Teaser Tuesday 62: The Christmas Chronicles

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


Back in September, I was honored to receive an ARC of The Christmas Chronicles by Tim Slover. I loved this book! It begs to be read out loud, and I devoured it in one evening. This would be an excellent addition to any family’s holiday celebration.

That’s when I heard the sound. It was rhythmic, silvery: jing, jing, JING! Jing, jing, JING! And it was coming up on me fast over the slope, just as the snow clouds were rolling down from the mountain.
(pg 8 of the ARC)

About the book:

In this new holiday classic, Tim Slover crafts a marvelous, magical novel about how Santa Claus became the man he is today. After reading The Christmas Chronicles, you’ll believe all over again in the magic of the season.

Snow is falling, and the clock ticks toward midnight on Christmas Eve while countless children, too excited to sleep, anticipate the arrival of Santa Claus. But in Tim Slover’s deeply charming and utterly thrilling new novel, that’s the end rather than the beginning of the story. In this richly imagined tale of Santa’s origins, the man in full finally emerges. The Christmas Chronicles is at once an action-packed adventure, an inspiring story of commitment and faith, and a moving love story.

It all starts in 1343, when the child Klaus is orphaned and adopted by a craftsmen’s guild. The boy will grow to become a master woodworker with an infectious laugh and an unparalleled gift for making toys. His talent and generosity uniquely equip him to bestow hundreds of gifts on children at Christmas—and to court the delightful Anna...

Read More



* Disclaimer: A copy of this book was received from the publisher through GoodReads.com

Artzoobilee: Field of Dreams

A look at . . .














Is there any wonder why this was one of my favorites at this summer's Artzoobilee exhibit?

Animal: Field of Dreams
Artist: Marilyn Busko

Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge

Once again this year, I am participating in the Christmas reading challenge hosted by The True Book Addict. The goal is simply to read as many Christmas-themed books between now and Epiphany as you can. I have more than 50 such books on the shelf, amassed over a number of years, and naturally I add a few more every year (three new ones for 2010 so far). Last year I read twelve Christmas books. I'd like to get through at least ten this year, though meeting last year's record would be even better. Click on the link above if you would like to join in, and let the holiday reading begin!

RULES:

* Challenge runs from Friday, November 26, 2010 (Black Friday) through January 6, 2010 (Epiphany).
* Crossovers with other challenges is both permitted and encouraged.
* These must be Christmas novels, books about Christmas lore or a book of Christmas short stories (sorry, no children's books, but YA novels are okay).
* Levels:
--Candy Cane: read 1 book
--Mistletoe: read 2-4 books
--Christmas: read 5 or 6 books (this is the fanatic level...LOL!)

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing all my fellow Americans a bountiful Thanksgiving.
See you all back here next week for Thursday Thirteen!

November Storms

To say this month's weather has been weird would be an understatement, with fluxuating temperatures from one extreme to another. For example, it was a mere 32F and windy last Saturday. The next day was 55F and no wind. Monday was near 60 with severe thunderstorms and—of all things—a tornado watch in the afternoon. In November! And then the temp dropped back down to 30 again for Tuesday. Today? Another cold and blustery one with overcast skies and a rain/snow mix moving in. Yuck!

Below is a series of photos taken Monday as a storm passed over us. It always makes me a bit uneasy when you can see the sun shining through such heavy storm clouds. In between the third and fourth pics we had a brief barage of rain and hail, but most of the severe stuff just missed us. There were tornadoes reported in Racine County to our east and another down in Walworth County, as well as one near where my sister lives, just over the border in Illinois. Not the kind of weather we are used to in November. The current winter weather advisory for northern and central Wisconsin is more the norm this time of year. Not that I'm in any hurry to see snow...

Teaser Tuesday 61: Slaughterhouse Five

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current book or recent read.
* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


I hope you don't mind a two-for-one this week, both from the same book. This was an...interesting...read. A bit different as the action wasn't linear, but jumped around the way the main character's unhinged mind did. It wasn't a difficult read, though the format did make it a bit challenging to keep up at times.

"That's one thing Earthlings might learn to do, if they tried hard enough: Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones."

"Um," said Billy Pilgrim. (pg 117)

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

"I'm afraid I don't read as much as I ought to," said Maggie.

"We're all afraid of something," Trout replied. I'm afraid of cancer and rats and doberman pinschers." (pg 171)

A bit About the Book:
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

Don't let the ease of reading fool you--Vonnegut's isn't a conventional, or simple, novel. He writes, "There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters..."

Autumn Doors

Love these festive doors
on a house in my neighborhood.

Thanksgiving Cards

I've been remiss in sharing cards and other projects this year. Here are a couple pics of the Thanksgiving cards made for 2010. Cardmaking is a good way to use up embroidery floss left over from a myriad of stitching projects. I also used up the last of the raffia I had on some of them. The punched out dots took care of a few paper scraps.





Stamps: Wheat (Autumn Days by Stampin' Up!); Happy Thanksgiving (Inkadinkado)
Paper: DCWV
Ink: More Mustard, Chocolate Chip (SU)
Accessories: 5/8" circle punch (Marvy), Corner rounder, raffia, embroidery floss

Artzoobilee: Out of Africa

A look at . . .
You might want to click on some of these pics to get a closer look at them.







A couple of close-ups. I wish I'd gotten more.







Pretty amazing detail work, no?



Animal: Out of Africa (This was the only Rhinocerous)
Artist: Ronna Duckowitz

Bleak November Day

These were taken on a dreary November day last week. Late afternoon, the sun made an attempt to pierce the clouds, and I loved how the sky looked through the trees from my front window.

Thursday Thirteen 179: Gettysburg Address

November 19 marks the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's most famous speech, The Gettysburg Address. I share it with you here today, in thirteen lines. I think these good lines to reflect upon, perhaps now more than ever.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

We are met on a great battle-field of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.

It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground.

The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us —

that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion —

that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom —

and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

If you have never visited Gettyburg, I encourage you to do so. I have been there twice, and while it can be quite sobering, it is well worth the journey. I only wish we'd been able to attend one of the evening ghost tours! The picture above is of one of the monuments found at Gettysburg in honor of the famed Iron Brigade of Wisconsin (photo by me).


LINKS TO OTHER THURSDAY THIRTEENS:(Please leave your link if this is your first visit!)
Alice Audrey * Maddy Barone * Shelley Munro
Stephanie Bennett * Darla M Sands * Danielle
Jeanne St James * Tatiana Caldwell * Paige Tyler
Jennifer Leeland * Harriet * CountryDew
Adelle Laudan


More Thursday Thirteen participants

Teaser Tuesday 60: Why? Because We Still Like You

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read.
* Share a few “teaser” sentences from somewhere in the book.
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title and author so that other participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!


Just finished this one Sunday night.
I don't usually read biography, but I do remember watching reruns of the show with my sisters when we were kids. This was an okay read. Not a really in depth one, but it did provide a comprehensive look at how the show was developed, its impact on today's children's programming, what happened behind the scenes, and what became of its pint-sized stars after the show was cancelled. Includes several pages of pictures and a mini-biography of cast members.

Note: The red image left of the quote is the book's dust jacket. I've posted an image of the actual book cover below right.

“At some point in your life you’ve got to say, ‘I’m going to do this’ or ‘I’m going to do that.’ Otherwise, all of a sudden you’re thirty, you’re forty, and you’re fifty, and you’re really not very good at this or that.”
(David Stollery, former Mouseketeer, pg 187)

About the Book:
Why? Because We Still Like You: An Oral History of the Mickey Mouse Club
by Jennifer Armstrong
Genre: Biography
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

This book will tell the behind-the-scenes story of how The Mickey Mouse Club paved the way for all that came after, from its humble beginnings as a marketing ploy, through its short but mesmerizing run, to the numerous resurrections that made it one of television's first true cult hits—all through the recollections of those regular kids-turned-stars who made it a phenomenon. It will reveal, for the first time ever, the untold stories of Annette, Darlene, Cubby and Karen, Bobby and the rest of the beloved cast. It will explore, through the reminiscences of former fans who grew up to be some of television's finest minds, what made the show so special. And it will examine why the formula the creators of the show invented is more relevant than ever, and whether we'll ever see yet another Club for a new generation.



*Disclaimer: A copy of this book was received from the publisher through the Goodreads FirstReads program.

American Teddy Bear Day

It's National American Teddy Bear Day



Their fur may be tattered and worn...


Their ribbons and bows a bit faded...


But have you hugged your teddy bear today?

Artzoobilee: Bo the Basketball Bear

A look at . . .











Animal: Bo the Basketball Bear
Artist: Dan Gardiner

Named for Bo Ryan, coach of UW-Madison men's basketball team, who start regular season play this Sunday. Let's go Bucky!

Mmmm...

The only thing better than pumpkin muffins?

Pumpkin chocolate chip. With powdered sugar.
'Nuff said.

Thursday Thirteen 178: Recently Read

The last thirteen books read...
(Click cover to read more about a particular book)













* Rett MacPherson was recommended to me by Jana a couple years ago. I finally got round to reading Family Skeletons (book 1) and A Veiled Antiquity (book 2) of her Torie O'Shea series for a November "family" themed challenge in the Cozy Mysteries group. I like what I've read of this series so far, and have two more on the shelf. They are good, fast reads.

* Susan Wittig Albert was the Ocotber featured author in the Cozy Mysteries group. This was the second in her Beatrix Potter series and as enjoyable as the first.

* Madelyn Alt was read as part of the October "Halloween" theme challenge. Read the first three books in this series, and have books 4 and 5 on the shelf, which I will probably get to when book 6 comes out in paperback in January.

* Night of the Living Deed and The Ghost and Mrs. McClure were two really good mystery ghost stories. They were also read for the "Halloween" theme challenge.

* The other theme challenge for October was a paper-crafts one, in honor of National Cardmaking Day the first Saturday of the month. My choice was book three in Terri Thayer's "Stamping Sisters" mystery series, False Impressions.

* Ann Voss Peterson is one of my favorite local writers (and yes, I have actually met her!). Wyoming Manhunt was won last month in a blog contest. It was a good romantic suspense that kept me turning the pages late into the night.

* Cathie Linz is another romance author I know. I thought I had read Lone Star Marine years ago, until I came across it in the TBR pile. Oops! It was another fast read, and good to (finally) finish that series. Luck Be a Lady is Cathie's most recent single title, and was featured as this week's Teaser Tuesday.

* Why? Because We Still Like You was a GoodReads win. I don't usually read biography, but I remember watching reruns of the original Mickey Mouse Club with my sisters when we were kids, so it was interesting to read about the show and its pint-sized stars.


Read anything good lately?



LINKS TO OTHER THURSDAY THIRTEENS:(Please leave your link if this is your first visit!)
Adelle Laudan * Maddy Barone * Stephanie Bennett
Colleen * Shelley Munro * Rekaya * Hazel * Danielle
CountryDew * Andi Marie * Tatiana Caldwell * Harriet
Paige Tyler * A. Catherine Noon * Alice Audrey
Cheryl * Darla M Sands

Crabby apple

The old crabapple tree on a stormy day in November