And the winner is...

Thank you all so much for your comments! I really enjoyed reading about all the great things that are going on in your lives - not to mention your awesome book recommendations, exotic vacation destinations, and dreamy dream jobs. I was most amused by Carolyn's answers - she obviously knows all about my former Kit Kat obsession - not that it gave her any extra advantage with my kitten Emmy who did the drawing for me (and yes, she's capable - she plays fetch with quarters after all...).

The winner of the $20 amazon gift certificate is.... zebracrazy82!

And because I was so impressed by your overwhelming response to the contest, I decided to let Emmy pick two additional winners who each get a $10 amazon gift certificate: breanna and Janie. Congrats to you all - contact me at lenoreva AT hotmail DOT com to claim your prizes. (If anyone knows how to contact Breanna or Janie, please let them know!)

This was so much fun, I will definitely have more contests in the future. So do stop by every once in a while, also just to see what's up and tell me more about what you've been reading!

Book Review: Sweethearts by Sarah Zarr

What attracted me to this book initially was the cover (I saw it at the Little Brown stand in Bologna) – doesn’t that frosted cookie look yummy? I also liked the jacket copy: “Sweethearts is about the power of memory, the bond of friendship, and the quiet resilience of our childhood hearts.” So yeah, not exactly high concept, but I like to read “quieter” books every now and then too. And this one was just lovely.

High School Senior Jenna Vaughn has a cute boyfriend Ethan, tons of friends and seems to have it all together. But she still carries the scars of a solitary childhood – one in which her harried single mother didn’t seem to have time for her and she only had one friend – fellow outcast and first love Cameron Quick who disappears one day without explanation.

When Cameron suddenly reappears years later, Jenna must come to terms with a traumatizing event in her past, confront her mother about her abandonment issues, and figure out what place Cameron, Ethan, and her new friends have in her life.

I found the story and Jenna’s character arc to be very authentic. I have to admit, my first instinct was to scoff when I found out how relatively tame the “traumatic event” was – I mean it is very far from Cupcake Brown’s childhood as she describes in her memoir A Piece of Cake (I urge you to check it for a great true story of triumph over adversity). Upon further reflection, I realized that within Jenna’s scope of experience and from her narrow point of view, this one event was in fact earth-shattering.

The writing is top notch throughout and I’d be hard pressed to come up with a last chapter that is more beautifully expressed than this one. This book really makes you think about how certain people have touched your life and left a lasting mark in your heart.

1001 Books to read before you die - Challenge

I finally found a reading challenge that I want to join - The 1% well-read challenge.

Here's the description of the challenge from the website:

The goal of this challenge is to read 10 books in 10 months from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. For you non-math people, 10 out of 1001 is approximately 1%, hence the title. The challenge will run from May 1, 2008 through February 28, 2009.

I just entered all the 1001 Books I have read into my LibraryThing account and I am at 110! By the way, I have the book and think it is a fun read and a great way to find excellent books. When I ordered it, I had it sent to my friends Will and Sommer's place before my visit and Will just had to have it too.

The 10 I am choosing for my challenge are all in my TBR pile:

1. Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels
2. Enduring Love - Ian McEwan
3. The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields
4. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
5. Under the Net - Iris Murdoch
6. Elementary Particles - Michael Hollenbecq
7. What I Loved - Siri Hustvedt
8. Silk - Alessandro Baricco
9. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys
10. Murder Must Advertise - Dorothy Sayers

Alternates: The Judge and his Hangman - Friedrich Duerrenmatt (In German no less!)
How the Dead Live - Will Self
100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

How many have you read from the list? Have you read any that I've included in my challenge?

Library Thing Tuesday (+ pics of Emmy!)

Being in London during the London Book Fair and not going to the fair started me on my online journey of finding places to get ARCs. One of the first places I found was Library Thing, who offer not yet published books for review every month in addition to being THE place online to catalogue your books (be careful, it's addictive!). So far I have snagged two books through the program (The Wednesday Sisters, which arrived in the mail already) and the 19th Wife (still waiting).

Anyway, what LT also has is an active Early Reviewers book blogging community and we recently decided to do a ER theme post every Tuesday. This Tuesday is just about introducing ourselves. Thanks to the the boston bibliophile for setting this up!

As my about me profile says, this blog is about books, travel, work and life.

I mostly read high concept literary and YA fiction as well as the occasional sci-fi, thriller, and chick-lit novel. I also love to travel and have been to over 50 countries.

Oh and here are some new pictures of my new kitten Emmy who has been with us 3 1/2 weeks now:

Book Reviews: Black Swan Green by David Mitchell and The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

I have now finished 2 of the 8 library books I picked up at the end of April. Both are books from authors whose other works I adored, but was not so sure I would enjoy due to the subject matter.

First up is Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. Cloud Atlas and Ghostwritten are two of my all time favorite books so when I heard about Black Swan Green, I was excited – until I heard it was about a 13 year old boy in England in 1982 which is not my typical area of interest. I am glad I gave the novel a chance – it isn’t up there with his others in scope or audacity, but it is a solid 4 ½ stars in my book.

13 year old Jason Taylor has to deal with bullies (made worse because of his stutter) and family mysteries all while trying to hide his secret life as a would be poet (not acceptable in this neck of the woods). Jason is a sympathetic character and his character arc felt authentic and was satisfying. The plot is fairly straightforward and what you might expect of a coming of age novel. I really liked scenes with Jason’s cousins (especially his idolatry of his suave older cousin Hugo) and with Mrs. Crommelyncks who tutors him in poetry (that she’s a character from Cloud Atlas was an added bonus). A rewarding diversion to be sure, but I do hope Mitchell’s next one is more in the vein of his high concept offerings where he so excels.

Next up is The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. Her Fingersmith has one of the most thrilling, twisty plots I have ever read and it is high on my list of recommended reads. Affinity was not as exciting, but did have a great spooky atmosphere.

The Night Watch is high concept in its structure – it is told in three parts, starting in 1947 after WWII and then going back to 1944 and then finally back to 1941. Waters even defends this structure at one point through one of her characters, Kay, who says this about why she sometimes watches the second half of a movie first: “I almost prefer them that way – people’s pasts, you know, being so much more interesting than their futures.” If you feel that way too, well then this novel is right up your alley.

In the beginning section, 1947, characters continually allude to past incidents and though the future is left open, you can conjecture what happens based on what happened in the past. Many reviews that I read about this book mention not liking the characters which made them not really care about their future or their past. It’s true that these aren’t exactly loveable characters but they are ultimately complex and interesting if you give them a chance. I admire the experiment, but miss the fun of Fingersmith so I’d give it 3 ½ stars.

adidas Originals

Several adidas Originals copywriting projects I have been working on are now online at http://www.adidas.com/ (then click on Originals).

They are Handbags for Feet, Originals Games, and Gruen (a new line of clothing that is produced with innovative materials like soybeans, jute, hemp and bamboo and is meant to reduce environmental impact). Check them out!

Book Review: The Declaration by Gemma Malley

The Declaration is set in a world where a longevity drug has been developed that essentially lets people live forever. Sounds great at first - until you realize that if no one dies and people keep having children, population growth explodes and there just aren’t enough resources to go around. That’s why everyone who takes longevity drugs must sign a declaration saying that they will not have children.

15 year old Anna is an illegal and has lived in a “surplus” hall most of her life. She’s been told her parents broke the law by having her and indoctrinated by the cruel Mrs. Pincent to believe that her only chance to make things right is to be obedient and learn to become a “valuable asset” (otherwise known as a slave!). Her beliefs are shaken up when a boy her age who has lived on the outside all his life in hiding arrives and tells her “shocking things” about her parents and the declaration.

As in most dystopian fiction, the main conflict is man vs society but we also have a well rounded villainess in Mrs. Pincent. In fact, Mrs. Pincent is actually a vastly more interesting character than Anna who comes off as fairly bland (granted it is due to her very limited life experience). The beginning of the book is slow with big lumps of exposition and lots of scenes showing just how very inhumane it is to tell children they are worthless.

Things pick up when Anna decides it’s time to develop a personality and scenes with Mrs. Sharpe, a well drawn yet minor character are sharp and insightful. Even though the big twist is pretty obvious, it’s still satisfying.

I had really high expectations for this book so I was a bit let down that it didn’t completely live up to them. Still, I would recommend it to my fellow dystopian fiction fans.

Celebrating 1 year blogging - with a contest!

I have now been blogging for one whole year and to celebrate, I am having contest! The winner (picked at random from everyone who comments on this post) will get a $20 gift certificate to amazon.com (or the Euro equivalent for amazon.de). All you have to do to be entered is leave a comment (only your first comment will count towards the contest) where you answer the following 4 questions:

1. What is your dream job?
2. Where was the last place you went on vacation? (or your dream destination)
3. What was the best book you read recently?
4. What is something cool that happened in your life lately?

You also get 1 extra entry if you blog about my contest and link to this post (and tell me that you did). The contest will end when I have 50 comments or on May 15 - whichever comes first. Good luck and thanks for helping me celebrate!

Act now and get your free Penguin Classic Book

That´s right! Penguin classics is giving away 1 copy of each of its 1400 titles to the first 1400 people who sign up.

You agree to review the book (chosen at random) you are sent within 6 weeks of reciept. To take part, go to www.blogapenguinclassic.com/site/pcMain.php5

I signed up and got Thomas More's Utopia, rather ironic considering I am reading so much dystopic fiction lately.

If you sign up, let me know what you get!

UPDATE: Can't believe they're already out of books. Sorry Linda.

Book Review: Then We Came to the End

Then we came to the End is by former advertising copywriter Joshua Ferris. That fact alone is a reason for me to read the book, because I like to support my fellow copywriter peeps. This book landed on Entertainment Weekly magazine's top 10 of 2007 book list and it has a unique conceit - namely that it is written in 1st person plural "we" for all of the book except a short interlude in the middle. In my work, I write in 3rd person plural nearly all the time - because companies want to appear friendly and inclusive - but using it for a narrative? That's difficult to pull off - but I happy to report that Ferris does.

We are introduced to a creative team at a Chicago advertising agency who are all trying to look busy so they won't be the ones who fall victim to layoffs. The characters seem familiar to anyone who has toiled in an office - the practical joker Tom, the shy but sweet Benny who is in love with the loud-mouthed Marcia, the trendy overachiever Karen Woo, the depressed Janine, hysterical Chris Yop, loner Joe, Amber and Larry engaged in a "secret" office affair and Lynn, the boss who everyone is scared of, who becomes the heart of the story.

As business becomes worse, characters start getting fired, though the story is not always told in linear fashion, but rather the circular storytelling of office gossip. There are incidents that are hilarious (one involving a office chair), puzzling (such as old Brizz leaving Benny a massive totem pole in his will), disturbing (a certain office visit by Tom after he is let go), and sad (the death of a child, breast cancer) - all told in that breathy "Have you heard about..." tone so prevalent around the water cooler.

I really enjoyed reading this debut novel (there are even some fun ad campaigns interspersed) and look forward to more from Ferris.