Blog Tour and Giveaway: Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

As I mentioned in my recent review, FOREVER belongs to the character of Cole St. Clair.  That's why I am thrilled to be the official Cole blog stop on Maggie's tour.  Which means I get to share Cole's playlist with you.

Cole (Playlist by Maggie Stiefvater)

1. Party - Clint Mansell
2. You’ll Find a Way - Santogold
3. Technologicque - Orbital
4. Brooklyn is Burning - Head Automatica
5. Show Me How To Live - Audioslave
6. Get Out Alive - Three Days Grace
7. Anyway You Choose to Give It - The Black Ghosts
8. Coming Undone - Korn
9. Bother - Stone Sour
10. Duke - Booka Shade
11. You Fight Me - Breaking Benjamin
12. You Know You’re Right - Nirvana
13. Talk Amongst Yourselves - Grand National


And I also get to share a sketch of Cole drawn by Maggie herself.

Pretty yummy right?  (Though I did expect him to have more of a smirk on his face). Oh and guess what? One lucky winner gets the framed original sketch!  If you want a chance to win, fill out this form.


I also wanted to share a couple of my favorite Cole moments from FOREVER.


Here's a passage from Isabel's point of view: 

Cole sat back up, slowly, and I opened my eyes.  His expression, as ever, was blank, the face he wore when something mattered.

He said, "That's how I would kiss you, if I loved you."

He stood up, looking un-famous, and retrieved the car keys from where they'd slid out onto the bed.  He didn't look at me when he left, shutting the door behind him.

And Cole's:

The road flew by beneath the car; my hand was cold from being in the wind. For the first time in a long time, I felt powerful. The woods had taken that void that was me, the thing I thought that could never be full, never be satisfied, and they'd made me lose everything - things I never knew I wanted to keep.

And in the end, I was Cole St. Clair, cut from a new skin. The world lay at my feet and the day stretched out for miles.

Oh and the scene under the counter in Isabel's mother's lab with the die-cast Mustang ... but I'll let you read that for yourself...


Some tour info:


Scholastic recently launched an online community called This Is Teen to connect readers with their favorite YA authors and books. Visit their page on Facebook for all the latest news on Maggie Stiefvater and Forever: www.facebook.com/thisisteen.


Check out the next stop on the tour: Friday, July 22 –  The Compulsive Reader - Beck

Book Review: Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich

Irene finds out that her possessive husband Gil is reading her diary. She decides to start a “true” diary and uses the “fake” diary to manipulate him. See, Irene has decided that she wants to leave Gil, but Gil insists he’ll never let her go, at least not with their three children. What follows is a family descent into some very dark places…


I’ve been hearing that I should read Erdrich for years (and in fact, have two of her other books unread on my shelves) and I was so incredibly impressed by this novel, I am wondering why I waited so long.

Erdrich gets to the emotional truth of her scenes - of the dysfunctional marriage that is also an artist/muse relationship. Neither character is particularly likeable, and all signs point to a tragic ending, but I was riveted. For me, this was one of those rare treasures, a deep literary fiction novel that is also a page turner.

I read this as part of a TLC tour.  Check out the other stops!
 

Book Review: Secrets to the Grave by Tami Hoag

Marissa Fordham is found brutally murdered, her four year old daughter lying barely alive at her side in a pool of blood. Sherriff’s detective Tony Mendez calls in the help of Anne Leone, teacher turned child advocate, to help with the child, the only witness to her mother’s tragic end. After some digging, it turns out Marissa had been hiding some dark secrets – one of which being that she was living under an assumed name.


SECRETS TO THE GRAVE is the second book in a mini-series that started with DEEPER THAN THE DEAD. While it can be read as a standalone, if you plan to read the first book, you should read it first as basically that whole book is spoiled here. I did not read that first book due to lack of time – but I’m sure if I read it in 6 months, I won’t remember too much of what happened in this fairly standard crime thriller.

What attracted me most about the novel was the assumed identity angle. I always find it fascinating to read about people who have changed their identities and why. Marissa’s story is quite twisted too, and the killer’s motive pretty original (if crazy unbelievable). I am usually not that good at fingering the killer, but this time, I caught on to the clues pretty easily and early on.

I did laugh quite a bit at the repeated mentions by the characters that they were living in 1986 and did not have the proper equipment, such as widespread DNA testing and computer databases, to really do their job as efficiently as they might be able to do a few years down the road.

SECRETS TO THE GRAVE comes out on December 28th. Find out more about it at the author’s website.

This has been a part of a TLC tour.  Check out the tour post for more stops!

Book Review: The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

Let me preface this review by saying I've read all of Kingsolver's novels.  I absolutely adored PRODIGAL SUMMER and THE POISONWOOD BIBLE, but was kind of meh about the others.  The topic of THE LACUNA - an American boy growing up in Mexico and experiencing Mexican history - sounded at least as ambitious as POISONWOOD and I always enjoy books that can give me a history lesson in an entertaining way (which this one does).

Lacuna is defined as an empty space or a missing part. (It's the name of the company in ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND that erases people's unhappy memories).  And there are lots of lacuna references in this novel.  It's the underwater cave where Harrison goes diving as a teen, and returns to as an adult.  It refers to the missing diaries or "holes" in Harrison's story, and the gap between what is true and what is assumed. And, in my opinion, it also refers to Harrison, who never makes a strong impression or is really very present in the novel even though he is the main character.

In the beginning portion of the novel, it's Harrison's mother Salome who steals the show.  At mass, "Salome walked to the head of the line, accepting the host on her tongue as if this were a bakery line and she had plenty of other errands." (p 23).  Even the kitchen boy Leandro is more memorable than Harrison in this section. In the second third the focus is on Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Lev Trotsky and the third, Harrison's stenographer Violet.  Is it a stylistic choice for Harrison to fade so completely into the background of his own story?  Could be.  But my lack of connection with him made my whole reading experience tend towards the meh end of the Kingsolver spectrum, despite the lush descriptions and the skillful inclusion of history.

THE LACUNA is now available in paperback.  Find out more about it at the author's website.

This review is part of a TLC book tour.  Visit the other stops for more opinions on Kingsolver's work.