Friday Find: The Silent Governess by Julie Klassen

The Silent Governess by Julie Klassen found it from Julie J. of My Own Little Corner of the World

From the Back Cover

Olivia Keene is fleeing her own secret. She never intended to overhear his. But now that she has, what is Lord Bradley to do with her? He cannot let her go, for were the truth to get out, he would lose everything--his reputation, his inheritance, his very home. He gives Miss Keene little choice but to accept a post at Brightwell Court, where he can make certain she does not spread what she heard. Keeping an eye on the young woman as she cares for the children, he finds himself drawn to her, even as he struggles against the growing attraction. The clever Miss Keene is definitely hiding something. Moving, mysterious, and romantic, The Silent Governess takes readers inside the intriguing life of a nineteenth-century governess in an English manor house where all is not as it appears.

A-Z Wednesday: Zoya's Story: An Afghan Woman's Struggle for Freedom by John Follain and Rita Cristofari

Zoya's Story: An Afghan Woman's Struggle for Freedom

John Follain and Rita Cristofari

ISBN: 0060097833
ISBN-13: 9780060097837

HarperCollins Publishers

Zoya’s Story, vividly brings to life the realities of growing up in a Muslim culture, the terror of living in a perpetual war zone, the pain of losing those she has loved, the horrors of a woman’s life under the Taliban, and the discovered healing and transformation that lead her on a path of resistance.

Although she is only twenty-three, Zoya (not her real name) has seen and suffered more tragedy and terror than most people experience in a lifetime. Born in a land ravaged by war, she loses her parents when Muslim fundamentalists kill them. Devastated, she escapes from Kabul with her grandmother and starts a new life in exile in Pakistan. She joins the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), an organization that challenges the crushing statutes of the Taliban government, and she takes destiny into her own hands, joining a hazardous, secret war to save her nation.

Fear of violence had become a part of the fabric of life, a day-to-day reality, whether from male fanatics among her people, the invading Russian soldiers, or, soon-to-be, American bombs and military men. In her school, from the age of fourteen, Zoya learns the meaning of democracy, human rights and feminism from the teachers of the school in Pakistan.

Soroya, one of her teachers taught her that "politics was not about long discussions among . . . politicians; it was about talking to poor, ignorant, and backward people and showing them that they had a future."

Zoya finds her strength through RAWA, and has since been a dedicated underground activist, based in Pakistan. She has been back in Kabul several times and witnessed the devastation caused by the Taliban, including a "cutting of hands," the punishment for stealing, held at enforced mass gatherings at the former soccer stadium..

John Follain and Rita Cristofari, tracked Zoya down to write her story for us. They met her in secret fully well knowing her life is still in danger.

Zoya says at the end of her story, "If peace returns to my country I would like to go back and walk the destroyed streets of Kabul, the sun shining not on a burqa but on my face. I would think not of the past but of the Future."

Despite her suffering, she has a positive vision for her country. That is what makes this book very interesting. A must read book.

Teaser Tuesdays: Sins of the Flesh by Caridad Piñeiro

"Her skin had assumed the colour of the verdant woods around her. I'm human, but my skin isn't normal, she thought as the full impact of her condition hit her." ~~~Page 17

Title: Sins of the Flesh
Author: Caridad Piñeiro
ISBN: 9780446543835
Publisher: Forever/2009
Pages: 313

Back Cover:

Caterina Shaw’s days are numbered. Her only chance for survival is a highly experimental gene treatment – a risk she willingly takes. But now Caterina barely recognizes herself. She has new, terrifying powers, an exotic, arresting body — and she’s been accused of a savage murder, sending her on the run.

Mick Carrera is a mercenary and an expert at capturing elusive, clever prey. Yet the woman he’s hunting down is far from the vicious killer he’s been told to expect: Caterina is wounded, vulnerable, and a startling mystery of medical science. Even more, she’s a beautiful woman whose innocent sensuality tempts Mick to show her exactly how thrilling pleasure can be. The heat that builds between them is irresistible, but surrendering to it could kill them both . . . for a dangerous group is plotting its next move using Caterina as its deadly pawn.

My views:

The title and the cover are somewhat a misnomer. This is more a paranormal suspense than anything else. It has also tackles medical issues.....the ethics of it. Do doctors have the right to experiment with human beings? What if something goes wrong? That's what happened with Caterina. An experiment went horribly wrong, she became a murder suspect and is being hunted down for it. Mick somehow can't believe she is a murderer. He takes her to his own place, hiding her from the law as well as the killer hired by the doctor. He along with his sister start a detox programme and she slowly recovers her memory and remembers everthing. However, the toxicity is too much to make her an healthy person.

There are loose ends. Some of the characters seem too good or too bad. The plot too stumbles at places. But for a fast read, it works well.

Monday: Musings/Mailbox/Whereabouts

Go to your bookshelf and pick a random book. No cheating now, just reach out and pick one. Now tell us about it – where did you get it? Why? Was it a gift? Does it hold any special memories? Did someone recommend it to you? etc.

This is interesting! I simply closed my eyes and let my hand pick out a book. And that is Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi. I had bought it from the Sunday Pavement book bazaar for a pittance. I was intrigued by the back cover and had to buy it. However, I am yet to read this book.

From Publishers Weekly

In this novel, Hegi captures the events and atmosphere in the country prior, during and after WW II. Again she has produced a powerful novel whose chilling candor and resonant moral vision serve a dramatic story. With a sure hand, Hegi evokes the patterns of small-town life, individualized here in dozens of ordinary people who display the German passion for order, obedience and conformity, enforced for centuries by rigid class differences and the strictures of the Catholic church. The protagonist is Trudi Montag, the Zwerg (dwarf) who becomes the town's librarian; (she and most of the other characters figured in the earlier book). A perennial outsider because of her deformity, Trudi exploits her gift for eliciting peoples' secrets--and often maliciously reveals them in suspenseful gossip. But when Hitler ascends to power, she protects those who have been kind to her, including two Jewish families who, despite the efforts of Trudi, her father and a few others, are fated to perish in the Holocaust. Trudi is a complex character, as damaged by her mother's madness and early death as she is by the later circumstances of her life, and she is sometimes cruel, vindictive and vengeful. It is fascinating to watch her mature, as she experiences love and loss and finds wisdom, eventually learning to live with the vast amnesia that grips formerly ardent Nazis after the war.

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I finished:

Nothing!

I am in midst of:

Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo

I plan to read:

Anything that holds my interest

I posted reviews of:

The Emerald Swan by Jane Feather
The Captive by Brenda Joyce
Yellowknife by Steve Zipp
The Marshall and the Heiress by Patricia Potter
The Courtship by Catherine Coulter
The Switch by Sandra Brown
Life Support by Tess Gerritsen

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Monday Mailbox is hosted by Marcia.

I received only one book:

Buried Alive: The True Story of Kidnapping, Captivity, and a Dramatic Rescue by Roy Hallums from Thomas Nelson

Contractor Roy Hallums recounts the harrowing ten months he was held captive by Iraqi insurgents, the heroic rescue by American troops, and the faith that helped him survive it all.

In November 2004 Roy Hallums was working late at his office in Iraq at the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Company, supposedly well-protected by armed security guards, when four kidnappers broke in and hauled him away at gunpoint. The next ten months were the darkest of his life. Hallums spent most of his time in a concrete pit beneath a farmhouse, constantly bound and blindfolded. A small pipe in the ceiling provided the room’s only oxygen – and its only link to the outside world. Hallums banked on one group in particular not forgetting his existence—the US military. And sure enough, on September 7, 2006, they successfully rescued him. This is the edge-of-your-seat story of a trip through hell for Hallums, the daring rescue mission, and faith that brought him through the experience.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: The Murder Stone by Louise Penny

Title: The Murder Stone
Author: Louise Penny
ISBN: 9780755341016
Publisher: Headline/2008
Pages: 312
Rating: 3.5/5


This novel is set in an exclusive hotel, The Manoir Bellechasse, which is situated deep in the Canadian wilderness. It is peak of summer and the place is a escape from the mundane world. Homicide Chief Inspector Gamache along with his wife, is there for their annual visit. Stinking rich, snobbish Finney family is there too, for a family reunion. All the members of the family are weird and quirky in their own ways. They have gathered here in this particular place to pay a tribute to their father, Charles. It seems they don't like him at all but are here only for their mother's sake.

Tensions are running high, old jealousy come into surface and escalates into a murder being committed. The big question is who is the murderer and what is the motive. Most important is, how could it have been committed? All of the family is a suspect. And then there are a few hotel employees who are not above suspicion either.

Chief Inspector Gamache has lot of questions with no answers and he too has his own demons to slay. In the course of the book, many interesting things are revealed about the family members. The book managed to hold interest. Louise Penny has a good style of writing. I liked to learn about the place it is set in.

TSS: Life Support by Tess Gerritsen

Title: Life Support
Author: Tess Gerritsen
ISBN: 978-0671553043
Publisher: Pocket books/1998
Pages: 400

Back Cover:

New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen weaves authenticity into another novel of searing medical suspense, as a dedicated woman doctor probes into the cause of a mystifying and lethal outbreak.

The quiet overnight shift at Springer Hospital ER suits Dr. Toby Harper just fine -- until she admits a man in critical condition from a possible viral infection of the brain. The delirious man barely responds to treatment -- and then disappears without a trace. Before Toby can find him, a second case occurs, revealing a terrifying fact: the virus can only be spread through direct tissue exchange. Following a trail of death that winds from a pregnant sixteen-year-old prostitute to her own home, Toby discovers the unthinkable: the epidemic didn't just happen -- someone let it loose....

My views:

I have read almost all of the Robin Cook books but this is my first Tess Gerritsen book. And I am determined to read more of her works. Dr Toby Harper has to get into the bottom of it, when she finds similarities between the patients admitted in the hospital. She suspects an epidemic and when she gets around asking for facts, she finds herself isolated. She is suspected of abusing her own mother and even her sister thinks the worst about her. But all this makes Toby more determined. She is a very strong personality and is not deterred by the oppisition.

Gerritsen's knowledge about the medical world is commendable. Her writring is vey good which totally engrosses the reader. And with pharma giants involved, this book becomes so very real and scary...

TSS: The Switch by Sandra Brown

Happy Sunday to all, the last one of January 2010. A whole month is gone in a jiffy. After few weeks of cold, we are having sunny weather. I am soaking it up and enjoying the day. Life couldn't have been better than this. Personal front is really going good, although it hasn't been very conducive for reading.

Also I had been lagging behind my reviews. Today I wrote all those pending reviews and scheduled those to be posted in the next few days. I kind of feel very light. Here is one of those reviews I wrote.


Title:The Switch
Author: Sandra Brown
ISBN: 0446609943
Publisher: Warner Vision/2000
Pages: 550

Gillian and Melina Lloyd are identical twins. They share a bond which can only happen with identical twins. No one can tell them apart. Melina works as a media escort. And Gillian is desperate for a child. So much so that she gets herself enrolled into a feritilty clinic and is a prime candidate to receive sperm from a donor. The day she is artificially inseminated, she meets Melina and they celebrate. However, nothing can be known before a week or so. Seeing Gillian tense, Melina asks Gillian to take her place to escort a NASA astronaut Col. "Chief" Hart. Gillian refuses at first.

Next morning Gillian is found brutally murdered and Melina is devastated. It turns out that, as Chief was the person who saw her, he is the prime suspect. He along with Melina, is determined to find the killer. And they stumble upon a totally horrifying scheme of a so called fanatic, a television preacher, who has thousands of followers. He can go to any length to protect his interests, and is determined to use Melina in place of Gillian for his own ends. With the FBI entering the scene, the plot thickens as a major conspiracy is discovered.

The Switch is a good suspense thriller, with misuse of medical practices thrown in, in good measure. The worst part is, it can be true too, if we are not careful and let psychotic megalomania rule over minds. There is this romance aspect too, which is no way deters the story.

Weekly Geeks/Booking through thursday : Winter Reading

#Posting this for the BTT post of this week, which is on winter reading.

"The northern hemisphere, at least, is socked in by winter right now… So, on a cold, wintry day, when you want nothing more than to curl up with a good book on the couch … what kind of reading do you want to do?"

For this week's Weekly Geeks, share with us the books which call out to you during the cold, wintry months. Are there genres which appeal to you most? Why do you think you are drawn to these types of books during winter? Do you have some book recommendations for other readers who are looking for some escape from the blustery weather? Give us some of your favorites and tell us why you recommend them.

I am one of those, who doesn't let the weather affect my reading habits. I read pretty much what I want. It can be anything, poetry, memoirs, fiction etc etc. However, this year we had severe winters, which is unusual for Delhi. Somehow I picked up a lot of romances and read those at a stretch. Maybe the warm feelings those romances aroused helped me combat the winter. I found myself hooked to those books. In January, I did not read much but what I read were romances or had underlying romances even if those came under suspense/thrillers too. What do I reccomend?

Do check out the following:

Sins of the Flesh by Caridad Piñeiro

The Switch by Sandra Brown
The Courtship by Catherine Coulter
The Marshall and the Heiress by Patricia Potter
The Last Bachelor by Betina Krahn

The Valentine Legacy by Catherine Coulter
The Captive by Brenda Joyce
Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier
To Desire A Devil by Elizabeth Hoyt
Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas (pdf version)

The Emerald Swan by Jane Feather
Creole Angel by Peggy Hanchar
After Innocence by Brenda Joyce

Night Secrets by Kat Martin
Midnight Magic by Betina Krahn

15 romances in two months? Thats a lot!

Friday Find: The Ravenous Audience by Kate Durbin

The Ravenous Audience by Kate Durbin

Kate Durbin's debut volume is not for the weak of gut. Cum, blood, vomit, and other bodily juices slop off the page in a grotesque reanimation of history and art's female villains and s/heroes. Unlike other feminist revisionist texts, The Ravenous Audience refuses to rescue the misunderstood bitches of our cultural past, instead viscerally imposing the scope of their bodily and existential horrors--including each woman's culpability. Durbin even throws the reader, and the poet, into the cauldron. Complicating all easy notions of responsibility, she points the finger in every direction possible--before biting it clean.

Booking Through Twisty

1. Do YOU like books with complicated plots and unexpected endings?

2. What book with a surprise ending is your favorite? Or your least favorite?

I do prefer to read books with complicated plots and unexpected endings. I like to go on a roller coaster ride while reading. A well written book can do that for us if those have interesting characterization. The whys and hows oought to be justified. And a book for the sake of twisty endings puts me off. I have read a lot of books wit unexpected endings.

The Suicide Collecters by David Oppegaard is one such book with a totally unexpected ending. And the ending of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J K Rowling totally sucks for me.