Waiting on Wednesday

A weekly meme hosted by http://breakingthespine.blogspot.com/ spotlighting upcoming releases that we're anticipating.


This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:



What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell

Book description:

What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century?

In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: The Tipping Point; Blink; and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together, for the first time, the best of his writing from The New Yorker over the same period.

Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzling inventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz. Gladwell sits with Ron Popeil, the king of the American kitchen, as he sells rotisserie ovens, and divines the secrets of Cesar Millan, the "dog whisperer" who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand. He explores intelligence tests and ethnic profiling and "hindsight bias" and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate.

"Good writing," Gladwell says in his preface, "does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head." What the Dog Saw is yet another example of the buoyant spirit and unflagging curiosity that have made Malcolm Gladwell our most brilliant investigator of the hidden extraordinary.

Corduroy Mansions

Chapter Eight

Corduroy Mansions

Chapter Eight: Tibetan Hats


As yesterday the video to hear the chapter being read is directly above this paragraph.

While reading this chapter, in the beginning I was wondering when it would pick up. Then slightly it did. However at the end of the chapter, I was left with a smile on my face. I know people can be quirky and have their ways about them, but James is just being silly. Though I find it rather amusing as well to read of him and his ways. It's a light laugh to start my day.

Intertwined Sweepstakes

Busy People's Fast & Frugal Cookbook

Description from the book:
You want to give your family nutritious, affordable, home-cooked meals, but who has time to cook? You do, if you cook the Busy People's way. The Busy People's Fast and Frugal Cookbook is just the thing for today's economy-minded meal makers.
Each recipe in Busy People's Fast and Frugal Cookbook features:
* seven or less easy-to-find ingredients
* nutritional information
* shopping lists
* step-by-step meal preparation timelines
Dawn Hall shows hone cooks how to prepare simple and fast food that's as healthy as it is easy on the budget. And she shows you how to get it on the table in 30 minutes or less.


My take on this book selection:
I was so happy to try this cookbook. I love to cook, and especially love to save time and money. This cookbook was great to try my culinary feats. I made the Egg Drop Soup, and was impressed! Four ingredients and I was eating in less than 30 minutes! Fantastic!!!! I suggest all you home cooks grab a copy for yourself, you'd be pleased with the results! Here is a photo of the Soup.

EGG DROP SOUP



©2009

Teaser Tuesday

Hosted by: http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/?s=Teaser+Tuesdays

* Grab your current read.
* Let the book fall open to a random page.
* Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
* You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from…that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.
* Please avoid spoilers!

My Teaser:
Except of course, being Uncle Bill, he went on at once to claim that the money was only part of the story. And that his business principles could still be applied to anyone starting out with two little coins.

Page 401, Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella

Corduroy Mansions

Chapter Seven

Corduroy Mansions

Chapter Seven: Tic-tac and Other Matters

As yesterday the video to hear the chapter being read is directly above this paragraph.

I was quite excited when I started this chapter, as I realized the characters were the same as the last. I have found that each chapter has been with different characters until now. It was interesting being introduced to each, however I am happy to learn of one before moving on to the next.
I did think this chapter was a little slow compared to previous. There's nothing bad or good about it for me, it just is. I have no great feelings about it, or any real details to comment on.

Musing Mondays

http://rebeccavoy.blogspot.com

Do you keep a book wishlist, either on paper, Amazon/etc, or via a book database site (Shelfari, GoodReads, LibraryThing)? If yes, do you share this list with others (especially coming up to Christmas)?

I do have a book list, through LibraryThing. The icon for it is on my blog. I update it as I read the books. I also am a member of Book Blogs, Evermore (which is part of Ning,) and Book Army. Though LibraryThing is my preferred selection.

Media Monday

Fast & Frugal Cookbook by Dawn Hall
Murder in the Magic Club by Byron A. Lorrier ESQ.
Selfless by David Michael Slater
A Hard Way Home by Dennis Wesley Clark
The Grudge (Sequel to A Hard Way Home) by Dennis Wesley Clark

Dark Hunger by Rita Herron
How to Tame a Modern Rogue by Diana Holquist
So Into You by Sandra Hill
The Blue Star by Tony Earley

Corduroy Mansions

Chapter Six

Corduroy Mansions

Chapter Six: All Those Germs

As yesterday the video to hear the chapter being read is directly above this paragraph.

Reading this chapter, at first I was a little bored. Nothing was really happening. It was just one of those chapters for me, then I realized I was pulled in. I was concerned about the female character. Maybe I had the same feelings as her Mother, or maybe I connected with Caroline's feelings. I just had to read on. I felt compelled to learn Caroline's decision. Though, I believe indecisiveness won. Or rather, process of elimination leaves the decision. At any rate, I am cheering her on, and curious which one she will choose.

My Name is Will by Jess Winfield

Description from the book:
William Shakespeare Greenberg is not living up to his name. It's 1986, and instead of finishing his thesis on the Bard, this grad student is saying "yes" to drugs, bedding coeds, and delivering a giant psychedelic mushroom to a mysterious collector. Meanwhile, (or rather, back in 1582), would-be playwright William Shakespeare is an eighteen-year-old Latin teacher whose world is turned upside down when a stranger entrusts him with a sacred relic from Rome, drawing him into an underground network of Catholic dissidents. When the lives of Willie and William begin to eerily intertwine, their wild misadventures will shape not only the "Shakespeare" each is destined to become... but the course of history itself.

My take on this book selection:
First of all, I must warn you that this is an adult book. There are situations you may not want your teenager reading.

This book was really great. I enjoyed how the author used both the old and familiar story of William Shakespere, and collided it with a story of another Will Shakespere of a more modern time. It was quite suspenseful at times, and others I laughed out loud. All in all, if you are a fan of Shakespere, you will rather enjoy this selection. If you are not a fan, you may find the Old English text quite awful to read. The book itself, and the story of two inter-twined Wills, makes for an entertaining idea. I do think it was very well executed too! I highly recommend reading it!!

©2009

Donald James Parker

Donald James Parker, of Sword of the Spirit Publishing is a guest on the blog today. I have some Questions and Answers to share with all of you readers. All of his works are pictured below. As well as links to peruse, learn or purchase his works.
Reforming the Potter's Clay
Love Waits
Homeless Like Me
The Masterson Family Series: Angels of Interstate 29
The Bulldog Compact
More Than Dust in the Wind
All the Voices in the Wind
All the Stillness of the Wind
All the Fury of the Wind


Q & A
1. Tell us a bit about yourself.
I wrote my first book in 1980 but gave up writing in . . . drum roll . . . 1980. It seems that God wasn't ready for my retirement. In 2006, I had a dream experience where I thought I heard a voice telling me to write a book about evolution. I went right back to sleep, but in the morning I went to prayer and said "Lord, did you ask me to write a book about evolution last night?" As clear as a bell, a small still inaudible voice said "And when you're done with that, I want you to go after Harry Potter and the sexual revolution." As a result, I got back into the writing game but with an entirely different motivation. I'm not writing for fame, fortune, or anything else personal. All that stuff is dust in the wind. My focus is on bringing God's truth to the people who have the ears to hear it. I've exposed evolution in several of my books and gone after Harry Potter in Reforming the Potter's Clay. Now I'm going after the sexual revolution.

2. When did you realize you wanted to write?
Probably about twelve. Incessant reading for pleasure was the principal motivation. I never really wrote as a child so I'll spare you any puerile samples.

3. Tell us a bit about your books.
My books are mostly straight arrow type stuff, though my characters may speak a bit realistically at times and use what some consider vulgar language. I try to tone that down, but I do want a degree of reality in my writing to help contrast the hero, before and after his epiphany or between the guy in the white hat and the one in the black hat. I use lots of humor (I've been accused of being a stand up comedian using printed media to deliver the jokes. I've also been accused of being corny. My specialty is bantering. I love my characters to verbally spar, in a loving manner usually. I strive to have good win the day and most of the loose ends wrapped up with a happiness bow when The End comes around, but I have had a couple of somewhat sad endings. I almost have to include at least one romance in my book, chaste and honorable. Violence, sex, and other objectionable things are usually just alluded to or minimized. And all of them have Biblical truth woven in as object lessons or as experiences that the characters undergo helping them renew their minds and transform their lives.

4. Where do you like to write, and what is your writing process?
I write by the seat of my pants. I plan almost nothing. My favorite tactic is to blitz the book and spend from 4:00 AM to to 10:00 PM just typing as the story comes to me. I don't recommend this technique to anyone. People have suggested that I have a Holy Ghost writer. I don't argue because I have no explanation how I can just sit down and type and come up with a story that is pleasing to people, especially modern teens who I really can't relate to at all.

5. Who are your favorite Authors?
Mark Twain, Leon Uris, O' Henry, Frank Peretti, James Scott Bell, Tosca Lee, Trish Perry, Nicolas Sparks, Phillip E. Johnson, David Berlinski. I'll stop there, but suffice it to say it's hard to limit the list.

6. Have any Writers influenced you as a Writer?
Not consciously. I think Hemingway had some impact because he proved you did not have to write flowery description to produce a masterpiece.

7. Where do you get ideas for new books?
From life, news stories, current issues, past experience. I have no problem dredging up plots. Finding time to finish them is my problem. I think I have a list of 20 plots waiting in the wings.

8. What are you working on now, if anything?
I'm writing what I think is a powerful story about a basketball coach involved in a ministry to American Indians on the reservation. It combines some romance (always), some sports (most of the time) and some theology (always).

9. What do you do outside of writing?
Not much beside my 40 hour a week job as a computer programmer. I devote some time to church, prayer, exercise, and sleeping, but the majority of the rest of my waking hours is spent in some facet of writing – doing editorials, writing reviews, researching, marketing, promoting, and sometimes even working on a novel.

10. What are you currently reading?
I am reading everything I can get my hands on concerning healing and miracles. I'm reading about Heidi Baker, Bill Johnson, Sid Roth and others who operate in the gift of the miraculous. It's kind of hard to get into fiction when truth is not only stranger than fiction but more interesting.

11. Any advice for new Authors?
Get out while you can … unless you're willing to sacrifice your time, beat your head against the wall, and suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous reviews and seemingly relentless rejection. This is not a business for the faint hearted. But once you're convinced you have the talent to do this, never give up. Study the craft and learn the mechanics but never get locked into cookie cutter manuscripts. Don't let the world take away your uniqueness and the special voice that only you can bring to the choir of literature.


My thoughts and comments
I want to thank Donald James Parker for being a guest on my blog. It has been a delight getting to know him, and his works. I hope we were able to peak your curiosity, and maybe tantalize your senses into reading some of his books. Or even give you a tip or two in your own writing.

http://donaldjamesparker.com/
http://swordofspirit.net/