Waiting on Wednesday # 69 - Struck by Rhonda Stapleton

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My pick: Struck by Rhonda Stapleton

Summary from Goodreads:

Felicity Walker believes in true love. That's why she applies for a gig at the matchmaking company Cupid's Hollow. But when Felicity gets the job, she learns that she isn't just a matchmaker...she's a cupid! (There's more than one of them, you know.)

Armed with a hot pink, tricked-out PDA infused with the latest in cupid magic (love arrows shot through email), Felicity works to meet her quota of successful matches. But the path to love is not always a straight shot...

Rhonda Stapleton

December 6th 2011 by Simon Pulse

Here's How - Virginia Graham

One of the best, and certainly one of the funniest, books I read in 2009 was Virginia Graham's Say Please, a faux etiquette guide from 1949.  (I wrote about it here.)  Foolishly, I did not investigate whether or not Graham had followed it up - and it was a joyful coincidence that I happened across Here's How (1951) in London a while ago, and an even more joyful discovery that it's perhaps even BETTER than Say Please.

Rather than a guide to etiquette, Here's How purports to be an instruction manual on many and various activities - from singing to redecorating to playing the piano to laying a carpet.  Needless to say, Graham has very little of great use to impart on these topics, but the voice she adopts is one of unswerving self-confidence, coupled with a devastating lack of confidence in the abilities of her reader. It's all deliciously tongue-in-cheek and her tone is expertly judged. Sadly Osbert Lancester doesn't do the illustrations for this one, but Anton's are amusing too - as shown by this DIY Henry Moore impersonator, on the cover.

I could chirrup on forever about how much I enjoyed reading this, but I think instead I'll simply give you some excerpts. There are quite a few, but I couldn't resist. If they meet with your approval, I'll type out a whole section tomorrow (probably the first, 'How To Sing') rather than just the sentences/paragraphs which caught my eye.

How To Play The Piano
However beautiful a melody may be it requires bolstering with an accompaniment, and this does not mean, as so many people seem to think, hitting bottom C repeatedly in the hope that it may, on occasions, coincide with the tune.

How To Ride
In a clash of wills between horse and man it is imperative that man should win; otherwise horses will just go browsing about eating grass in a nonchalant fashion instead of taking people places and pulling things.

How To Paint
Unless you are made of some steely inhuman stuff or unless you have a stingy and really not very attractive streak in you, you will insist upon giving yourself a very beautiful, heavy wooden box, smelling richly of cedar, satin to the touch and containing dozens of tubes of paint.  Separate from these rotund and glistening torpedoes will be ranged, in neat compartments, brushes, turpentine and oil.  If you are zealous in your work and really want to get on you will find, in a few weeks' time that the tubes have not only become misshapen but that most of them exude paint from both ends; that all their screw caps are lost and that the orifices thereby exposed to the open air are clogged.  In consequence the box refuses to shut and, having primarily been a portable asset becomes an encumbering fixture.  Now is the time to go out and buy the capacious mackintosh shopping bag which you could have bought right at the beginning if you hadn't had such ridiculous delusions of grandeur.

How To Skate
In recent years, since the knack of freezing chemicals into a passable imitation of ice has been acquired, skating has become very much the vogue.  Even the "lower orders" who, in more natural circumstances would be employed sweeping snow from the pond's surface or feeding coke into braziers are now able to skim like birds from one end of Earl's Court to another, only pausing on their way to circumnavigate an orange.

How To Plumb
Lagging pipes is one of those things you read about in the weekly magazines and it isn't normal for a householder to get around to lagging his own. Indeed it isn't normal to do anything until it is far too late, and even then action is often confined to ringing up one's mother to ask if one can go along to her and have a bath.

Obviously this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it is very much mine - and I think Here's How would make a fantastic present for anybody like-minded. This is exactly the sort of book which doesn't seem to appear any more (I suppose the nearest comparison are those quick-flick books flogged at Christmas - how much more wonderful Graham's collection is!) and exactly the sort of book I love to discover and stack up on my shelves.

Book Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Title: Divergent

Author: Veronica Roth

Series: Divergent #1

Release Date: May 3rd, 2011

Publisher: Harper Collins

Age: Young Adult

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

I've read so many great reviews about this book. I was really interested and I'm happy I finally read it!

In a dystopian future Chicago, Beatrice Prior is sixteen years old and the time has come for her to choose her faction. Her family is from Abnegation, but she doesn't feel like it's her right place. But leaving her faction means she can't see her family anymore.

When she finally decides which faction is for her, nobody thinks she is capable. Breatice, now Tris, has to prove everyone that she's strong and capable of anything...all while keeping her biggest secret, a very  dangerous secret.

Beatrice starts being a shy and sad girl, but deciding to change her life make her become Tris, strong and brave. Tris is still very scared, specially of human contact. When she met Four, an interesting boy who might know her secret, she starts to realize that it isn't so bad to want something for herself.

The world Veronica Roth wrote was interesting, and her writing made me read the whole book in only two days! The factions, Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent), are very strict, and the people is obliged to act as their faction describe.

The factions were invented to maintain the peace between men. But their world it's really as peaceful as they say? And what about people who doesn't want to be in a faction? What is you are brave and intelligent and honest? 

I really don't want to spoil the book. It's important that you discover for yourself what is really happening with the factions. But Divergent is an excellent dystopian book for YA. It has action, adventures and great characters. I liked Tris transformation, and I really want to know what is going to happen in the sequel, Insurgent.

More about this book at veronicarothbooks.blogspot.com, Goodreads, Amazon, The Book Depository.

The Inheritance Cycle Re-Reading Challenge starts today!

Hosted by Orchid @ The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

Since every fan of the Inheritance series has been waiting (impatiently) for the final book in the series, I thought what better way to prepare for it then with a reading challenge. That way we can all refresh are memories on what happened and be prepared for the final book. It's also a great way for those new to the series to jump in.

The goal is to read Eragon, Eldest and Brisinger between the dates of Oct. 18 and Nov. 8. Followed by the last book, Inheritance, anytime after it comes out.

If y'all know anyone who'd be interested in joining in, please let them know.

Rules:

-Challenge will run from October 18- November 8 (the day Inheritance comes out *squee*)

-Open to everyone, re-readers and newbies alike.

-Have Fun

-You DON'T need a blog to participate. All you need is to want to join in....and leave a comment to let me know if you don't have a blog, but still want to join in.

-Feel free to write a post (no pressure).

-Enter via comments and I'll link your name and blog in the post body.

GO HERE TO ENTER

I really hope I have time to read the 3 books before Inheritance. I already pre-ordered it, like two months ago! xD Good luck to all the participants!

Bloomsbury Reader

I briefly mentioned Bloomsbury's latest project the other day - Bloomsbury Reader - and now I'll hand over to their press release to tell you a bit more, before recommending the titles which have Stuck-in-a-Book approval...

Actually, I'll save time.  Here is their Press Release.  To summarise: it's a good idea.

And it's all very exciting for those of you who have e-readers.  I'll be cheering from the sidelines.  And now for my subjective bit... amongst their many upcoming titles are many I know nothing about, but also some books I think are brilliant, but which haven't previously been the easiest to track down.  Here is my brief selection from Bloomsbury Reader...

Faster! Faster! by E.M. Delafield
One of my favourite of EMD's non-Provincial Lady books, this novel tells of career-woman Claudia and her mid-life crisis.  Some sad scenes, some of EMD's irrepressible humour, and a title taken from Through the Looking-Glass to boot.  If you buy one Bloomsbury Reader title, make it this one.  (They're also doing Women Are Like That and No One Now Will Know, but I've not read those yet...)

Told By An Idiot by Rose Macaulay
Ok, being totally honest I haven't actually read this, but I've read enough of RM's other novels to know that she's all-round great.  Very dry, very witty, and generally needs more attention from the blogging world and the reading world at large.

any of the titles by Ivy Compton-Burnett
It's no secret that I adore Dame Ivy and, to be honest, her books are all so similar that it doesn't really matter which you read.  They are mostly in dialogue, and are constantly surprising and unusual and deadpan-hilarious.  People will debate the proper use of a verb for pages, and then drop into conversation that someone is dead.  You'll either love Ivy or hate her - most seem to hate her, but if you love her then you'll really love her.

Ok, that's quite a brief glimpse at what they've got going on, but click here to read the whole list, and let me know what you've got your eye on.

In My Mailbox # 47

In My Mailbox is a weekly bookish meme hosted @ The Story Siren

This week I got:

Jenny Pox by JL Bryan

{free for Kindle}

How to Party with a Killer Vampire by Penny Warner

From NetGalley:

Mistletoe Wishes 

For Review:

Sweet Magik by Penny Watson

(OMG!! I'm so excited about this book that I even accepted to receive an ARC for review!)

What did you get this week?

Song for a Sunday

You might well recognise Darren Hayes' voice as being one half of Savage Garden, but this song isn't hugely like their stuff.  I think this song is quite moving, and I like the lyrics of the second verse especially.  Have a listen on your Sunday!