie. Boys and men from across the district were dying by the score, yet the graveyards said nothing."

I've been thinking about these words every day since I read them; that the graveyards said nothing. I found this incredibly moving and poignant and just one example of the author's powerful writing style.

I couldn't recommend M. L. Stedman's The Light Between Oceans - named so because the Janus lighthouse overlooks the merging of two oceans - more highly.

My rating = *****

Review: Nowhere Man by John M. Green

Nowhere Man is the successful debut novel from Australian author John M. Green and is set in Sydney. The novel begins with Sonya returning from her early morning run only to find husband Michael has left her, leaving a mysterious note on the bed for her to find.

We soon learn that Michael was a very private man working from home and trading on the stock market. When Sonya discovers his private computer files, she realises Michael has been keeping secrets from her the entire time they've been together.  

Looking at his letter with fresh eyes, Sonya begins to suspect Michael may not have left her voluntarily and sets out determined to find the truth.

Nowhere Man is an economic thriller with a science fiction twist and the plot and pace had me turning the pages well into the night.

I thoroughly enjoyed Nowhere Man, and look forward to reading more from this author in the future.   (Click here to read an interview with the author).

My rating = ****

Carpe Librum!

P.S. I'm so excited to have received a personal message from the author himself:

"I'm so thrilled you enjoyed my first novel, Nowhere Man.  Thank you so much for taking the time to read it and for writing such a great review on My Four Bucks."

Isn't it great when writers take the time to interact with their readers directly?  Fabulous!

Just surpassed 20,000 hits!

It gives me great pleasure to announce:

My Four Bucks has now reached 

and surpassed 20,000 hits!!

Many thanks to my regular followers. Books are my passion and I continue to enjoy writing reviews, interviewing authors and sharing bookish news.

Happy Reading to you all!