Amazon's Best Books (so far) of 2012

News from Publishers Marketplace:

 Awards: Massique, Enright Win Inaugural Carnegie Medal; Amazon's Best Books of 2012 So Far

The ALA presented its inaugural Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction to Robert K. Massie’s Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman (Random House) and Anne Enright’s The Forgotten Waltz (Norton).

Amazon names its ten Best Books of 2012 So Far, leading off with Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers (Random House), Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl (Crown) and John Green's The Fault in Our Stars(Dutton Children's) with additional choices in a variety of categories

The Sisters Brothers: A Macabre Poetical Comedy

Book Review by Kim Tomsic

When The Sisters Brothers popped up as Amazon's must-read book of the year, I happily succumbed to marketing pressures and downloaded the book. I can now report that Amazon's plug was not mere smoke and mirrors, but instead a genuine enthusiastic recommendation.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt involves two brothers who work as hired killers during the time of the gold rush. Elie Sisters, the lovable younger brother, attempts manners and big-hearted gestures. Charlie Sisters, the older brother, comes off callous, soulless, and yet somewhat reasonable. These hired killers aren't cardboard cutouts of the black hat wearing villains who typically appear in westerns. Sometimes they're lovable, charming and full of charisma. Their bizarre back and forth banter is a combination enough to create a macabre poetical comedy. For anyone who watched Pulp Fiction, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

Jacket flap

Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn't share his brother's appetite for whiskey and killing, he's never known anything else. But their prey isn't an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm's gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living–and whom he does it for.

With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters–losers, cheaters, and ne'er-do-wells from all stripes of life–and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humor, melancholy, and grit of the Old West and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.

In a word or two: Original, hilarious, riveting

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Ecco; Reprint edition (April 26, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062041266
• ISBN-13: 978-0062041265
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.1 inches

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Daemons in the Mist - A Book Review

"Seventeen year old Patrick Connolly has been drawn to Nualla ever since he first saw her, but as the years pass she seems to take absolutely no notice of him. Until, that is, he rescues her from a confrontation in the school hallway. Little does he know that he’s about to be thrust into a world of life altering secrets and things that shouldn’t exist, because the fog and mist of San Francisco is concealing more than just buildings."

DAEMONS IN THE MIST by author/illustrator Alicia Kat Dillmn, is a story that takes you on a journey where human and Daemon worlds collide. The opening scene takes place at a prep school in San Francisco. Think TWILIGHT, but replace vampires with daemons.  The story is packed with plot, adventure, sexual tension, and many clever twists and turns.

Daemons in the Mist is YA paranormal romance / urban fantasy cleverly presented from two first-person POVs, high school seniors Patrick and Nualla.

Patrick lives an ordinary life. He has decent grades, a small circle of friends, and parents who neglect him. His crush, Nualla, doesn’t know he exists until a bizarre encounter at school develops and she curiously acknowledges him for the first time.

Nualla lives an extraordinary life. She is beautiful, wealthy, and a Kalodaemon princess. She presents herself as human, but is truly Kalodaemon through and through. This means she’s a “good daemon, like an angel. [Kaladaemon’s] influence humans to aspire to greatness, but are not unfailingly virtuous.”

The Positives: Voice, humor, setting, pacing, characters, plot, intrigue.

The Drawbacks: Gratuitous drinking, gratuitous cussing and a bothersome use of punctuation.

Drawback: I'll get this out of the way first, because the positive is where I want to leave the focus. The biggest drawback I found in the story is the level of gratuitous drinking. The amount of alcohol consumption in this story doesn’t match the plot or contribute to the storyline. It fit in the opening scene, but afterwards it could have been axed or made as simple background noise. Furthermore, Patrick is a skinny, 5’11” boy without a lot of experience with alcohol. In the opening scene (and possibly at Skye’s club) it’s unbelievable that he could quickly consume at least six shots (and then some) without experiencing alcohol poisoning—the level of oxygenated blood would have depleted to dangerous levels when matched to the rate of the shots they took. It’s irresponsible to let YA readers think otherwise. There are other references to alcohol throughout the book promoting drinking as cool (like you can join us if you drink). I found it surprising toward the end when Patrick uses alcohol in attempt to stop his headaches. It seemed he had moved to full on addict mode, but nothing gets developed on this point. I’m certainly not against exposing the reality of teens and drinking.  It either happens in the background of a story, or it develops as a central theme. When liquor is used as a big point in a story, it fits because it adds to the plot or the character arc. In John Green’s YA fiction LOOKING FOR ALASKA, it worked with the character, plot and set of circumstances.   

POSITIVES: The positives of this story outshine the few minuses named above. Author Alicia Kat Dillman is a master at painting a beautiful scene. Her words perfectly capture an eerie and magical feel for the San Francisco mists. Furthermore, Dillman does a great job with world building and effortlessly collides the ordinary human world with the daemon world. I found it entertaining that the daemon world is created with a great super-geek genius level of technology, yet they still have an annoying level of bureaucratic red tape to deal with.

I was easily sucked into the plot since Dillman quickly moves the story forward by piling on the tension and adding riveting chapter endings. Furthermore, she clearly has a great sense of humor and successfully achieves character voice in a way that rings true. Funny one-liners are peppered throughout the story and comic relief balances the building tension. DAEMONS IN THE MIST is packed with great pacing and the right balance of dialogue, introspection and action.

Not only is Dillman a gifted writer, she is also a talented artist. You should check out her website at Kat Girl Studio.

Publisher: Korat Publishing (May 20, 2011) 

Language: English 

ASIN: B0051XZNAI

Available: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Korat (ebook and print formats offered)

BOOK REVIEW: Playing Hurt

Playing Hurt by Holly Schindler will be this summer's YA go-to romance novel.

When broken basketball star, Chelsea, is forced into a Minnesota Lakes boot camp, she discovers her trainer, Clint, has some wounds of his own. The story is packed with enough heat and tension to ignite the hormones, but can greater healing come about? Author Holly Schindler answers this question in her spicy YA novel,  Playing Hurt (Flux, March 2011).  Playing Hurt is not for the feint of heart reader, meaning it's not for the tween/teen just leaving their middle grade reader in search of a juicier read. It's an older YA novel that promises sexual tension.

Schindler has a smooth writing style and can turn a phrase in a clever way. Although I would have preferred that the author use only half the metaphors and similes, I couldn't help but love when I read certain hyperboles like, [we were] "so close our eye lashes almost tangled." Schindler did a fantastic job revving up tension. The summer romance between Chelsea and Clint is so steamy that Playing Hurt could easily become this decade's version of Dirty Dancing.


ISBN-10: 9780738722870


ISBN-13: 978-0738722870

Playing Hurt, Flux (March 2011) Available for $9.99 through independent book sellers, Barnes & Noble, Amazon

Room: A Novel vs. the 1998 Best Foreign Film (directed by Benigni)

Book Review
Room:  A Novel by Emma Donoghue 

Where to buy in Colorado:
Boulder Book Store  1107 Pearl
Tatter Cover   on Colfax, Highland Ranch, or Lodo in Denver

There's been a pile of press surrounding Emma Donoghue's book ROOM.  It's certainly a "ripped from the headlines" type of tale, reminding me of the California tragedy when a girl was held hostage in a couple's backyard shack for several years.

ROOM is told from the POV of Jack, a five-year-old boy who was born the second year of his ma's seven year captivity. Jack has never seen anything beyond the eleven-by-eleven room where they are held, but he is none too bothered by the the living situation; it's all he knows and his mother has gently framed the circumstances. 

Somehow, the sweet way ROOM is told (and Jack's innocent understanding) reminds me of one of my favorite movies:  Life is Beautiful by director Roberto Benigni.  This 1998 Academy Award winning foreign film depicts an Italian Jewish father who is forced with his son into a German concentration camp.  The son is young and does not speak German, so instead of relaying the terrifying situation accurately, the father purposefully mis-translates the German guards' scary threats. He tells his son they are on an adventure and everything is a games.  He invents inaccurate and hilarious translations to replace the vile things that are truly said.  Although the subject matter is dark and bleak, I found myself laughing throughout the film.  ROOM is handled in a similar manner.

ROOM offers much to enjoy.  There is a certain sweetness to the book as well as fantastic moments of tension and excitement.

ROOM was released September 13, 2010 by Little Brown and Company.  It is available hardback with a list price of $24.99.

What stage have you achieved in your spiritual journey?

BOOK REVIEW: Where is God in Your Life?

Do you feel stuck in your quest to know God? Have you been around a person who has such warm and beautiful energy that their pores breathe perfect and radiant peace? Fear does not define any part of their life; they are not driven toward recognition yet they clearly and brightly reflect God and you can’t help but notice them. You may pray, go to a church, and have a great family, but you know you don’t feel satisfied on the same level as your glowing friend.

Where is God in your Life: Three Retreats in Christian Spirituality by Susan M. Provost is a new book available on Amazon. Ms Provost’s book explores the teachings expressed by Janet Hagberg and Robert Guelich and examines the six stages of a person’s faith journey: (1)Recognition of God; (2)The life of discipleship; (3)the productive life; (4)the journey inward and meeting the wall; (5)the journey outward; (6)and the life of love. Ms. Provost challenges that most people can achieve stages one through three within their church community, but there is little support currently available to help a person realize stages four through six. Where is God in your Life and the workshops designed around Ms. Provost’s teachings offer a platform to help people arrive at the final three profound levels when traveling the road to faith.

Mrs. Provost says, “the problem that many people face, who are looking to move forward on their spiritual journey, is where to begin.” You can begin on page one, but Ms. Provost advises before cracking open the first pages of her book that you throw away any notion you may have about a punishing God and open your heart to discover the God of love.

The book includes three different two-day workshops for varying levels of a person’s faith experience (novice to veteran). The main topics include: spirituality, understanding the soul, Christian spirituality, God’s presence, prayer, and spirituality within the community. Where is God in your Life can be read individually or it can be used as the foundation in a retreat setting. Where is God in your Life provides seminar plans that are organized in such detail that the group leader simply needs to show up—the readings, the music, the time schedule, the ice breaker activities (including a crazy one with a roll of toilet paper) are prearranged to achieve an insightful, fun, and structured experience.

Mrs. Provost says that “our culture encourages the need to be constantly in motion,” but she also asserts that “we cannot notice God working in our lives when we do not take the time to stop…these workshops are designed to give those searching for a relationship with God the tools to know where to begin and how to proceed on their spiritual journey…” Mrs. Provost wants you to have the tools to become the radiant stage six person described in the first paragraph; to learn how to surrender to God unafraid and with your eyes wide open.