Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. To participate, grab your current read, open to a random page and share a few sentences. Don't include spoilers but do include the title and author.

Alone with her visitor, a subtle change came over Nadina's smile.
"Compatriots though we are, we will not speak Russian, I think," she observed.
"Since we neither of us know a word of the language, it might be as well," agreed her guest.
By common consent, they dropped into English, and nobody, now that the Count's mannerisms had dropped from him, could doubt that it was his native language.  

p. 2 of The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

Book Beginnings - Coal Black Horse

Book Beginnings is a meme hosted by Rose City Reader. Share the first sentence (or so) of a book you are currently reading, along with your initial thoughts and impressions about the sentence or book. Remember to include the title of the book and the author AND link up at the Rose City Reader

The evening of Sunday May 10 in the year 1863, Hettie Childs called her son, Robey, to the house from the old fields where he walked the high meadow along the fence lines where the cattle grazed, licking shoots of new spring grass that grew in the mowing on the edge of the pasture. He walked a shambling gait, his knees to and fro and his shoulders rocking. His hands were already a man's hands, cut square, with tapering fingers, and his hair hung loose to his shoulders. He was a boy whose mature body would be taller yet and of late he'd been experiencing frightening spurts of growth. On one night alone he grew an entire inch and when morning came he felt stretched and his body ached and he cried out when he sat up.

Okay, so I included a little more than usual of the beginning, but only because this book is so good! Please do not write this off as an 'animal' book. It's not about a horse. I repeat: it is not about a horse.

I know animal books or even books with animals in the title can turn off many readers. I read this for the color-coded reading challenge and it's easily one of my favorite reads for that challenge and quite possibly of all the reads I've done this year. You can read my review here. 

Review - Coal Black Horse

Coal Black Horse

By Robert Olmstead

200 pages

Description via Goodreads

His belly swooped low and dashed at his pelvis where it fluttered. This night was war. The falling rain was war. The clipped moon was war. The earth where they stood and the sky they stood under was war (103)

Despite the title, the story is not about a coal, black horse. It’s about a journey, a mini epic if you will. The journey of Robey Childs, a youth of fourteen, sent on an almost impossible mission to seek out his father on the battlefields during the peak of the Civil War. A coal, black horse leads him through the battle-torn North and South, but again it’s not about the horse, it’s about Robey figuring out the equation of war and how it will shape him into a man. 

A lot happens in this mini epic…mostly horrific things and death. It’s through these close encounters with death that Robey is able to internalize lessons of survival.

Lessons learned in a time of war…

…be angry.

…do not despair.

…trust no one.

…bad things will happen and you will do bad things.

…be unknown and unseen.

…the dead will kill you.

…you will gain immunity to the smell of death.

…everyone believes in the same mistake.

…people should be born twice.

…belief in God is finished.

…war is the nature of man.

…let the past go.

…you will become one of many failed humans.            

I’m sure there were more lessons throughout the book, but these were the ones I remembered. Some are potentially universal…or at least relevant in the war and conflict of today and possibly of the future.

Strewn over the few hundred acres was everything a man carried inside and out. There were enough limbs and organs, heads and hands, ribs and feet to stitch together body after body and were only in need of thread and needle and a celestial seamstress (116)

The language in this book is beautiful, there is powerful, vivid imagery and the subject matter is grisly, bleak and dark. If you don't like that combination, then this book might not be for you...I thought it was interesting that although the story is set in the Civil War, the issue of slavery is lightly brushed upon…not a complaint just an observation. My least favorite part of the book was Rachel. Not because she was a poorly developed character, but simply because I didn’t like her. If I were Robey I couldn’t justify her company. She was a hazard. My favorite part was the end, even though the last few chapters made me sad. Robey did what he had to do. Forever changed by war and no longer a boy, the son becomes the father.

 

Coal Black Horse 

Five stars.

 

What's Next

I haven't read anything for the Smooth Criminals Challenge in a while. I read most of the books for this challenge earlier in the year. I only need to read two more books to complete it, and I'm saving a particular one for the end of the year...Anyways my next few books will all be challenge related.

Smooth Criminals - Writer who did time

Color-coded - Brown

Color-coded - Blue

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. To participate, grab your current read, open to a random page and share a few sentences. Don't include spoilers, but do include the title and author.

 

The jacket on the one side was dun gray in color, dyed of copperas and walnut shells. When she turned it inside out, it showed blue with similar braids of rank. She told him he was to be on whatever side it was necessary to be on and not to trust either side.

p. 4 of Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead

Poetry for thought - This Is Just To Say

This Is Just To Say
by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Review - A Wizard of Earthsea

A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle #1)
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Pages: 180+

Description via Goodreads

…a man: who, knowing his whole true self, cannot be used or possessed by any power other than himself, and whose life therefore is lived for life’s sake and never in the service of ruin, or pain, or hatred, or the dark (195)

A Wizard of Earthsea is a science fiction/fantasy bildungsroman and origin story of Sparrowhawk (also known as Ged) the greatest voyager of Roke. The reader follows Ged from his humble beginnings as a nobody to his first obligations as wizard. 

Sparrowhawk or Ged, is very interesting character. He’s the last born and natural loner. Left to his own devices in a small, boring village, he finds creative ways to cultivate his mind. For example, learning charms from his witch-aunt: calling goats, healing spells, patching leaky roofs etc.  However, simple charms aren’t enough for Sparrowhawk, future dragonlord and Archmage. Eventually he takes up an apprenticeship with a Master Wizard, but impatience and immaturity rule over him. So the Master Wizard sends him to the Roke School of Wizards, famous throughout all Earthsea.

 Ged begins his adventure talented but immature and flawed. Along the way, he learns the importance of balance, not letting one side overwhelm the other.  He develops the courage and wisdom to finish what has been started. The major conflict jumpstarts when ego leads Ged to summon a power he doesn’t understand and cannot control. He creates a gateway for a shadow to enter the world. This is not just any shadow…it’s everything dark. On his journey to understand the shadow and his connection with it, he matures greatly. What begins as a source of self-inflicted damage and destruction of Ged becomes a passage to wholeness and adulthood.

There were many elements and little details that intrigued me… I like the idea of limits; knowing them and testing them--be it the power of a spell or sailing the seas to the edge of the world. Ged is a wizard, but he is also a human with weaknesses. I really like the dark invitations: the huge elder dragon on the isle…the hidden stone that was before all things. Both had knowledge of the shadow, knowledge that Ged needed, but their power was sinister and untrustworthy. I also like the importance of names. Knowing a true name grants one the ability to speak to, connect with, and in some instances control something or someone else. I’m hoping all these things will be further explored.

I’m looking forward to the other adventures of Ged. 

A Wizard of Earthsea

Four Stars.

Book Beginnings - A Wizard of Earthsea

Book Beginnings is a meme hosted by Rose City Reader. Share the first sentence (or so) of a book you are currently reading, along with your initial thoughts and impressions about the sentence or book. Remember to include the title of the book and the author AND link up at the Rose City Reader

The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards. From the town in its high valleys and the ports on its dark narrow bays many a Gontishman has gone forth to serve the Lords of the Archipelago in their cities as wizard or mage, or, looking for adventure, to wander working magic from the isle to isle of all Earthsea. Of these some say the greatest, and surely the greatest voyager, was the man called Sparrowhawk, who in his day became both dragonlord and Archmage. 

I like this beginning. From reading it I know its going to be about a  revered man named Sparrowhawk. I don't really like that name...Sparrowhawk....but I do like the character because he's flawed. I'm about halfway through, and I'll probably finish it today and write a review (something I haven't done in a long time)

I'm of that generation where anything in a book concerning adventures in wizardry almost always gets compared to Harry Potter, but LeGuin...she's on a different plane. I don't want to say on another level, but just in a different space. I'm actually drawing more connections to Skyrim than Harry Potter. I  recently started a new playthrough as mage, rather than greatsword wielding tank...so I have Skyrim on the brain while reading. I digress a little. It's pretty good. It's the first of four books. 

 

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. To participate, grab your current read, open to a random page and share a few sentences. Don't include spoilers, but do include the title and author.

 

At last he looked at the old man who waited inside. 'I cannot enter,' he said unwillingly, 'unless you help me.' The doorkeeper answered, 'Say your name.' Then again Ged stood for awhile; for a man never speaks his own name aloud, until more than his life's safety is at stake.

p. 37 of A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin

Book Beginnings - A Clash of Kings

 

Book Beginnings is a meme hosted by Rose City Reader. Share the first sentence (or so) of a book you are currently reading, along with your initial thoughts and impressions about the sentence or book. Remember to include the title of the book and the author AND link up at the Rose City Reader

Beginning (Prologue):

The comet's tail spread across the dawn, a red slash that bled above the crags of Dragonstone like a would in the pink and purple sky.

(Not prologue):

At Winterfell they had called her "Arya Horseface" and she'd thought nothing could be worse, but that was before the orphan boy Lommy Greenhands had named her "Lumpyhead". Her head felt lumpy when she touched it. 

My thoughts:

Considering what happened in the previous book, it was pretty obvious to me this comet was important. However, the prologue opening wasn't nearly as entertaining as the opening of the first narration by Arya (she's one of my favorite characters), so I had to include it. Martin has taken it upon himself to introduce even more characters and personalities...I don't know if I can keep up. Still good though. I wish I was further into it. It has been an odd week for reading. 

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. To participate, grab your current read, open to a random page and share a few sentences. Don't include spoilers, but do include the title and author. 

 

Dany hungered and thirsted with the rest of them. The milk in her breasts dried up, her nipples cracked and bled, and the flesh fell away from her day by day until she was lean and hard as a stick, yet it was her dragons she feared for. 

p. 190 of A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin 

Following the Herd

What an interesting weekend...Thanks to AMC I got absolutely no reading done. Not even one page. I was glued to my television because of their The Walking Dead marathon. Saturday AND Sunday. I love that show. Season 2 was so good and I'm uber excited for season 3. C'mon October.

I did watch two movies based on books. I first was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011). I felt this one and the older one (2009) were pretty evenly matched. I liked how they showed the clues being put together in the 2011 more than in the other. Also, being the vain person that I am, I thought the central cast was more attractive in the 2011 version. The woman who played Lisbeth from the 2009 was a pretty good fit, but the Lisbeth (Rooney Mara) in the 2011 was more of what I envisioned in my head....Daniel Craig is Daniel Craig (You can read my review of the book here)

The other movie was Battle Royale (2000). I was supposed to read the book and compare it to The Hunger Games, but I couldn't resist watching when I saw it on Netflix...I think everyone should watch it. It's just so damn entertaining. The cinematography is terrible, the acting is far from top notch, but the violence is pretty awesome. 

A brief update on the other books I'm reading to follow the herd:

1Q84 - can't put it down.

A Clash of Kings - very good. Not as far along into the story as I'd like to be. I blame the zombies.

Whenever I do finish these two monsters-of-a-book, I'll most likely be reading these next:

Poetry For Thought - Tennis

Tennis 
by Robert Pinksy

Strategy

Hit to the weakness. All things being equal,
Hit crosscourt rather than down the line, because
If you hit crosscourt back to him, then he

Can only hit back toward you (crosscourt)
Or parallel to you (down the line) but never
Away from you, the way that you can hit

Away from him if he hits down the line.
Besides, the net is lowest in the middle,
The court itself is longest corner-to-corner,

So that a crosscourt stroke is the most secure,
And that should be your plan, the plan you need

For winning...

Book Beginnings - 1Q84

Book Beginnings is a meme hosted by Rose City Reader. Share the first sentence (or so) of a book you are currently reading, along with your initial thoughts and impressions about the sentence or book. Remember to include the title of the book and the author AND link up at the Rose City Reader

The taxi's radio was tuned to a classical FM broadcast. Janaceks Sinfionetta--probably not the ideal music to hear in a taxi caught in traffic. The middle-aged driver didn't seem to be listening very closely, either.

I love listening to classical in the car. I probably wouldn't mind it while sitting in traffic either.The beginning may not seem like much, but I cannot put this book down! The story and characters are so peculiar (in a good way) I'm a third of the way through, which is an achievement for me since its some 900 pages long. I'll probably be reading it a little into next week as well. I really like it so far. 

Awards and such...

Sidne at Reading Rendezvous Reviewz has tagged me for the Liebster Blog award. You're tagged if you have under 200 followers and do a good job blogging. Those who are tagged then share 11 random facts about themselves, answer 11 questions posted by the person that tagged them, and then create their own set of 11 questions for others to answer. 

Why eleven? This is a lot of work.
I feel a strange way about this, but I'll participate... 

First, eleven random facts about me:

1) My favorite color is orange.

2) I have a Miniature Pinscher named Roxy (a very cute terror).

3) I was born in Germany.

4) Forrest Gump is one of my all-time favorite movies. 

5) I NEED to see the Mars Volta live. 

6) I'm approximately 69 inches tall.

7) Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana is catnip for me.

8) I want to learn Portuguese and French.

9) I think Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is a boss.

10) International Relations intrigue the hell out of me.

11) I like apple martinis

Now, the 11 questions I have to answer:

Romance or Historical? Historical.

Dystopian or Mystery? Mystery.

Christian or Sci-fi? Sci-fi.

Chick Lit or Thriller? Thriller.

Poetry or Memoir? Poetry.

Short Stories or YA? Short Stories.

Historical Romance or Paranormal? Neither.

Spiritual or Fantasy? Fantasy.

Cookbook or Health & Fitness? Cookbook.

Erotic or Street lit? Anything but Street lit!

Q's I'm asking:

1) You're going to be stranded on an island. You can only bring three books. Which three?

2) One book you wish you had written.

3) Do you speak more than one language?

4) Which one is the better actor: Matt Damon or Mark Wahlberg? 

5) What are you listening to?

6) What is the worst book you've ever read?

7) Do you have a doppleganger?

8) SVU or Criminal Intent?

9) Three authors that 'get' you or you really love

10) Do you have any other hobbies?

11) Are you okay with reviews containing spoilers? 

I never realized what a lazy member of the book blogging community I am. I don't know 11 blogs with under 200 followers. Anyways, I'm tagging:

Chris @ In A Bookshelf
Denee @ Novel Reveries
Rowen @ My Little Library
Neal @ English Major Versus the World
Amy @ Book Musings
Grace @ For Those Who Live to Read
LibraryBaby @ So Many Books, So Little Time...
V @ Bookborne

Eight is almost eleven, right?

 

Happy Fourth of July

America you are awesome (most of the time) and I hope everyone enjoys their Independence Day filled with food, fireworks, friends, family and fun.

...did you know three founding fathers died on July 4th? Adams, Jefferson and Monroe.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. To participate, grab your current read, open to a random page and share a few sentences. Don't include spoilers, but do include the title and author.

 

If she herself were a prostitute looking for wealthy businessmen, she would probably try her best not to look like a prostitute so as to avoid either making potential clients nervous or having herself ejected from the bar. One way to accomplish that might be to wear a Junko Shimada business suit and white blouse, keep her makeup to a minimum, carry a big, practical shoulder bag, and have a book on the South Manchurian Railway open in front of her. Come to think of it, what she was doing now was not substantially different from a prostitute on the prowl.

p.54 of 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Review: Pierre and Jean and Selected Short Stories

Pierre and Jean and Selected Short Stories
Author: Guy de Maupassant
Pages: 350+

Description via Goodreads

My thoughts:

Let's start with some fun facts about the author:

1) Gustave Flaubert was his mentor.

2) He has written over 300 stories

3) He was the child of an unhappy marriage.

4) He was a naturalist.

5) He contracted syphilis and died in a sanitarium at the age of 43.

6) He is considered to be a father of the modern short story.

 

These are not necessarily the most important or defining facts about him, but they are certainly very interesting.The nineteen short stories included in this collection are all written and translated very well. Maupassant precisely writes stories of love, society, rivalry, adultery; all filled with an array of darker human emotions: lust, jealousy, fear, guilt, hate, shame. 

His novel Pierre and Jean is a quintessential example of simple and realistic writing. The short novel describes a typical sibling rivalry enhanced by the discovery of a mother's infidelity and consequently, the illegitimate standing of a son and the wedge driven between brothers. While this is the leading story, it was not one of my favorites. I preferred The Roque Girl for its sadness, Marroca for its lightness, and Mad? for its disturbing turn.

My friend, there are two tortures on this earth that I hope you nver experience: lack of water and lack of women. Which is more horrible? I don't know. In the desert, a man would do anything, however infamous, for a glass of cold, clear water. What wouldn't he do in certain coastal towns for a fresh, healthy girl? There's no shortage of girls in Africa, far from it: they're in plentiful supply. But to continue my comparison, they're as dangerous and tainted as the foul water of a well in the Sahara.

The one story I was really looking forward to, although I couldn't pinpoint why, was Le Horla. And it wasn't until after I read it that I remembered (A few years ago a discussion over Don Quixote's and Cervantes' sanity, brought up Maupassant's name) It kind of makes sense now. Syphilis can make a person go crazy. This story of paranoia and clepto-vampires that will steal your breath, milk and peace of mind is odd, to say the least. But I don't know that he was crazy when he wrote it...I felt the same way about Cervantes. I think Le Horla is an accurate portrayal of teetering over the edge.

I can easily see how his writing influenced generations of American and European writers. I don't want to say he perfected a formula for his stories, but he was very successful in writing solid stories by exposing what he observed in the everyday, mixing in a little drama and including a 'surprise' ending. I will certainly read more of his work. I'm thinking Boule de Suif and The Necklace.

Pierre and Jean and Selected Stories

Four stars.