Cat says, "So long!"

I've been posed here, reading the same page of this book, for quite long enough now. I'm an adventurous feline who is tired of sitting around, so ... I'm outa here! Yes, I know some of you think I can't REALLY read, but I noticed a comment Dewey made a few days ago, right here on this very blog. She wants to turn me into a lolcat. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but it sounds like fun, so bye ... I'm slinking on over to Dewey's place to see what's happening. Maybe I'll drop back by, one of these days. Maybe not. It's been fun watching all you people coming here to read the posts, to laugh, to comment, to borrow ideas. Why should I miss all the fun?




I didn't see any treats, did you?





But I'm being such a nice, sweet kitty. Don't make me bare my claws.

Beneath a Marble Sky ~ by John Shors

1. Title, author, and date of book?
Beneath a Marble Sky: A Novel of the Taj Mahal, by John Shors, 2004.

2. Genre: historical fiction

3. What made you want to read it?
Since the Taj Mahal was just voted one of the NEW seven wonders of the world, the timing seemed perfect.

4. Summarize the book without giving away the ending.
The story takes us to 17th-century Hindustan, where the reigning emperor, consumed with grief over the tragic death of his beloved wife, commissions the building of the Taj Mahal as a testament to their love. (Hindustan is the ancient name for the place where Hindus live, in what is today called India.)

5. What did you think of the main character?
"Princess Jahanara recounts the mesmerizing tale of her parents' love, while sharing her own parallel tale of forbidden love with the celebrated architect of the Taj Mahal." (Does that sentence from the publisher sound slightly melodramatic? So is the book.)

6. Were there any especially interesting characters?
Yes, I was taken by Nizam and Ladli, friends and servants of the narrator. Nizam was amazingly strong and perfect in protecting Jahanara and her family; Ladli, Jahanara's Hindu friend, always managed to perfectly spy on "the enemy" and confound his plans. Both would have been even more interesting if they weren't protrayed as heroic beyond belief.

7. Did you think the characters and their problems were believable?
More or less. The author WAS having to work within historical parameters, but the love story between the narrator and the architect hired to build the Taj Mahal was a bit overwrought ... as though the author hoped the book would eventually appear as a Bollywood film.

8. From whose point of view is the story told?
Princess Jahanara, daughter of Shah Jahan, emperor of Hindustan. She is telling her life story to her two young granddaughters.

9. Was location or time period important to the story?
Yes, it was the whole point, to tell the story of the construction of this soaring and beautiful building.

10. What did you like least?
Jahanara, knowing the evil inclinations of an opponent, had a chance to let him die. Instead, using romanticized logic, she risked her own life to save him. Foreshadowing? Oh, yeah, the reader knows she just made a horrible mistake and people, including Jahanara and her family and the people of Hindustan, will suffer for the choice she made.

11. What about the ending?
Shall we all say in unison, "And they lived happily ever after"? At least the ones still alive.

12. What do you think will be your lasting impression of this book?
I enjoyed learning how huge the structure really is, which is not apparent from the usual photos most of us have seen. It's a lot bigger than I had imagined and that, not the love stories, will stay with me forever.

13. How would you rate the book?
Rated 8/10, very good (... but not excellent)
__________
Here are some links showing the architectural beauty of the monument:
1. Take a virtual tour of the Taj Mahal.
2. Beautiful photos of the Taj Mahal.
3. Four photos, including one showing descendents of the original Muslim builders, still doing inlaid stonework.
4. Detail photo of one of the towers.

Oh, what a lovely book shop!

Oh, what a lovely book shop! And oh, what a lovely story!

http://book-dragon.blogspot.com/2007/07/serendipitous-book-shopping.html

And oh, what a lovely word . . . bibliorphanage . . . is!

Enjoy,
~~~ Bonnie



Somebody said, "Treats." Is this the right blog?

Blogging Tips Meme

UPDATED: See updates in red below.
Also, Grace said we can see all the blogging tips HERE.

Stephanie at Confessions of a Book-a-holic has tagged me with the Blogging Tips Meme, which actually has some helpful blogging tips we can all use. Ready? Here we go!

-Start Copy-

It’s very simple. When this is passed on to you, copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. (Check out especially the * starred ones.)

Add the next number (1. 2. 3. 4. 5., etc.) and write your own blogging tip for other bloggers. Try to make your tip general.

After that, tag 10 other people. Link love some friends!

Just think - if 10 people start this and the 10 people pass it on to another 10 people, you have 100 links already!

1. Look, read, and learn. *** http://www.neonscent.com/

2. Be EXCELLENT to each other. ** http://www.bushmackel.com/

3. Don’t let money change ya! * http://www.therandomforest.info/

4. Always reply to your comments. ***** http://chattiekat.com/

5. Link liberally — it keeps you and your friends afloat in the Sea of Technorati. * http://chipsquips.com/

6. Don’t give up - persistence is fertile. * http://www.velcro-city.co.uk/

7. Give link credit where credit is due. *** http://www.sfsignal.com/

8. Pictures say a thousand words and can usually add to any post. ** http://scifichick.com/

9. Visit all the bloggers that leave comments for you - it's nice to know who is reading! * http://stephaniesbooks.blogspot.com/

10. Thrown in something humorous occasionally, to keep things fun. http://bonniesbooks.blogspot.com/

-End Copy-

Time to pass it on, so here are my 10 links ... with a spare in case one of the others isn't able to do this. By the way, folks, you are all #1 in my book!

1. AbVan at Absolute Vanilla ...(& Atyllah)
UPDATED: Absolute Vanilla's tip = Blog for yourself and your own pleasure, because you want to - if it stops being fun, stop blogging.
UPDATED: Absolute Vanilla said: "And I'm going to add to more, just because I can! Extra tips = Blogging is a multimedia environment, use the media to enliven your blog - words, images, video, music but ... stick to good design rules and remember that less is more.
1. Colleen at Loose Leaf Notes
1. Dewey at the hidden side of a leaf
1. Jenn at Something to Say
1. Jill at The Magic Lasso
UPDATED: Jill's tip = Sometimes, less is more. Step back and look at your blog - is it too busy? Are there enough pictures to make it interesting? Think about how a visitor would perceive your blog - making it visitor-friendly will help get you return visits.
1. Karen at Verbatim
1. Lisa at Books. Lists. Life.
UPDATED: Lisa's tip = "When picking the URL for your blog, think short and easy. You'll be typing it a million times."
1. Michelle at http://3m3am.wordpress.com/
UPDATED: 3M's tip = Do at least a few of the blogging quizzes available. It lets people know a little more about you.
1. Nancy at Bookfoolery and Babble
1. Susan at Patchwork Reflections
UPDATED: Susan's tip = "Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light." — Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911)
1. Wendy at Caribousmom
UPDATED: Wendy's tip = Make it easy for your readers - use tags and labels and keep it simple!

Have fun! I intend to follow this meme and find out what other wonderful ideas and suggestions you ten ... uhm, eleven ... have to offer.

Oops! Wait! I have linked liberally, responded to Stephanie's comment by doing this meme, visited all of you to set up all these links (and am planning to go back to tell you I've tagged you), had fun doing this ... but ... but ... but I forgot to use a picture to say another thousand words! Aiiiiieeee! Okay, I'm adding a picture now. There! See it to the right? It's a ... wait, let me see what I clicked on ... it's a purple hyacinth! Yay! Umm, you DO see the relevence, don't you?

Place Last Seen ~ by Charlotte McGuinn Freeman

1. Title, author, and date of book?
Place Last Seen by Charlotte McGuinn Freeman, 2000

2. Genre: fiction

3. What made you want to read it? Did it live up to your expectations?
Wendy at Caribousmom put it on her Something About Me Reading Challenge list, and I chose it as one I wanted to read. It is every bit as good as I expected.

4. Summarize the book without giving away the ending.
During an idyllic autumn-day hike in the Desolation Wilderness of the Sierra Nevadas, the Baker family is hurled into a nightmare when six-year-old Maggie, a child with Down Syndrome, runs away while playing hide-and-seek with her brother. As the Search and Rescue team combs the place where Maggie was last seen, all the family can do is wait and hope that a clue will lead them to her.

5. Share a quote from the book.
Here are the opening lines:

Maggie is lost.
Ann crouches in the trail, listening to this sentence loop over and over through her brain. Her daughter is six years old -- blond, brown eyes, Down syndrome, lost.

6. Did you think the characters and their problems were believable?
All except that mother, who seemed strange to the search and rescue team as well. We know the little lost girl through flashbacks; we see that her father, mother, and 8-year-old brother all feel guilty that she got away from them; but the story is really (in my opinion) about the searchers. I was fascinated to learn about THEIR problems as they tried to find nearby dog teams to follow the scent before it was lost -- only to discover they were in Peru, helping there. The longer it took to get the trained dogs to the PLS, the place last seen, the more likely the scent would be washed away by rain or otherwise contaminated by helpful volunteer searchers. And then there was the new guy, learning to track, who stepped on the first good clue to be found. Oh, yes, their problems were very believable.

7. Was location important to the story?
Location was everything. The story is located in the Desolation Wilderness area of the Sierra Nevadas in the state of California. I know I'll have to read the book again, now that I have found a map of that area, but I was too engrossed to look for online information as I was reading the book. The need to know what's next kept me turning the pages. But look at this wonderful map I found since finishing the book! (Click on the map to make it larger.)



8. What do you think will be your lasting impression of this book?
What I got from Ed and Michelle, two of the search team members, about the whole point of tracking:

Ed believes, "Tracking's mostly learning to see" (p. 63).
Michelle says, "Tracking's all about learning to see" (p. 66).
Ed "knows that the only way to find something is, in some sense, to stop looking with your brain and start seeing" (p. 127).

I get it, I get it! But do I really? Jonathan, who is on his first search, has a hard time learning to really see the lay of the land (literally) and the little clues that seasoned trackers notice. What I may think I learned by reading this book wouldn't take me far in the wilderness, but what a challenge ... to really pay attention to everything that is in your line of sight. Is there a broken twig? Is the grass flattened? What's really right there in front of your nose?

9. How would you rate the book?
Rated: 9/10, excellent! Thanks, Wendy!

10. What I learned about Wendy:
Oh, yeah, one more thing: I can't forget to report what I learned about Wendy from reading this book ... because that's part of our challenge. She said: "This book is a touching novel about a lost child and the search which ensues to find her. It represents me on a couple of levels. I have been involved in Search and Rescue for almost ten years now (the first 7 of those years was with my Search and Rescue dog - Caribou- and now I'm a certified Tracker I for my county team). In addition, the child in this novel has Down's Syndrome. As a licensed Physical Therapist, I work with children and adults with developmental disability. McGuinn Freeman does an outstanding job of portraying both the search teams and the family of this little girl."

I posted this on Wendy's blog: "I have finished reading Place Last Seen and feel I know you a lot better now. What I want to know is, which dog in the team photo is Caribou?

Wendy replied: "Caribou and I are not on the Shasta County dog team...we worked for an state-wide organization called CARDA. I retired Caribou two years ago due to her developing arthritis ... and now I serve as a tracker for my county team (which is the link I provided in my 'explanation' of the book). You can see a photo of Caribou here on my blog."

Caribou is a beautiful dog! Go see for yourself. This is exactly what I was hoping to learn about some of you when I joined this challenge. Wendy has been out there searching for people like the characters in this book, on search and rescue teams and with her trained dog. This has been great, learning something new to me and at the same time learning about my new friend Wendy.

Latitudes of Melt ~ by Joan Clark

1. Title, author, and date of book?
Latitudes of Melt, by Joan Clark, 2000 in Canada, 2002 in the United States

2. Genre: fiction

3. What made you want to read it? Did it live up to your expectations?
I was looking for books that take me to new places in the world. Not knowing anything about the book, I was pleasantly surprised at how it kept my interest and attention.

4. Summarize the book without giving away the ending.
In the year 1912, a fisherman named Francis St. Croix discovers a baby girl adrift on an ice floe in the North Atlantic. He names her Aurora because of her dawn rescue at sea, and she becomes part of the his family on the austere Newfoundland coast. Aurora grows up, marries a lighthouse keeper, and has two children: Nancy, a headstrong woman who wants to be everything her mother isn't, and Stanley, a late bloomer who has his mother's passion for exploration and becomes an expert on ice. Nancy's daughter, Sheila, sets out to unravel her grandmother Aurora's mysterious past and why she was on the ice in 1912 ... shortly after the sinking of the Titanic.

5. What did you think of the main character?
Aurora is quirky, but also very plucky and independent. I like her.

6. Which character could you relate to best, and why?
Probably Aurora herself.

7. Were there any other especially interesting characters?
Tom Mulloy, the lighthouse keeper, seemed to be interesting at first, but I still like Aurora best.

8. Did you think the characters and their problems were believable?
Yes, especially as some of the characters faced old age.

9. Was location important to the story?
Yes, Newfoundland was like another character in the story, and the reader watches it change through the years. The fishing industry changed profoundly from 1912 when the fishermen out in a rowboat got lost from their mother ship to the time of Stanley's deep-sea diving career.

10. What did you like most about the book?
I enjoyed learning about the way people lived nearly a hundred years ago.

11. Share a quote from the book.

Of the ten thousand icebergs calved in Greenland each year, about one-tenth crossed the latitude of 48 degrees north; half that number made it to the latitude of 46 degrees; few of those would make it past the tail end of the Banks at the latitude of 43 degrees. Because Newfoundland was roughly between 46 and 51 degrees north, it was smack in the middle of the latitudes of melt. Every year, icebergs drifted down the Labrador Current to ground in the island's coves and bays (p. 166).

12. What do you think will be your lasting impression of this book?
Joan Clark writes beautifully, and I think I'll be remembering writing like this, when a character who was injured and sedated was thinking:

I am on the sea. Am I following Stanley? How strange that I should be floating on the water, when as far back as I can remember I've been afraid of the sea. I'm not afraid now, perhaps because I'm imagining myself as a little boat toddling down the bay. I'm no bigger than a skiff, but I'm perfectly seaworthy and know how to mould myself to the water as the swells lift me up and down. I take my time, drifting into coves and tickles, inlets and bights, on my leisurely journey through the latitudes of melt, idling past capes and points and beaches in no hurry to reach the place of trespass, the bay of souls.

13. How would you rate this book?
Rated: 9/10, excellent!

========================================
ADDENDUM: While I was reading Latitudes of Melt, Booklogged and her husband Candleman were actually IN Newfoundland and took a photo of an iceberg floating off-shore at a village near Gander.


Click on the photo to enlarge it. I'm reading the journal of their travels and have gone from Utah to Newfoundland, Canada, with them so far. This is so much fun, traveling in books and discovering another book blogger is seeing IN PERSON what I'm seeing in my book! Read what they wrote and photographed that day by clicking this:
http://thefolksarenthome.blogspot.com/2007/07/july-19-gander.html

____________________

UPDATE: To read my more recent comments about this, click here.

Dr. Seuss on the loose!

There's a vote for authors at the Great Wednesday Compare, and today it is between Jane Austen and Dr. Seuss. If you have an opinion, click on the link above and go vote! Here's my vote, following the one I responded to:

Sam Houston said...
It's still Austen for me. The Doc was great for kids, beyond a doubt, but I seriously doubt that I will ever be tempted to pick up one of his books again.

Bonnie Jacobs said...
Oh, no, Sam! It's gotta be Dr. Seuss! His books for children are fun for (some) adults, like me, but there are also books written for those of us older than three. A couple of books come to mind: Oh, the Places You'll Go! and You're Only Old Once: A Book for Obsolete Children.

What about The Lorax? "Unless someone like you ... cares a whole awful lot ... nothing is going to get better ... It's not." Long before saving the earth became a global concern, the Lorax warned against mindless progress and the danger it posed to the earth's natural beauty. And the Sneetches teach us a lot about discrimination.

I had to buy Green Eggs and Ham twice for my nephew because he read the first copy to death. How many times did my children read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, and To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, and Hop on Pop, and Fox in Sox, and Horton Hears a Who, and Cat in the Hat as they were learning to read? More times than I can count.

And the Grinch is now more important to Christmas than Rudolph! Seuss is popular with people of all ages, sizes, and shapes. Austen? Not as many. Of course, my vote is for Seuss.

~~~ Bonnie, an obsolete child