Review: Sepulchre by Kate Mosse

Sepulchre rotates between Meredith Martin, living in the present day and traveling through France to research the book she's currently writing on the life of Claude Debussey, and also her family's past, and Leonie Vernier, a young girl living in the 1890s.  Leonie and Meredith end up having a lot in common and are connected through a set of old tarot cards and a song about a sepulchre.

So this was a fantastic book!  My summary up above is not really that great, but I didn't want to give away a lot of information while describing it, so I recommend you check out the summary from the back of the book.

I loved Leonie and 1890s France right away.  She is such a fun character who at first seems like just your average 18ish year old girl but ends up being so much more as she grows as a person.  Meredith on the other hand I had to warm up to.  I wasn't as captivated by her, though her story in itself I really liked. 

This book is filled with mystery: what's going on in the supulchre??  Is there really a history if devil warship there??  And what exactly is so great about those tarot cards?

I highly, highly, highly recommend this book.  The writing is fantastic-it got me from page 1:
"The story begins in a city of bones.  In the alleyways of the dead.  In the silent boulevards and promenades and impasses of the cimetiere de Montmartre in Paris, a place inhabited by tombs and stone angels and the loitering ghosts of those forgotten before they are even cold in their graves."

And then page 5:
"But now, many hundreds of miles to the south of Paris, something is stirring.  A reaction, a connection, a consequence.  In the ancient beech woods above the fashionable spa town of Rennes-les-Bains, a breath of wind lifts the leaves.  Music heard but not heard.  Enfin."

How captivating is that??

Here are some other favorite lines:
Page 73: "Outside, snow had been falling. Steady flakes, persistent in a white sky, covering the world with silence." (my favorite kind of snow!!!!)

Page 246: "Our influence upon the universe is nothing more than a whisper.  Its essential character, its qualities of light and dark, were set millenia before man attempted to make his mark upon the landscape.  The ghosts of those who have gone before are all around us, absorbed into the pattern, the music of the world, if you like."

Have you read Sepulchre??  What did you think?


Title: Sepulchre
Author: Kate Mosse
Date of Publication: 2008
Number of Pages: 592
Genre: Fiction
Source: Lent to me by one of my bestest friends ever

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Recommend the Most

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the ladies at The Broke and the Bookish.  Don't forget to check out their blog!

This week's topic: Top Ten Books I Recommend the Most

This should be easy, considering that when I really really really love a book I cannot stop talking about it.  My family all reads a lot like me, so I constantly recommending books to them.

1. The Inkheart Trilogy by Cornelia Funke.  I think these are my most recommended books ever.  I LOVE them.  I love them so so much. One of my best friends tried reading the first book once and never got into it, but I hope if I keep nagging she'll eventually pick it up again ;)

2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer because it's about people who love books and go to them to help them get through a hard time.

3. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami.  I haven't read the Hunger Games, but I've heard that this is way more intense.  So I recommend this one to people who are talking like crazy about the Hunger Games.  Little sis keeps saying she's going to read it as soon as she has money to buy it.

4. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann because it is one of my favorite books ever!!!!!

5. 13, rue Therese by Elena Mauli Shapiro because it is so different and the author's writing is so different and so pretty.

6. Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty.  I literally just finished this one 2 days ago.  I actually recommended it to my little sister after I read a few tweets from Jamie from Broke and Bookish and the Perpetual Page Turner saying how hilarious and awkward the main character was.  And I was like "that is my little sister.." and the Little One loved it.  She's been telling me for like a year now to read it, so I finally did, and I laughed so hard through the book because the main character is SO like my little sis.  I've been talking about it to people for 2 days straight now.

7. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood because it is amazing!!!!

8. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak.  I handed this one out for World Book Night last year, which worked out great because I always recommend it to people as it is.  I cried so hard when I read this one.

9. Women and Money by Suze Orman because it has all of the financial advise you wished someone had given you when you got your first job.  So much wonderful advise on 401Ks and other types of retirement accounts, saving money, what types of documents you should have in place besides a will.

10. The Alienist by Caleb Carr.  My friend at work recommended this one to me.  She said I'd love it because there's a serial killer, it takes place at the turn of the 1900s, and the main characters use criminal profiling to try to find the killer in a time when everyone thought that stuff was stupid.

I have a bunch of other books on my mind that I always recommend as well, but I'll leave it at that :)

What books are you constantly recommending??  Any that are also on my list?

Starting a Book Club and Coffee Explosion

So, I was just about to start typing up this post, when I heard a loud noise come from the kitchen.  Boyfriend was making coffee with the purcolator.  Have you ever made coffee with one of those??  Well, he forgot to put one of the pieces inside (the one with the holes that goes over the coffee grounds..) and wet coffee grounds exploded EVERYWHERE.  And I mean EVERYWHERE.  He's in deep shit.  I will be the only one using that contraption from now on.  We just wiped down all the kitchen and bathroom walls, and all the floors, including in the bedroom.  And the fridge.  And it is a freaking mess.  I know I told him earlier that I was going to do some cleaning today, but this is NOT WHAT I MEANT!

Anyway..

One of my best friends and I are starting a book club, and I just wanted to share my excitement with you, and ask some questions of you.

We're getting together tomorrow to officially plan it all.  We have a few other people who want to take part in the book club.  Anna and I will be choosing the first book and then we'll all meet and talk about it.  It's just easier to have a book already started because I don't want our first meeting to be all "well, I want to read this."  "But I want to read this!"  And we know that we all have similar reading tastes, so we will avoid that for the first meeting.

Some questions for you:
How often does your book club meet?
Where do you meet?  At someone's house, out somewhere?
Do you bring questions to discuss just in case there isn't a natural flow of conversation about the book?

Anything else you'd like to add??  And hey, if you live in or around Buffalo, come and join us!!

And now I'm off to buy disposable mop heads because the floors are nasty and I'm not using my washable ones on that.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Had to Buy but Are Still Unread

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the ladies of The Broke and the Bookish.  Check out their blog :)

This week's topic is: Top Ten books that I had to buy but are still sitting on my bookshelf unread. 

So I have a confession to make: I am horrible with this.  I get super excited for a book and buy it right when it's released, and then I don't read it for years.  Here is my list:

1. The Ghost Knight by Cornelia Funke.  I bought this one in September when Boyfriend and I were in Lake Placid on vacation.  I love everything I've ever read by Funke, and I saw this one and thought I was going to go home and devour it.  But then everytime I look for a new book to start, I book it off, because I want to savour that book. 

2. A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay.  I remember buying this as soon as it was out in paperback and I still haven't read it.  No excuses either, because I've loved her other books.

3. Disaster Was My God: A Novel of the Outlaw Life of Arthur Rimbaud by Bruce Duffy.  I am kind of obsessed with all things Rimbaud, and I preordered this book and couldn't wait for it to come in the mail.  And I haven't read it yet even though it's been a few years. 

4. Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende.  I pretty much begged to get this one for Christmas 2 years ago, and still haven't read it..

And then there are the French books I usually order on a yearly basis so that I can keep up with my comprehension and read the classics:

5. Le voyage d'hiver by Amelie Nothomb

6. Le deuxieme sexe by Simone de Beauvoir

7. Louise Labe's Oeuvres completes

8. Les liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

And what books did you run out to buy and then never read??

Warm, Sandy Places

I'm not a warm weather, beach going person.  I thrive in Winter and Fall, I love snow.  But lately I've been wanting to sit on a beach with plenty of cocktails and sunscreen and read.  This is a weird feeling for me.  My favorite place to read is snuggled on my couch with a fire in the fireplace and snow falling outside.  But right now, I want to be here:

Or in the tropics.  I really want a beach vacation.  I blame it on a surfing documentary Boyfriend watched last night.

I'm sure I'll be over this feeling in a few weeks.  What about you??  Do you ever dream about escaping to a warm, sandy place to read?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books at the Top of My Spring TBR List

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the lovely ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish.  Check out their blog :)

This week's topic is: Top Ten Books at the top of my Spring 2013 TBR list.  These aren't necessarily new books coming out, just books that I want to get to this Spring.

1. Fearless by Cornelia Funke.  Everyone is probably getting sick of me talking about it.  But I am so excited to read the sequal to Reckless.  Not excited that it's being released April 2nd, 2 days before I get my wisdom teeth out.  I will however be reading this while I'm recovering.  Unless I'm passed out on my bed from all the pain, blood, sweat, and tears that is getting wisdom teeth removed.  Have a mentioned that I've had a ridiculous fear of the dentist since I was little and will probably have a panick attach right before they stick that needle in my arm???

2. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.  I'm giving this one out for World Book Night, so I would really like to have it read before then.

3. Midnight on Julia Street by Ciji Ware, because my sister read it and keeps telling me I need to read it.

4. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, once again because my sister read it and keeps telling me I need to read it.

5. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.  Who doesn't love a good Austen novel on a lovely Spring day??

6. Who Was Dracula? by Jim Steinmeyer.  I got this one in the mail recently and it looks really interesting, kind of a biography of Bram Stoker's life when he was writing Dracula and how it was influenced by the people in his life.

7. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray, because it's been sitting on my shelf for ages and I really want to finally get to it.

8. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, because I loved The Year of the Flood and I finally own this one.

9. I would also like to finish Stendhal's Le rouge et le noir this Spring.  I started it over a year ago and read a bit at a time, because the main character is just so whiny and annoying.  But I need to finish this one because it's a French classic and needs to be read.  Or so I keep telling myself.

10. The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin.  I see that it's finally out in paperback :)  So I can finally justify spending more money on books for it.

What is on your Spring reading list??  Are you planning on reading more new books or older ones like me?

Review: Women and Money by Suze Orman

I am a huge fan of Suze Orman and watch her show whenever I am at my mom's on a Saturday night (I don't have cable at my apartment).  I received this book from my family for Christmas, and it is filled with a wealth of information.  It is geared toward women and how they can save more money and be more money conscious in their everyday lives.

I absolutely recommend this book to everyone, including men.  It is so easy to read and understand.  I am the kind of person who doesn't understand savings or retirement accounts or anything like that, and Suze explains all of this and which types of accounts are best for different people.  She pretty much dumbs it down for you.

She also is really good about helping readers create a budget they can live with.  I sat down right after I read this and created my own budget, so I now put away a certain amount into savings every month.  To read how much you can have saved if you put just a bit of money away every months is definitely motivation to keep going at it.

One of my favorite topics in the book was the retirement accounts chapter.  I have a 401K through my work, but I had no idea what I was doing when I set it up.  As soon as I get this book back from my sister (who is borrowing it, yay for her!), I am going to review that chapter and make any necessary alterations to my 401K.  Basically, she helped me to understand what kind of funds (or whatever those things you put in your account are....you know what I mean??) you should be putting in at different stages of your life.  Like, say, if you are close to retirement, make sure you have your 401K set up with a stable type of fund. 

(ok, I know I'm probably using all the wrong terminology, but look!  I do understand what I basically am talking about thanks to Suze!)

I also thought the chapter about important documents everyone with familys or beneficiaries should have was extremely helpful and important.  I had no idea that a will didn't garantee your family would get your house, etc.  I know it's expensive to finally get whatever was left to you, because my uncle and my sisters have been going through something similar since my grandmother died over a year ago.  If you have the right paperwork in place, you won't have to go through all the hassle of courts and lawyers and fees.  I wish I had read this with my gramma when she was still alive.

So basically, I am being preachy about this book.  I highly recommend it to everyone, especially if you are like me and want to be in complete control over your money and your financial future but have no idea what to do or where to start.  I do wish that I had the book back from my sister right now.  I feel like this review would have been more put together if I had the book in front of me for reference :)


Title: Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny
Author: Suze Orman
Date of Publication: 2010
Number of Pages: 352
Genre: Nonfiction
Source: Gift for Christmas

Top Ten Tuesday: Series I'd Like to Start but Haven't

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish.  Don't forget to check out their blog :)

This week's topic is: 10 series I'd like to start but haven't yet

This should be interesting.  I KNOW that there are a lot of series out there I'd like to start.  But I can't think of many right now.  I love the idea of series, but once I'm reading them I sometimes start slacking in reading the next book, because if I know the series is ending soon, I don't want to finish the last book and have it actually be over.  That happened with the last book from that whole Tomorrow When the War Began series.  And I put off Ink Death in that trilogy for as long as possible.  And I put of The Sweet Far Thing from those books for as long as possible.

Basically, when I find something I really like, I end up not finishing the series (or waiting really long to do so) because I don't want it to end..

Also, what qualifies as a series here?  Anything with more than 1 book?  Because that's what I'm going with :)

But anyway, here we go:

1. The Hunger Games books.  I would like to finally read these.  Though I'm told that after reading Battle Royale, which I did last year, The Hunger Games seems really lame.  But we will see.

2. Jennifer Donnelly's Rose series.  But I'm off to a really bad start.  I started reading the first book, The Tea Rose, but then I got nervous about what was going to happen and read ahead, which I never do.  And then I didn't like where the book was going to, so I stopped reading it like 50 pages in.  Maybe someday I'll pick it up again. I really liked the characters, which I think was my problem.

3. The Thursday Next books.  I think that's what they're called.  My coworker recommended them to me and I really want to get started.

And now, let's turn it over to: Series I have started and not finished but really want to finish!!

4. The Tradd Street books by Karen White.  Read the first one and adored it.  Sister has the next two at home and I have yet to start them.  I think there's just 1 more book coming out, so I want to savor these.

5. Philipp Pullman's His Dark Materials Books.  I started with The Subtle Knife and then read The Amber Spyglass.  I never went back to read book 1 because then the story will really be over!!

6. The Fearless books.  Remember those?  They were big when I was in like middle school.  I read the first 4 or something and then stopped because (big surprise here) I didn't want to read them too quickly and then not have anymore to read.

7. The Lady Julia Grey books by Deanna Raybourn.  I read the first book and just haven't gone on to the next because I don't have it yet.

8. Margaret Atwood's The MaddAddam Trilogy.  I read The Year of the Flood and really my only excuse for not reading Oryx and Crake yet is that I just bought it and will eventually get to it.  And by eventually I mean probably within the next 2 months.

And that's all I can come up with.  So you see, I have a problem.  With not finishing series.  Anyone else share by fear of finishing a great series??

YA Book Recommendations for a YA Binge Please

Hello Dear Readers,

I have a super special favor to ask of you.  I have had for a new days now a ridiculous craving to go to Barnes and Noble and buy a bunch of YA books and have a YA binge.

Now you know if you've been reading my blog long enough that I very rarely read YA.  So this is a weird feeling for me.  I'll read like, a book here and there.  Usually not a whole bunch.  So this feeling is very weird for me.

I just want to laze around for a weekend with alcohol and cake and read some YA!

So, I need your recommendations.  I'll take anything.  Just throw them at me and sometime this week I will go to the book store and buy a stack of books and spend next weekend reading them.

Feel free to tweet me @tomgirl571 or email me kellyrochford@gmail.com or reply to this post.  Merci!  Danke!  Thank you kindly!

Review: Blood Work by Holly Tucker

This is a book about the the history of blood transfusions-mainly the beginning.  In the 1600s it was very controversial, and not very safe either.  This book chronicals the journey that the first blood transfusionists went through to try and safely transfuse blood from one living thing to another. 

This was a fascinating book.  I think the title is a bit misleading because it's not filled with murders or anything like that, but over all I really enjoyed reading this.  I cannot believe that they used to transfuse animal blood into humans.  Seriously. 

It was so interesting reading about all the failed attempts at transfusion, and also all of the successful attempts.  My only real qualm with the book is that apparently they did a lot of their testing on dogs, which I didn't realize until I was engrossed in the book.  I did have to skip some of the details about the kinds of things they would put into the animals' blood streams.  If I had known that that much detail was going to be in here, about sweet little doggies, I definitely would not have picked up the book.  However, I skipped most of that stuff and if you're as fascinated with the history of blood transfusions (and why its research was finally put to a stop until a hundred or 2 years later) then I highly recommend this one.

It was a very interesting book, and a nice change from fiction.  But even the medical parts not about animals are a bit graphic and go into detail about the human body and the reactions it can have to transfusions, so if you get queesy easily, then this one's problably not for you :)


Title: Blood Work: A Tale of Murder and Medecine in the Scientific Revolution
Author: Holly Tucker
Date of Publication: 2012
Number of Pages: 336
Genre: Nonfiction
Source: Personal ebook