BTT: Books on a Shelf…

Any books you’re hoping to get for the holidays this year?

How about giving? Are you giving any good ones?

I think my poor friends and family have long since abandoned any attempt to give books to me for any occasion. The question of what I have or haven’t read is just too dangerous  guessing game. I am giving a few books, this winter but I can’t share titles on the off chance  that my loved ones do, indeed, read this thing…

Sunday Salon: Five Reasons I Love My Apples

Like the chart says, Apple’s been around for a long time. And, really, truly, in a minute, here, I promise you that I will actually finish my Steve Jobs bio and I’ll get to ramble on about just how much I really do love the company and its history. For the moment, I’m making a small little alter highlighting the reasons I adore my iPhone, iPad and desk Mac.

1.Nook and iBooks

2. NIke Training Club

3. Angry Birds

4. WordPress5. Siri

Saturday Snapshot: Soccer

BTT: Who or What?

What’s more important to you? Real, three-dimensional, fleshed-out fascinating characters? Or an amazing, page-turning plot?

(Yes, I know, they are both important. But if you had to pick one as being more important than the other?)

As mentioned, both are important. However, I think that depending on he purpose of the story, each one takes center stage for different reasons. If I’m reading a mystery or thriller, I obviously need some character building but the main focus of the action will be, well, just that: the action. If I’m reading a literary piece or a romance, he plot is much less important than the building of the people.

I tend to think that most stories are a little cheesy and prefer books that have more of a philosophical trend to them. This often lends itself to what I think people call “character development” but some folks need something to “happen” for people to grow. I don’t.

So I suppose, when all is said and done, I’m more of a character sucker but I do like a good roller coaster every now and again.

Wordless Wednesday: Silent Night

Teaser Tuesday: The Distant Hours ~ Kate Morton

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
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• 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 & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Have you ever wondered what the stretch of time smells like?

p. 59 The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

The Printmaker’s Daughter ~ Katherine Govier

Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Harper Perennial
512 pages
ISBN: 9780062000361
Source: Publisher via TLC Book Tours

I’m always a little bit conflicted when it comes to picking up historical fiction, especially when it’s about very specific people (as opposed to the more general “period pieces”). For that reason, The Printmaker’s Daughter didn’t appeal to me right away, though, it sounded interesting enough to look into based on the subject.

The prints of famed Japanese artist Hokusai are well ingrained in my idea of what constitues amazing international art through time.  You all know it and if you’re at all like me you love it. I took a kick-butt series of Asian Art History classes in college and have just plain always liked this style of nature depiction. So, of course, I had to set aside my silly prejudices about spot-specific tales of history when I realized that this one was about the possibly true, possibly very scandalous story of Hokusai and his daughter through the 19th century.

I was very well rewarded, as it turns out, as the story is just so readable and fantastic. The book circles around the artist and the protagonist, the father and daughter, with such realism that it honest to goodness, feels like reading about old friends. The most fascinating part of the story is that it is woven through the red light district, the artists’ hang out, the call girls’ home, the place where art, culture, passion and forbidden pleasures live. Poets and prostitutes live together in celebration of all things fun and this is where our story’s roots take hold.

I highly recommend the book to anyone who loves a good story with good, evil, censorship and rebellion. On a more personal scale, when all the hustle and bustle of the city and the lights are stripped away, what remains is a story about family, about friendship and about one father and his daughter. It came in just under the wire with three weeks left in the game, to be called one of my favorite books of 2011. I haven’t read anything else by Govier but I am now off to hunt her other works down.

Check out the links, below for a few other thoughts on the book.

About Katherine Govier

Katherine Govier is a winner of the Toronto Book Award and Canada’s Marian Engel Award for a woman writer in mid-career. Her novel Creation, about John James Audubon in Labrador, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. She lives in Toronto.

Visit her website at www.theprintmakersdaughter.com, and connect with her onFacebook.

Katherine’s Tour Stops

Friday, November 25th: nomadreader

Monday, November 28th: Raging Bibliomania

Tuesday, November 29th: A Few More Pages

Wednesday, November 30th: Life In Review

Tuesday, December 6th: Life in the Thumb

Wednesday, December 7th: The Lit Witch

Thursday, December 8th: Unabridged Chick

Friday, December 9th: Amused By Books

Monday, December 12th: Iwriteinbooks’s blog

Tuesday, December 13th: A Bookish Way of Life

Wednesday, December 14th: Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile

TBD: Melody & Words

TBD: Books Like Breathing

Olive the Other Reindeer…

So, I’m not a huge Christmas person. Yes, I get it: most people, especially these days, like it simply “for the family”. I, however, tend to gather my family whenever suits me (even if I have to track them down on sporadic trips to various corners of the earth), am not even a teensy bit religious, don;t like snow and am not much for material things (aside from books, my iPhone and the boys’ mutually owned Glowy).

The other day I mentioned feeling warm and fuzzy while listening to just about the only Christmas music I can handle (Andrea Bocelli). I actually have two more songs to add to that:

Yeah, did you catch the last part of the Jack song? Fabulous. We, personally, celebrate a very modern tribute to the winter solstice, finding warmth and happiness in the cold and dark, in our house. I always love listening to the traditions other people have when it comes to the holidays (or anything, really). Whatever you celebrate, have a happy one but remember that you need to treat all of the reindeer well, even when they don’t have shiny noses…

Great Artists Steal…

I’m not finished with Steve Jobs’ biography, yet, but I just had to share this tidbit of history, this intersection of  tech and book. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Mac:

Oh, and of course, I had to go looking for the add for the Mac we had for 10 straight years. Beat that, PC…

BTT: Love and Mystery

All things being equal, which would you prefer–a mystery? Or a love story?

Oh, I would definitely prefer a story with both elements, sillies! But if I had to pick one, I would say that a mystery is far more fun. Right now, I’m on a very uncharacteristic biography kick. In any life, there will be a mixture of both if you look hard enough. Perhaps I’m a romantic to hope for this but maybe I’m just looking for it, most of the time.

I didn’t really get into mysteries until I came across Tana French. That allowed me a little bit of leeway outside of my non-mystery comfort zone and I took up Maisie Dobbs. My most recent mystery acquisition is Alan Bradley’s fantastic set of mysteries.  I have never really been into romance but I’ll take if it happens to be there.

I will say, for sure, that I am sitting, here, like a cheese ball, listening to Andrea Bocelli sing Christmas songs and I am in grave danger of drawing comparisons to the magic, mystery and romance of a holiday I usually don’t get into much. Gosh, opera ruins everything…