This Week's Recommendations (#7, if you're keeping track)

I only have 22 this week.  I don't think I'm legally, morally, or ethically bound to post 25. Am I?  Well, I finally got caught up, so I don't think I'll have 25 in a week any more.  I also want to mention that if you see a book twice, it just means that more than one blogger raved about the book.  That obviously gives the book even greater cachet.

Without further blather, here they are.

Teal Haviland, Inception, YA paranormal - The Book Reviewers and Authors Club
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, 1st Sherlock Holmes story - MY READER'S
   Block
Saira Shah, The Mouse-Proof Kitchen - Bibliophile By the Sea
Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, spooky - Estella's Revenge
Christine Baker Kline, Orphan Train - Musings of a Bookish Kitty
Patrick Boyle, Scout Honor, true story about sex abuse in the Boy Scouts - Rose City
   Reader
Craig Silvey, Jasper Jones - Persephone Nicholas, author
Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth, Persephone Nicholas, author
Kelly Creagh, Nevermore (book #1), YA paranormal - Tangled in Pages
Kelly Creagh, Enshadowed (book#2, Nevermore series), YA paranormal - Tangled in
   Pages
Lenore and Daniel Jennewein, picture book - BermudaOnion
Ken Mochizuki, Passage to Freedom:  The Sugihara Story, true story of Japanese
   Schindler, children and all ages - Rhapsody in Books
Alison Reynolds, A Year with Marmalade, kids, illustrated - Bibliophile By the Sea
Mary Simses, The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop and Cafe, chick lit - BermudaOnion
Kami Garcia/Margaret Stohl, Beautiful Creatures (#4, series), YA paranormal - Coffee and
   a Book Chick
Carolyn Turgeon, The Fairest of Them All, fairy tale - BookHounds
Don Compton/Dave Ember/Bruce Foster, America's National Parks, pop-up book -
   Booking Mama
Dorothea Benton Frank, The Last Original Wife, contemporary fiction - Bookfan
Nelika Mcdonald, The Vale Girl - book'd out
Debbie Macomber, Rose Harbor in Bloom, contemporary fiction - Bookfan
Erika Robuck, Call Me Zelda, historical/women's fiction - Booking Mama
Richelle Mead, Vampire Academy (#1 of 6, Vampire Academy series), YA paranormal -
   All the Books I Can Read

Confession:  Yes, I know I promised the next 2 mini-reviews in a "day or 3."  Today is the 3rd day, and, no, I don't have them ready yet.  Soon?  Of course.

The 1st 2 of 4 Mini-Reviews

The 1st review is my most disappointing.  When I read Michael Lavigne's Not Me, I was so impressed that I included it in Volume III of Fiction for the Non-Fiction Reader.  It was very clever, well-written, and extremely entertaining.  His latest, and 2nd, The Wanting, is only 1 of those 3.  And the 1 is the problem.  It's so well-written that he forgot to make it entertaining.  I definitely commend him on writing beautifully.  But I can't say that I enjoyed it.  Even Steve, who recommended Not Me way back in early 2012, read part of The Wanting and gave up on it.  If I didn't know Michael personally, I might have done the same thing.  That, and the fact that I have to finish (almost) every book as if it's a homework assignment, kept me from following suit.

The story, in a nutshell, is that Roman Guttman, a Russian Jew and a well-known architect, is hit by a terrorist (Hamas) bus bomb in the town he lives in North of Tel Aviv. 9 people were killed, and he was one of 42 injured.  Roman makes an ill-fated journey into Palestine to meet with the suicide bomber's family.  Not too smart, eh?  The story is told in 3 voices:  Roman's, his 13-year old daughter, Anyusha (whose mother has long been dead), and Amir, the terrorist bomber, who says:  "But I am confused that I am not in Paradise with my dark-eyed maidens and rivers of wine, at peace with the pleasure of Allah and his angels."  Bummer, dude.  I'm giving it a 2.5 out of 4 just because it's so well-written.  For some of you, good writing might be enough.  For me, not so much.

The 2nd review is Brad Taylor's Enemy of Mine.  I don't know if you remember, but I read his 1st one, One Rough Man, back in late 2011.  Jack gave it to me, and I really liked it. Then I read his 2nd one, All Necessary Force, a couple of months later and thought it was actually poorly written.  I was really disappointed because after the 1st one, I had established an email relationship with Brad that I was really enjoying.  He always responded within a couple of hours, unlike many authors, and I very much appreciated that.  Well, after I read the 2nd one, I emailed to tell him that I had to give an honest, but less than favorable, review.   He was a gentlemen about it, but it effectively ended our "relationship."  Can't say as I blame him but, hopefully, can't blame me either.

Now here comes Brad's 3rd one.  The good news is that it's better than #2.  The bad news is that it's not as good as #1.  I'm giving it a 2.5 but don't know if I'll read #4. Considering the writing is a bit confusing for me, the only redeeming value is the relationship between Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill, who came together in book #2. Here is a short synopsis of the book from the jacket (no, I didn't read the flap before I read the book):

A tentative peace between Israel and Palestine has been brokered by the United States. But the Taskforce - a clandestine team operating outside of U.S. law to protect the country from terrorism - gets wind of an assassination attempt on the American envoy sent to solidify the treaty. The Taskforce must devote every resource to saving his life - and preventing another bloody outbreak of violence.

Haven't we seen a bunch of books like this?  The hero (in this case, the hero and the heroine) almost singlehandedly stops the bad guys and their assassin.  It sounds like I'm not a fan of this subject matter.  Au contraire.  I'm just not a fan when it's not done well. Vince Flynn's (sigh) Mitch Rapp, Alex Berenson's John Wells, and Daniel Silva's (I'm reading his latest now) Gabriel Allon all stop terrorist plots on a regular basis.  And Sheldon Siegel's 1st standalone, The Terrorist Next Door, has a Chicago detective that is stopping domestic terrorist plots.  It can be done well.  It's just not being done particularly well by Brad.

FUTURE PROGRAM NOTES:  I will do another couple of mini-reviews in the next day or 3.

QUESTION?

Do you read the flap of a book before you read the book itself?  Or do you want to be surprised?  (2 question marks but really only 1 question.)

I'll answer my own question 1st.  I do NOT read the flap at least until I have finished the book - or not at all. I don't want to know anything that happens before it happens.  I start on page one, and, unlike Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally, who read the end of every book 1st, I never read ahead (well, almost never - but NEVER the end).

What do you all do?

Author Taylor Stevens Explains How Authors Get Royalties - Very Illuminating.

Taylor Stevens has written 3 books, starting with The Informationist (which I read several years ago and liked well enough).  But, more importantly, she is sharing with her email followers how the publishing industry works and how authors make their money.  This segment is about royalties.  It's a bit long, but if you have always wondered how authors make money beyond advances, here is an explanation. Royalties: According to the publisher-author contract, a percentage of every book sold belongs to the author in a form of profit sharing that was originally intended to leave a 50/50 split after all the publishing expenses are factored in. The percentage is laid out within the contract and it varies by format (hardback, trade, mass market, ebook, etc.) and tiered by quantity sold. Typically for a hardback book the tier starts at 10% of cover price (for a $23.00 book, this would be $2.30 per book to the author) and 7.5% for trade paperback (for a $14.00 book, this would be a little over $1.00 per book to the author). Since the author has already been paid for the work, and that money is his/hers to keep regardless, the author won’t receive any more money from the publisher for this work until enough copies have sold so that the author’s portion earned through sales equals the money the publisher already paid in advance of royalties. This is called “earning out.” If we assume that our previous hypothetical $20,000 advance was made for a hardback book with a cover price of $23.00, that book would need to sell just over 8,500 copies in order to earn out. [This is not factoring in sales from audio, ebook, or other sources, or the tier breakdown where the author would get more money after the first 5,000 copies—I’m trying to keep it simple.] For a relatively unknown author, 8,500 hardback copies is a LOT of books. Just saying. Depending on the size of the advance, it’s possible for a book to sell incredibly well and still not earn out. Many books never earn out, and in those cases, the author will never receive more money from the publisher for that book. Once a book does earn out, royalties are accounted for and paid by the publisher typically twice per year. This is with the big six traditional publishers. Indie publishers and small presses may have different schedules, and Amazon also has a more frequent schedule. Accounting for royalties does not begin for a book until the book’s publication date, and if the pub date falls, say, one month after the accounting period closed out, it could be a year before the first royalty check shows up. THE INFORMATIONIST was sold in July 2009 (contract signed in August), published in March 2011, and the first royalty check (which accounted for only 3 weeks of sales) arrived in September of 2011. One of the things I find giggle-worthy is when people talk about publishing a book as a way to get rich. It does happen for a small percentage of authors, but even still, as you can see by the way the timeframes are so spread out, even for them book publishing is not get rich quick. The subject of rights is kind of tedious, so, I’m going to skip a few weeks before approaching it.

This Post Is Called (wait for it...) Recommendations List #6 (do you feel let down?)

Although I lost a day to last week's post (I'm 2 days behind again), at least I have a good excuse this time.  In case you didn't pay attention, I posted a new review on Monday. Pretty slick, eh?  

Okay, notice that #23 and #25 are the same author, Patrick Ness, recommended by 2 different bloggers.  Evidently Ness writes very dark novels.  But one of the bloggers actually called him a genius.  If any of you reads one of his books, I would love to get your opinion.

Susanna Kearsley, The Winter Sea, historical fiction – Stacy’s Books

Rod Stewart, Rod, autobiography – Booking Mama

Ken Ludwig, How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare – Rhapsody in Books

Peter Bently, King Jack and the Dragon, picture book 2+ - Quirky Bookworm

Karen Marie Moning, Dreamfever (book 4), fantasy – All the Books I Can Read

Liza Klaussmann, Tigers in Red Weather, literary fiction – Booking Mama

Paula Weston, Shadows, paranormal – Tangled in Pages

Wes Moore, Discovering Wes Moore, YA memoir – Bermudaonion

Rachel Caine, #1-Working Stiff, #2-Two Weeks’ Notice, #3-Terminated, Revivalist

    trilogy, paranormal and urban fantasy – book’d out

Henry Cole, Unspoken:  A Story from the Underground Railroad, historical picture book

    (no words) – Rhapsody in Books

Susan Holoubed, Traces of Absence – book’d out

Time Home Entertainment/Discovery Channel, Sharkopedia, The Complete Guide to

    Everything Shark – Booking Mama

Jinx Schwartz, Just the Pits, #5, mystery – Evelyn Cullett

Michael Robotham, editor, If I tell You…I’ll Have to Kill You, essays by Australian

    crime writers – book’d out

Koethi Zan, The Never list, psychological thriller (debut) – Booking Mama

Vivek Shraya, God Loves Hair – Bookish Ardour

Lauren Leto, Judging a Book by its Lover:  A Field Guide to the Hearts and Minds of

    Readers Everywhere – Amused by Books

Cathy Lamb, If You Could See What I See, chicklit, romance, contemporary fiction –

    book’d out

Liane Moriarty, The Husband’s Secret, women’s fiction – Under My Apple Tree

Lulu Harrison, Lulu in LA LA LAND, middle grade reader – Booking Mama

Brigid Kemmerer, Storm (Elemental #1), paranormal – Feed Your Fiction Addiction

Kara Weiss, Late Lights, novella – Under My Apple Tree

Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls, YA, dark fiction, fantasy – Under My Apple Tree

Jon McGoran, Drift, thriller – Stacy’s Books

Patrick Ness, The Ask and the Answer, dystopia – Tangled in Pages

Looking for Me - Beth Hoffman's 2nd (and, unfortunately, only other) Book

It's only been a little over a month and a half (50 days, to be exact) since I reviewed Beth's 1st book, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt.  Normally, I would wait awhile before I picked up a 2nd book from an author I had only read a couple of months earlier.  HOWEVER, since I gave CeeCee a strong 4 (maybe even a 4.25) out of 4, I decided not to wait to read Looking for Me.  And, not surprisingly, I'm very glad I made that decision.  This is another really strong effort from Beth.  Between the 2, I have to give CeeCee the edge.  Don't be upset, Beth.  Looking for Me is still a 4.

1st, let me give you a quick rundown of Looking for Me.  Teddi Overman grows up in Kentucky and finds herself as a young girl with a passion for fixing beat-up furniture.  In fact, while selling a restored piece at the end of the road leading to her house, she runs across a buyer that will change her life.  She ultimately ends up working in an antique store in Charleston, South Carolina.  After a number of years, and in a very roundabout way, she ends up owning the store.  Now, normally, I wouldn't give away a plotline that turns up a good part of the way into a book.  In this case, though, the drama centers on personal relationships, both with family as well as with friends, mentors, and even foes. It's the journey (I know from the Bachelor/Bachelorette that "journey" is a very overused word), not the destination, that matters here.

Now, what about some of those relationships (I'll get to family in a minute)?  First, there's Mr. Palmer, who Teddi 1st sees at the end of the road in Kentucky and who she then works for in Charleston.  Then there's Mr. Calhoun, who brokers a loan for her to buy her own shop.  How about Sam, an attorney in town, who pays for whatever his mother swipes from Teddi's shop (in fact, take a look at page 79, in  which Teddi's bookkeeper, Inez, introduces us to the word "Designamony").  And let's not forget Albert, a master restorer who Teddi works with at Mr. Palmer's shop and who then works for Teddi at her shop.  Finally, there's Teddi's best friend, Olivia.  Just like Leo Stein, in Jodi Picoult's The Storyteller, Olivia gets all of the funny lines.

All of these connections/relationships are right on.  I loved them.  But Teddi also has family that she grew up with in Kentucky.  What about them?  Here's what's very interesting to me.  I connected less, emotionally, with her family than I did with her Charleston people.  Teddi has quite a story to tell about growing up with her mother, father, brother, and grandmother ("grammy," which my son's kids call their other grandmother).  In fact, her brother disappeared when he was 18, and Teddi was 23.  And Teddi had a very complicated relationship with her mother.  I was definitely interested in both of them (along with her father and grandmother, especially her grandmother) but not viscerally.  I can't explain it.  I have yet been able to figure out why I connect with some characters and not others.  It just is what it is.

There's another element of the book that I really like.  Teddi is a single woman who is in her mid-30's.  She has a deep love for family, friends, and antique furniture.  She doesn't need romance in order to have a fulfilling and fulfilled life.  Does she find a man to love and to be loved by?  Maybe she does and maybe she doesn't.  The point is that the book succeeds without a love interest.  Not every book that deals with emotions and relationships has to have romance to make it work.  But, in many cases, it doesn't hurt, either!

Get a hold of this book - in print, digital, or audio format.  You'll be thanking me that you did.

P.S.  How cool is this book cover?

"6 Books for Boys Who Hate Reading"

Whitney Collins, on behalf of Barnes & Noble, listed 6 books that will get young boys, who don't like to read, reading.  Along with a 1-word category, they are:

Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Jeff Kinney - commiserating
George's Marvelous Medicine - Roald Dahl - naughty
Attack of the Giant Hampster - Dr. Roach - gross
Bunnicula - Deborah Howe - scary
Interrupting Chicken - David Ezra Stein - funny
On Board the Titanic:  What it was Like When the Great Liner Sank - Shelley Tanaka - tragic

For a detailed description of why each book will appeal to young male readers, click on the link below.

6 Books For Boys Who Hate Reading

www.barnesandnoble.com