ReadingGrrls Paper Safari

Title:  Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright by Justine Saracen Publisher: Bold Stroke Books 264 Pages Genre: LGBT (historical fiction) I received this book as an electronic e-galley through netgalley.com  it was released March 13, 2012. Synopsis:  Twelve years of terror end with a world in flames. Behind filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl’s stirring footage of a million joyous patriots, the horror of Nazi Germany slowly unfolds. It engulfs Katja Sommer, a “good German” with dangerous desires; Frederica Brandt, a traitor to her homeland; Rudi Lamm, a homosexual camp survivor and forced soldier for Hitler; and Peter Arnhelm, a half-Jewish smuggler on the run. Under the scrutiny of the familiar monsters of the Third Reich, their enablers, and their hangers-on, these four struggle for life and for each other. Love does not conquer all, but it’s far better than going to hell alone. Review: I expected your typical lesbian love story but what I got was something completely differen...

Title:  Blinded by the Light: A Tess Camillo Mystery by Morgan Hunt Publisher: Alyson Books 244 Pages Genre: LGBT mystery Synopsis:  While doing temp work, Tess Camillo and a pregnant friend visit the Lightning Field, an earthworks art piece in the New Mexico desert.  400 lightning rods + 6 visitors + 1 bun in the oven = a mystery that will zap you with suspense and bolts of laughter! Review: I wasn't overly fond of the last two Tess Camillo books but maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind.  I found this one to be fun and witty, not as witty as Layce Gardners books but witty none the less. Tess just turned 50 is not thrilled with being single again, afraid to have her roommate leave and just sort of fumbling along after battling breast cancer and being attacked by a crazed lunatic.  She takes a temp job in New Mexico and travels with a friend to an earth art show in the dessert. When one of the other visitors is found dead in the lightening f...

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of  Should Be Reading . Anyone can play along! •  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! My teaser Tuesday is from:  Blinded by the Light by Morgan Hunt "As I raised my living room blind on this mid-June morning, I knew that whatever Club Med of Misery lay beyond, it had a reservation with my name on it. What else could await someone who spent her morning nibbling apple butter on whole wheat, sipping Kona blend, and hoping for a murder?"

Title:   Infertility and Adoption: A Husband and Father's Perspective by Roy Sokol Publisher: Rosedog Press 48 Pages Genre: Adoption Synopsis: Roy Sokol offers men a chance to be heard and women a rare opportunity to view the struggle with infertility from a male perspective. Infertility and Adoption: A Husband and Father's Perspective brings to life the frustration, anger, humor, heartbreak, and sense of helplessness and a mental philosophy learned in Marine Corps training that helps in overcoming the psychological barriers. While miracles in technology have brought joy to new families, those very advances have placed many couples into a spiraling cycle of hope and heartbreak. One failed attempt may lead to another, but how do you give up when there is always another doctor, another procedure holding the possibility of your dream for a family? Roy Sokol has captured the emotional turmoil he and his wife, Elizabeth, endured as they tried to conceive, the years their...

Title:   The House at Sea's End (Ruth Galloway Mysteries) by Elly Griffiths Publisher: Houghton Harcourt Mifflin 384 Pages Genre: Mystery I had received this book as an e-galley through netgalley.com   Synopsis:  Just back from maternity leave, Ruth is finding it difficult to juggle motherhood and work. The presence of DCI Harry Nelson—the married father of her daughter, Kate—does not help. The bones, skeletons of six men with their arms bound, turn out to be about seventy years old, which leads Nelson and Ruth to the war years, a desperate time on this stretch of coastland. Home Guard veteran Archie Whitcliffe reveals the existence of a secret the old soldiers have vowed to protect with their lives. But then Archie is killed and a German journalist arrives, asking questions about Operation Lucifer, a plan to stop a German invasion, and a possible British war crime. What was Operation Lucifer? And who is prepared to kill to keep its secret? Review: This is th...

Title:   Grave Mercy: His Fair Assassin, Book I (His Fair Assassin Trilogy) by Robin LaFevers Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children 560 Pages Genre: YA I received this book as an electronic galley from netgalley.com . This title is due to be released April 3, 2012 Synopsis:  Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others. Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how ca...

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of  Should Be Reading . Anyone can play along! •  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! My teaser Tuesday is from:  Grave Mercy by Robin LeFevers "I have been in Guerande three days. As urgently as the abbess wanted me here, I would think there should be someone who needed killing by now.   Duval throws back his head and laughs. " You are a bloodthirsty thing, I'll give you that." I stab a knife into my pear.

Title:   The Door to Lost Pages by Claude Lalumiere Publisher: ChiZine Publications 224 Pages Genre: Fantasy   I received this book as a free e-galley from Netgalley.com - it was released April 2011  Synopsis:  Step through the door to Lost Pages and escape a life you never wanted. On her tenth birthday, Aydee runs away from home and from her neglectful parents. At first, surviving alone on the streets is harsh, but a series of frightening, bewildering encounters with strange primordial creatures leads her to a bookshop called Lost Pages, where she steps into a fantastic, sometimes dangerous, but exciting life. Aydee grows up at the reality-hopping Lost Pages, which seems to attract a clientele that is either eccentric - or desperate. She is repeatedly drawn into an eternal war between enigmatic gods and monsters, until the day she is confronted by her worst nightmare: herself. Review: Very strange and hard to follow I'm not sure I can say I actually lik...

Title:   Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan & Al Switzler Publisher: McGraw-Hill 284 Pages Genre: Business Synopsis:  Discover skills to resolve touchy, controversial, and complex issues at work and at home. Behind the problems that routinely plague organizations and families, you'll find individuals who are either unwilling or unable to deal with failed promises. Others have broken rules, missed deadlines, failed to live up to commitments, or just plain behaved badly--and nobody steps up to the issue. Or they do, but do a lousy job and create a whole new set of problems. Accountability suffers and new problems spring up. New research demonstrates that these disappointments aren't just irritating, they're costly--sapping organizational performance by twenty to fifty percent and accounting for up to ninety percent of divorces. Review: Once again - ...