Garth Stein wrote The Art of Racing in the Rain, but I unfortunately never got a chance to pick it up and read it.  I always meant to get to it, but life seemed to get in the way. So I was even more excited to receive a copy of Raven Stole the Moon from Sarah Daily at Terra Communications.  Originally released in 1998, it's now been released again -- and rightfully so.  After reading it, I can see how it fits much better into today's market, and I fully expect this book to become incredibly popular.

Jenna Rosen is married and living in Seattle with her husband, Robert.  Her life now is strained and tired and she is unable to move through it with some type of normalcy.  Some time has passed since the heartbreaking day when her young five-year-old son slipped over into the water, disappearing from the surface while on a vacation near her Native American grandmother's hometown of Wrangell, Alaska. The resort of Thunder Bay was never approved to be built by the local shaman, but investors and sales pushed forward.  The need to make money kept the shaman's advice buried and tragedy happened.  Jenna's life is now filled with therapists, medication, and alcohol, all in hopes to rebuild some type of life, but nothing seems quite right.  One night two years later, Jenna is compelled to travel to Alaska from Seattle, leaving her husband and strained marriage behind at a party of co-workers with no idea of where she went.

What follows is an incredible mixture of Native American tradition and culture with a searing mystery and deep love, loss, and sadness.  I was perplexed and drawn into the mystery of the kushtaka and felt the creepy and prickly fear of looking over my shoulder as I learned about lost souls, native rituals and the Tlingit shaman strength to protect the land and people.  My heart broke for Jenna as she struggled to understand what happened on "that day," how Native American legend may play a part of it, and I was completely racing with page-turning anxiety any time she was alone in a hotel room, the forest, or on the Alaskan shoreline.  Is Jenna crazy or is the legend of the shapeshifting kushtaka true?  And could the dog that saved her life really be something much more?

Garth Stein has captured an atmosphere within Raven Stole the Moon that is memorable and spooky -- a re-released debut novel that effortlessly combines a story of true loss and one woman's path while grieving, with the supernatural touch of true Native American culture.  I could not put this one down, and read it within a couple of days.  If I didn't have that pesky day job, it would easily have been finished in one sitting, as I enjoyed it so.

My only wish?  We've all chatted about how a good book cover really draws you in -- so probably my only gripe (minor) would be that the cover more accurately reflected something that was more authentic to the overall storyline -- the Native American culture is almost its own character in the story, and the cover, while evoking a certain sense of loss, really doesn't represent the beauty of the culture that provides that mysterious edge.

This is one to read at the fireside and have your dog or cat by your side to let you know if you really should pay attention to the bristling hairs on the back of your neck...


Happy Reading!
Coffee and a Book Chick

Five years ago, I was traveling on a long trip to Washington, DC for business.  I got there in early October and I had a room at a hotel that soon became my apartment for three months.  The weather was getting colder in the area, and I was starting to feel that crisp sense of creepiness that comes about with shorter days and colder nights.

I hadn't had a chance to read a thing -- I was working so many hours that by the time I walked out of the office building to head back to the hotel on the second week there, I knew that I had to get something to read, or I would go crazy with another night spent watching boring television or poring over reports and paperwork.  I headed to the local bookstore and milled around, feeling that sense of being alive that all of us bookworms share.  The coffee roasting, the people eyeing the recommended books...ahhh.

And that's when I saw it.  The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, sitting on the shelves and beckoning me.  I picked it up, reading the book flap and instantly went to purchase without looking at another book.  I hurried back to the hotel, the night closing in on me, and I opened the book at my hotel desk, a cup of coffee to warm my chilled hands.  Within minutes, I was swept up and fearfully looked over my shoulder at every sound.  I had fallen in love.

Five years later, I was excited to connect with Tedious & Brief to co-host a read along.  This would be his first time reading The Historian, and it was on my shelf to re-read this year as well. And thus, On the Ledge Read Alongs was born...

The button is on my sidebar and we're hoping that anyone and everyone who wants to read (or re-read) The Historian will find some time to read about 100 pages each week starting September 20th for 6 weeks, ending on Sunday, October 31st for Halloween.  It should add well with any other creepy Halloween-esque challenge that you are participating in.  The schedule and overall vision is described on the welcome post.  All you need to do is jump onto the page, click on the "Follow" button to follow along, and pick up the book in time to start chatting by Sept. 20th.

So stop on over to On the Ledge Read Alongs...think about joining and reading 100 pages a week (or however many that you can) and participating in an ongoing weekly fireside chat to review all things spooky and debate the question on Dracula...is he myth?  Or is he...something more?

I hope you join!  We look forward to all of you jumping on board!

Join Me and Tedious & Brief!  It will be so much fun!

Coffee and a Book Chick

I was excited to receive J'adore New York last week, as I'd had my eye on it for a while. After all, fashion (especially Christian Dior!), and a bright female lawyer making her way in New York after six years with the firm in Paris was something I figured would satisfy my chick lit needs!

Catherine has just been granted an opportunity to move from her Paris office and relocate to New York to be with her firm. It's an opportunity that she knows could get her moving on the track of making partner, and she's not going to pass it up. Along the way, she encounters sleazy company men and a few women that would gladly cut her throat on their way to making it to the top. But amongst it all, she's got some great friends in the big city (my favorite being her lively and loyal assistant, Rikash) that she partners with to meet ultimate success, both in work and in love.

The story was such a pleasant surprise -- I was already prepared for love affairs and beautiful fashion, but I certainly didn't expect to get such insight into corporate law.  Catherine is a talented lawyer and one of my favorite moments was her ability to take documents that are just plain boring and chock full of the "legalese" that so often confuses the rest of us, and write it into something that actually makes sense.  I giggled at another moment in which she's been ordered by one of the female partners of the firm to write a memo on something completely superfluous and silly -- and Catherine manages yet again to comply without losing her soul and with full integrity.  And amidst it all, Catherine has to do the ultimate -- continue to bill and bill and bill more hours.  It's one of the surest ways to making partner, so working from 7 in the morning until midnight is commonplace among the ambitious.

Isabelle Lafleche has crafted a fashionably fun and incredibly smart story that makes it easy to read and feel as if you are a part of New York's legal world. You'll root for Catherine as she deals with those who stir the corporate politics pot, as she successfully proves herself to her company time and again, and most enjoyably, you'll exhale in relief and happiness when a love is found!

You may also see Lafleche's book with this cover overseas, which I just loved and wanted to make sure you saw!

It's a fun book, and one that I could easily see being made into a film.  Which French actress do you think could play a part like this?


Happy Reading!
Coffee and a Book Chick

After nursing a broken engagement with Jane Austen novels and Absolut, Courtney Stone wakes up and finds herself not in her Los Angeles bedroom or even in her own body, but inside the bedchamber of a woman in Regency England.  Who but an Austen addict like herself could concoct such a fantasy?

I was excited to receive Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, by Laurie Viera Rigler to review for the Crazy Book Tours.  You can count me in as an Austen fan even though I've only read Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility thus far.  Suffice it to say, though, that you need not to be a full-grown connoisseur of all things Austen in order to truly appreciate this book.

Waking up in Regency England in the 1800s as Jane, Courtney is at a loss for understanding how her circumstances came to be, and how to more appropriately fit into this new world where women are definitely not considered equals to men.  She also inhabits the body of a very different woman than who Courtney is -- a woman who has dark hair, flawless skin, and a nice figure (albeit hidden in the sign of the times empire-waist fashion).  This obviously isn't the easiest part of the culture shock Courtney is experiencing, considering the fact that she's a 21st century chick from Los Angeles with a lot of man troubles and mother drama.  Not that it's any different in the "new" era for Courtney (I mean, Jane) -- she's got the same kind of dramatic mother, and she's still got those pesky man troubles.  In her 21st century life, she dumped a cheating fiance, and she slowly learns that no matter what era you're in, sometimes people don't ever really change, no matter what gender.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit -- it was incredible fun and such a quirky jaunt through Austen's time. Not to mention, it's a very easy read and was finished rather quickly.  What I really enjoyed throughout this story is what I've always thought of at the idea of being able to somehow get into another time -- if I'm anywhere at the turn of a century whether 1900s, 1800s, or even earlier, I'm going to wonder how I'm going to brush my teeth?  What about a shower?  And oh, believe me, it's covered in this book -- complete with descriptions that made me wrinkle my nose and say "ugh!" out loud, or a quick chuckle when Courtney (whoops, Jane) is in church.  Here's a sad reminder, though, of class differences and distinction during the 1800s:

But first, a hot bath, which entails the usual heaving, sweating servants hauling buckets of steaming water up the stairs and then hauling the used water down the same route.  Once again, I swallow my guilt, refusing to join the ranks of the unwashed whose bodily odors, inadequately camouflaged by perfumes, assault my nose on a daily basis.  (p. 159)

And probably one of my favorite moments is a perfect example of the 21st century Courtney dealing with 19th century propriety - while everyone is speaking so perfectly, Courtney sometimes curses away in her head:

Mary sighs heavily.  "I do not blame you for being guarded."  I suppose it isn't her fault she was raised to be so tight-assed, but I'm not going to let her off that easily.(p. 145)

Were it not for Courtney's complete obsession with Austen novels in her modern life, I am not surprised that she was able to slowly become more familiar with her surroundings.  Some people eat loads of ice cream after a break up, but this character sticks to Jane Austen novels.  And although she has a few slip ups in saying the slang "Ok," which her mother doesn't understand, for the most part the toughest thing that she's truly trying to understand is how she got there and how she can get home. And maybe find the right man, too, without losing who she is in the process?

I laughed and had a blast while reading this and it looks like this is the first in a series, with the second entitled Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict.  No doubt I'll be looking out for that on my next book run!.  I found myself tickled by similar veins of restraint found in most novels set during this time, and what I just experienced with The House of Mirth post -- I found myself thinking on more than one occasion please, speak up, clear up the confusion!  Rigler's ability to fuse together the 21st century modern girl into the life and times of the 1800s was a fun jaunt down a lane in a world in Austen's time!

So the main question is:  What do you do after a bad break up?  Do you stick to the ice cream diet, or do you jump to a trusted book?

Happy Reading!
Coffee and a Book Chick