Book Exchange (2 for 1 deal)

Recently, I took eight titles from my collection that I no longer read and have them exchanged for new titles.

The place where this took place is a coffee cafe in town that hosts a book corner.  Their offer is 'two for one' that is for patrons to bring and exchange two titles/books for one title/book from their collection.

Some might say 'hey, that's not fair, shouldn't it be a one for one' but to me it is quite okay.  I do not mind exchanging two titles that I no longer read anyway for a title that I would want to try reading.  Yes, I would end up with less books but when reading it concern, quantity is not the game plan here.  Moreover they are not selective of the titles and accepted all the titles that I brought whereas I have a choice of my preferred titles from their shelves.

So, from the eight books that I brought, I selected four of the above and the madamoiselle  was kind enough to let me take another title when she saw me still browsing through the shelves even after the exchange.

And with that I increased my TBR pile by another five titles. 

With author such as Maeve Binchy, Nicholas Sparks and Amy Tan, among others, I think it's a good deal and am extremely happy.

I have been so good in managing my inflow of new titles the whole year.  In fact, I am still managing that pretty well as I have not been doing any book shopping this year..or not that I can remember. :)

I can't wait to go through them but due to current commitment, these will have to wait till December.

Holiday Read

If you have been looking through my post of previous years, you will find a pattern of the importance I placed on what I termed 'Holiday Read', i.e. simply, novels that I would want to read while I was on holidays.

Sometimes having the right book or wrong book (for that matter) can make or break a holiday as it affects my mood. The right book will just compliment everything whereas a wrong one would just throw me off tangent.

Well, I have not been on much holidays the recent years except for a couple here and there and the recent one here but there's just one more coming right up and I am so excited as to what to bring along with me...I am excited about where I am going too for that matter!

It's a holiday with some friends (I haven't had holidays with friends for like many, many and plenty of many years) and we're going to the land of beautiful people and plastic surgery and no! we're not going for that but we would happy just to be admiring the many beautiful people from this country.

So, which books coming along to this amazing trip...

First contender is Dreamscapes by Tamara McKinlley just because the book is rather light and the cover's pretty too.

Next is Take a Look at Me Now by Miranda Dickinson as the story is about a holiday and it's a chic lite so why not since I am on a chic lite type of holiday.

Last but not least, Mayada by Jean Sasson decided to make itself known to me of it's intention to be part of the contenders.  Although will be heavy read in nature, it has much to offer as well.

So, which do you think should be my holiday read?

Nothing Lasts Forever by Sidney Sheldon

Image selected from web.  I think that's the cover of the copy I read years ago.

Synopsis :

Three young doctors-their hopes, their dreams, their unexpected desires...

Dr. Paige Taylor: She swore it was euthanasia, but when Paige inherited a million dollars from a patient, the D.A. called it murder.

Dr. Kat Hunter: She vowed never to let another man too close again-until she accepted the challenge of a deadly bet.

Dr. Honey Taft: To make it in medicine, she knew she'd need something more than the brains God gave her.

Racing from the life-and-death decisions of a big major hospital to the tension-packed fireworks of a murder trial, Nothing Lasts Forever lays bare the ambitions and fears of healers and killers, lovers and betrayers. 


This is what I say :

I don't think this is the first time I am reading Nothing Lasts Forever.  I have a feeling I read it before as the story was quite familiar but I just couldn't remember it.  If I read it, it must be before I started this blog as it wasn't reviewed so I guess it's quite okay... to re-read it I mean.

It is still pretty much enjoyable to read this again (that is if I read it before) as story wise, it wasn't that spectacular but where novels by Sidney Sheldon are concerned, it's the way he wrote it that made them special.

This time round, I actually read an e-copy so there's no book cover.  I found the above image from the web and I remember reading a few titles that was published as such (most probably in the 90s) and that's probably when I read this particular title.  I might even owned a copy at one time but I certainly don't now so I might have given it away.

Like most Sidney Sheldon's heroine, the doctors featured are all pretty, capable, strong and vulnerable. It's pretty much a successful formula and certain delivers when you're looking for an entertaining read.

Anyway, it was great to read this again and this post better be a reminder so I don't forget about reading it.

Last Night At Chateau Marmont by Lauren Weisberger

Synopsis : 

Heartbreak, headlines and Hermes – welcome to Brooke's new world…

Brooke and Julian live a happy life in New York – she's the breadwinner working two jobs and he's the struggling musician husband. Then Julian is discovered by a Sony exec and becomes an overnight success – and their life changes for ever.

Soon they are moving in exclusive circles, dining at the glitziest restaurants, attending the most outrageous parties in town and jetting off to the trendiest hotspots in LA.

But Julian's new-found fame means that Brooke must face the savage attentions of the ruthless paparazzi. And when a scandalous picture hits the front pages, Brooke's world is turned upside down. Can her marriage survive the events of that fateful night at Chateau Marmont? It's time for Brooke to decide if she's going to sink or swim…


This is what I say :

I wasn't expecting this with such title and such cover.  I'ts pretty misleading in my opinion. I mean I get the 'Last Night' part and I also quite get the Chateau Marmont part but putting these together to form the title...I don't get that.

But you know what, I love that pair of shoes on the cover (there's a few version of the cover and the above image was on the one I read) so I am not going to harp too much on the cover and title and just go on with the story.

It's a chic lite as expected and it explores the dynamics of a couple when one of them became a superstar.

While I do get that Brooke is an independent woman, I don't really get her at times too.  But I do feel for her being caught in a situation like a fish outside the water and thus she's just flapping around trying to get back into the water, into the life she once knew.

It was pretty entertaining at first but I got real frustrated with it halfway through and I just wanted it to end.  However, I quite like it towards the last chapter or so and it was an enjoyable read so at the end, was pretty happy with it 

A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern

Synopsis :

Ever wondered where lost things go?

Ever since the day her classmate vanished, Sandy Shortt has been haunted by what happens when something – or someone – disappears. Finding has become her goal.

Jack Ruttle is desperate to find his younger brother who vanished into thin air a year ago. He spots an ad for Sandy's missing persons agency and is certain that she will answer his prayers and find his brother.

But then Sandy disappears too, stumbling upon a place that is a world away from the only one she has ever known. Now all she wants, more than anything, is to find her way home.

This is what I say :

At one time of my reading life, I was pretty crazy about Cecelia's title.  It was one collection that I want to ensure it's complete in my shelf.  That craze has since passed but I still enjoy Cecelia's titles once in a while.  My all time favourite has to be Rosie Dunne aka Love, Rosie aka Where Rainbow Ends which I read about 2 or was it 3 times and this is followed pretty closely by If You Cold See Me Now.

There's a couple more 'flings' with Cecelia's other titles but so far, nothing memorable but A Place Called Here is pretty unique by itself.

Imagine a place where all things which are lost in this world go to...socks, homework, assignments, keys and even human being!  Once they're there, they can't leave.  How do they get to Here...it is not known...one minute you're here and the next minute you're there...I mean Here. :)

I am still marveling at the author's creativity and unique imagination in coming out with such one of its kind story line.  I know that if I want to read something whimsical and cute, I just have to pick up a title by Cecelia Ahern and that's exactly what I would get...uniquely whimsical and whimsically unique and that's how A Place Called Here is.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Synopsis :

When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her London apartment to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina. These two American girls never met their English aunt, only knew that their mother, too, was a twin, and Elspeth her sister. Julia and Valentina are semi-normal American teenagers--with seemingly little interest in college, finding jobs, or anything outside their cozy home in the suburbs of Chicago, and with an abnormally intense attachment to one another.

The girls move to Elspeth's flat, which borders Highgate Cemetery in London. They come to know the building's other residents. There is Martin, a brilliant and charming crossword puzzle setter suffering from crippling Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Marjike, Martin's devoted but trapped wife; and Robert, Elspeth's elusive lover, a scholar of the cemetery. As the girls become embroiled in the fraying lives of their aunt's neighbors, they also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including--perhaps--their aunt, who can't seem to leave her old apartment and life behind.


This is what I say :

I quite like The Time Traveler's Wife written by this author which I read around this time last year.  I remembering being real caught up the story and still loving it even now.  With that, I must say I have high expectation for Her Fearful Symmetry.

I bought this book from another reader and kept it for quite a while and only decided to read it during a recent holiday.

The story line started well.  I thought the novel has potential. Unfortunately, it didn't last.  Not that it wasn't good but just I didn't like how the story line took a turn for something rather morbid (in my opinion) and I just not willing and able to accept it.  I mean, how could she do that?  That's selfishness to the next level!!!  Just couldn't take it!!!

And then there's this side story of Martin and his wife Marjike, I really do not know how this fits into the storyline.  Other than Martin being a neighbor and an extremely OCD one for that matter, how does all this fit into what the author is trying to tell?

If there's a movie adaptation for this title, I think visually, it would be quite interesting, morbid and exciting at the same time.  For once, I think would prefer a movie adaptation rather than the book.

The Priest's Graveyard by Ted Dekker

Synopsis :

Two abandoned souls are on the hunt for one powerful man. Soon, their paths will cross and lead to one twisted fate. Danny Hansen is a Bosnian immigrant who came to America with hopes of escaping haunted memories of a tragic war that took his mother's life. Now he's a priest who lives by a law of love and compassion. It is powerful men and hypocrites who abide by legal law but eschew the law of love that most incense Danny. As an avenging angel, he believes it is his duty to show them the error of their ways, at any cost. 

Renee Gilmore is the frail and helpless victim of one such powerful man. Having escaped his clutches, she now lives only to satisfy justice by destroying him, regardless of whom she must become in that pursuit.But when Danny and Renee's paths become inexorably entangled things go very, very badly and neither of them may make it out of this hunt alive. 

This is what I say :

The Priest's Graveyard is not Ted Dekker's usual supernatural thriller.  Instead, it is more a vigilante psychotic suspense thriller that kept me glued to it's pages for 3 days.

It's a good thing that I was super free for those three days and I was able to gave it the attention it wanted.  It was a great 3 day. *happy face*

I didn't like The Forbidden written by Ted Dekker with Tosca Lee.  I was pretty ok with House written by Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti which I read last year.

This is one title written by just Dekker himself that I am reading although I have with me another series of his that I haven't read.  The storyline for The Priest's Graveyard was quite simple.  However, the author being a 'superstar' author that he is, is able to really explore human emotions, dimensions and makes you question morality and if one two wrong does make one right.  And also how damaged can one person be that they appeared undamaged. Sorry, can't share more without spoilers!

However, character wise, I didn't warm up to either Danny or Renee but they seems to warm up to each other pretty fast and pretty well.

Overall, it was a wonderful book to start off my holiday.