Visit Svea's blog at The Muse in The Fog Book Review to start linking up your Sunday posts; Suddenly Sunday is a weekly event hosted by Svea whose purpose is to share all the exciting events that have occurred on your blog throughout the week.
Mailbox Monday is a meme originally from Marcia's Mailbox and is being hosted by Caitlin @ chaotic compendiums. The Story Siren also hosts IMM, so we can find some cool YA titles there as well.
Housekeeping: For those of you who get these posts in your inbox, if you ever want to unsubscribe please use the link provided at the bottom of the email. If you mark it as spam, that alerts the newsletter folks and puts me on a watch list, and they could block my site altogether. Please don't do that! That goes for most of the emails from bloggers, but my mailing service MailChimp has just updated their privacy policies, so I wanted to make sure you realized the implications for us poor bloggers if you mark us as spam.
Also, since google reader is going away, you can follow me on Bloglovin'.
I have taken down my Google Reader Button on the sidebar, and added a bloglovin' one instead. 26 followers there so far, woohoo! =)
This week has been quite busy as I posted a few things that may be of interest:
- Review of Submerged by Dani Pettrey (a rare contemporary suspense read for me!)
- Review of Love in The Balance by Regina Jennings (enjoyed this faith based story!)
- A commentary 'To Review or Not To Review'
- A look at some of the out of print historicals written by Carol Wensby-Scott
- To Post or Not to Post, That is the Question
You'll see that the commentary post on Reviewing did get some attention (over 300 hits as well as folks emailing me off-site about the hot topic), as my Facebook friends and fellow bloggers were eager to chime in with their agreement that we should be able to post reviews no matter if they are negative or critical in nature, regardless of our source of the book. I had written this post as a way to get it off of my chest - to get it out there- that marketers/authors should not have the right to dictate to us how we review a book. If we feel negatively about a book, we should feel free to point out those flaws, and feel free to 'publicly' review books that are worthy of only two stars. I had come across a conversation on facebook yesterday where a reviewer was explaining to the owner of the group that she didn't really like a book she was given for review, and it may not be able to get three stars from her. He then told her to not review it if that was the case (grrr!). I was also part of a group that also says if the book review is not going to show at least three stars, do not review it (I reviewed once for them and left the group). I have also seen other bloggers state they will not review a book if they would have to be critical of it.
Bottom line, if I am taking my time out to review a book, that is exactly what I am going to do, regardless of it being a positive or negative critique. There were some great comments on the post, go and see what your fellow readers and bloggers expect from bloggers such as myself : Honesty.
Someone even copied my post over to their blog as well with some more comments over there, which annoyed me to no end. The blogger took large chunks of my original post and without asking created their own post. I am slightly perturbed, especially since my blog contains a script that will be pasted with whatever they just copied from my blog
"Original from: http://www.burtonbookreview.com/
Copyright BurtonBookReview.com - All Rights Reserved"
which immediately alerts that blogger that what they are doing is NOT OKAY as they copied the rest of my text.
He responded to my comment with
"Marie - Do you understand Fair Use?
My use of an excerpt from your site is clearly within the Fair Use provisions of U.S. Copyright Law."
He is moderating comments so don't waste too much of your time posting there. Which is why I created the follow up post questioning his behavior. I ended up having to input a no-right click code, but there are still ways to get around that. I can only do so much to protect my words.
LET'S GET TO BOOKISH FUN!!
In The Mail:
I was very excited to be able to get my hands on this book, as I am just now studying the Gospels, and I love that this is offered in my favorite NKJV:
 |
| March 5, 2013 |
This gorgeous chunky hardcover is available now from Thomas Nelson Publishers
Read the best news the world has ever been given about the most significant life in all history--Jesus Christ. In "One Perfect Life," Dr. John MacArthur shares with us the complete story of the Eternal Christ from Genesis to Revelation. Using Matthew as the base text, Dr. MacArthur blends the gospels and other biblical material about Jesus into one continuous story that will help you better understand Scripture and grow stronger in your faith. No other harmony of the Gospels includes such extensive study notes to help you unpack the meaning of each verse.
Features include:
Verse-by-verse explanations from one of the most important pastor-teachers of our time
Every verse connected to Christ from Genesis to Revelation
A harmony of the Gospels that demonstrates the inerrancy of Scripture
New King James translation
Also for review (squeee!):
 |
| April 1, 2013 |
Recently widowed Annalisa Werner has the feeling her husband was murdered but can't prove it. Alone with her young daughter in 1881 Michigan, she has six months left to finish raising the money needed to pay back the land contract her husband purchased, and the land is difficult to toil by herself. She needs a husband. With unmarried men scarce, her father sends a letter to his brother in the Old Country, asking him to find Annalisa a groom.
For nobleman Carl von Reichert, the blade of the guillotine is his fate. He's been accused and convicted of a serious crime he didn't commit, and his only escape is to flee to a small German community in Michigan where he'll be safe. He secures a job on Annalisa's farm but bumbles through learning about farming and manual labor.
Annalisa senses that Karl is harboring a secret about his past, yet she finds herself drawn to him anyway. He's gentle, kind, and romantic--unlike any of the men she's ever known. He begins to restore her faith in the ability to love--but her true groom is still on his way. And time is running out on them all.
(I am assuming this is a reissue of Bathsheba from 1980)
David and Bathsheba is a spellbinding story of a gifted king and the woman he loved but could not have. Told from Bathsheba's perspective, author Roberta Kells Dorr bring to life the passion that almost cost David his kingdom and tested a people's courage and faith in God. "David and Bathsheba" is colored richly with details of Bible-era Israel - from the details of the everyday way of life to details of the Jewish religion. Dorr brilliantly merges reality with folklore as she tells the story of two great characters of the biblical era. The book starts out with Bathsheba as a young girl and David as a strong willed rebellious military leader. It details the way they meet and follows them all the way through their difficulties.
 |
| April 9, 2013 |
Lighthouse Bay by Kimberley Freeman I was very excited to be offered this one because the last novel I'd read by this author had made it to my favorites/Best of 2011 List.
From the author of Wildflower Hill, this breathtaking novel travels more than a century between two love stories set in the Australian seaside town of Lighthouse Bay.
In 1901, a ship sinks off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The only survivor is Isabella Winterbourne, who clutches a priceless gift meant for the Australian Parliament. This gift could be her ticket to a new life, free from the bonds of her husband and his overbearing family. But whom can she trust in Lighthouse Bay?
Fast-forward to 2011: after losing her lover, Libby Slater leaves her life in Paris to return to her hometown of Lighthouse Bay, hoping to gain some perspective and grieve her recent loss. Libby also attempts to reconcile with her sister, Juliet, to whom she hasn’t spoken in twenty years. Libby did something so unforgivable, Juliet is unsure if she can ever trust her sister again.
In these two adventurous love stories, both Isabella and Libby must learn that letting go of the past is the only way to move into the future. The answers they seek lie in Lighthouse Bay.
FEATURED EBOOK DOWNLOADS:
I've read two of Sundin's other novels which prompted me to find her others.
Major Jack Novak has never failed to meet a challenge--until he meets army nurse Lieutenant Ruth Doherty. When Jack lands in the army hospital after a plane crash, he makes winning Ruth's heart a top priority mission. But he has his work cut out for him. Not only is Ruth focused on her work in order to support her orphaned siblings back home, she carries a shameful secret that keeps her from giving her heart to any man. Can Jack break down her defenses? Or are they destined to go their separate ways?
A Memory Between Us is the second book in the WINGS OF GLORY series, which follows the three Novak brothers, B-17 bomber pilots with the US Eighth Air Force stationed in England during World War II.
Mrs. Tuesday's Departure: A Historical Novel (Kindle Edition) by Suzanne Elizabeth Anderson
A heart-wrenching historical novel spanning fifty-years, two continents, and a an imagined story that holds the power to create a safe future for a young girl. This page-turning family saga soars to a breathtaking ending that redefines the meaning of love.
When Natalie and Anna, sisters and life-long rivals, hide an abandoned child from the Nazis, their struggle re-opens a star-crossed love triangle, threatening their safety and testing the bonds of their loyalty.
Hungary's fragile alliance with Germany insured that Natalie, a best selling children's book author, and her family would be safe as World War Two raged through Europe. The Holocaust that has only been whispered about until now becomes a terrible reality for every Jewish family or those who hide Jews.
Beautiful but troubled Anna, a poet and university professor is losing her tenuous hold on reality, re-igniting a dangerous sibling rivalry that began in childhood.
The streets of Budapest echo with the pounding boots of Nazi soldiers. Danger creeps to the doorstep where the sisters' disintegrating relationship threatens to expose the child they are trying to protect. In one night, Anna's rash behavior destroys their carefully made plans of escape, and Natalie is presented with a desperate choice.
Interwoven with Natalie and Anna's story, is Mila's. The abandoned child whose future Natalie lovingly imagines in a story about an old woman named Mrs. Tuesday.
Mrs. Tuesday's Departure is an inspirational historical novel spanning two generations, exploring the unbreakable bonds of sisters, and the power of love to create new futures.
The What Are You Reading meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey where we keep track of what we are currently reading and plan to read.
Playing catch up will be the theme of my month of April.. (as we prepare for Easter my attentions are elsewhere). I must remember this time next year so that I do not get myself into another reading abyss next year during Lent.
 |
| Book one |
 |
| book two |
I did manage to post my review for Dani Pettrey's debut novel Submerged, which means I needed to read book #2 soon! I should finish with Shattered this week. So far this is going to be a four book series following a group of siblings in Alaska. I was pleasantly surprised at the historical tidbit that was added to the climax of Submerged!I started reading Shattered as soon as I finished Regina Jennings' Love In The Balance, and you can find my review of Love In The Balance here.This was a story where I wondered if I was going to enjoy it or not, as you needed to really feel empathy for the main character. Molly could come off as a feather-head or a spoiled twit, but I was able to see through that exterior and find the goodness in her heart. I read this one very quickly as it was such a page turner. I love Regina Jennings writing, I am looking forward to book three!
Just in case I wasn't slammed enough, there is a read along starting at Goodreads this weekend of Philippa Carr's Miracle at St. Bruno's. It's an open group with no rules to read along, so come visit if you are a Jean Plaidy/Victoria Holt/Philippa Carr fan! I started reading it since I'm the silly twit who came up with this insane idea, and it reads quite well. My edition is older than me by half a year, it makes me feel young. Ha.
"I was born in the September of 1523, nine months after the monks had discovered the child in the crib on that Christmas morning. My birth was, my father used to say, another miracle: He was not young at the time being forty years of age . . . My mother, whose great pleasure was tending her gardens, called me Damask, after the rose which Dr. Linacre, the King's physician, had brought into England that year."
Thus begins the story narrated by Damask Farland, daughter of a well-to-do lawyer whose considerable lands adjoin those of St. Bruno's Abbey. It is a story of a life inextricably enmashed with that of Bruno, the mysterious child found on the abbey altar that Christmas morning and raised by the monks to become a man at once handsome and saintly, but also brooding and ominous, tortured by the secret of his origin which looms ever more menacingly over the huge abbey he comes to dominate.
This is also the story of an engaging family, the Farlands. Of a fathr wise enough to understand "the happier our King is, the happier I as a true subject must be," a wife twenty years his junior, and a daughter whose intelligence is constantly to war with the strange hold Bruno has upon her destiny. What happens to the Farlands against the background of what is happening to King Henry and his court during this robust period provides a novel in which suspense and the highlights of history are wonderfully balanced.
Here's the link to the read along of the first chapter.
Hope you all have a blessed Palm Sunday! Are you ready for Easter? It's going to be a busy busy Holy week for us, but I hope that I feel peace when I recognize the sacrifices that were made for me.
.JPG)