Hippity Hoppity

I really love the Book Blog Hop from Crazy for Books! It really opens me up to a wealth of great book blogs. Thank you for visiting my blog-I'm so glad you've come. Stay a while, pull up a chair-I hope you enjoy your stay.

The question of the week is:
Who is your favorite new-to-you author so far this year?

This is a tricky one, so I needed to go back to my Shelfari shelf and look at all the books I've read so far this year. I've been focusing on mega long books, so there aren't as many to choose from.

I think I would have to say Sarah Addison Allen as my favorite new-to-me author this year so far. Garden Spells was an amazing read, full of magic and warmth and down home southern goodness. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't yet read it (click here for my review!)

Who is your favorite newly discovered author?

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephanie Meyer

A long awaited extra glimpse into the world of Twilight has finally come in the form of Bree Tanner's story, a newbie vampire bred for a single purpose: to beef up Victoria's army to be sent to kill Bella, vampire Edward's love. But Bree doesn't know about any of that at the beginning of the novella. She is 3 months old and still trying to get the hang of being undead. Their 'boss' is Riley, and he looks out for the group of newborns, but Bree knows there is something that just isn't right about what Riley is telling them. She meets Diego, an older newborn, who shares the same reservations, and they become fast friends. But can that friendship last as the vampire army edges closer to their ultimate purpose: a full-out vampire war?

This was a good short story-I enjoyed going back into the Twilight world and seeing the battle in Eclipse from a different angle. Bree is a compelling character, and you wish that her second life wasn't quite so short at the end. Do I believe that Meyer only wrote it to milk some extra cash from the Twilight series? Maybe. But it's her right to do so. People want more Twilight and she has delivered one more morsel. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion. I would love a full set of more Twilight books outlining Bella and Edward's second life together, I would like to see Nessie grow up and would definitely like more Jacob. But we don't always get what we want. This little snack of a book was enough for now.

If you like this book, and the Twilight series, check out: Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. I believe that this series of books is where the vampire craze of the 20th century began. Start with Interview with the Vampire, a compulsively romantic, beautifully descriptive glimpse into the life of Louis, a centuries old vampire who has lived much and loved and lost. You will be drawn into his world and never want to leave. Fortunately, there are several other books after the first. The Vampire Lestat is next, and will make you love Lestat by the time you're done. Yes, he's flawed, but he is so real and feeling. The other books in the series primarily follow him, but none of them are boring!

Hop Hop Hop

Welcome back hoppers for another fun filled week! This week's question is:

TELL US ABOUT THE BOOK YOU ARE CURRENTLY READING!

I'm currently reading The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George, all 900+ pages of it. I'm about 400 pages in, and although I have a long way to go, this book is keeping my interest. I can't wait to be done so that I can check it off my list!

The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears

I don't usually venture into the realm of mystery, but this book really appealed to my love of historical fiction and art. A mysterious painting is unearthed in Italy that was hidden underneath a mediocre painting for hundreds of years. It wasn't until after the painting was bought by a British art dealer that the discovery was realized. It turns out that a long lost Raphael has resurfaced! Now the Italian government scrambles to get back their lost treasure and eventually recovers it, and will stop at nothing to keep it safe. But there is one British graduate student, Jonathan Argyll, who has been nosing around Italy, and he believes that the painting may not be genuine. So when one evening the newest Italian treasure gets torched, it is up to Jonathan and Italian investigator Flavia to find out whether his theory is indeed reality, or whether it was the genuine article that just went up in flames.

This was a good book, and a very quick read. I hear that this is actually the first part of a series focusing on Argyll, so I may have to look into the next installment.

Making this post educational-About Raphael:
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino(April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520), better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.

Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop, and despite his death at thirty-seven, a large body of his work remains. Many of his works are found in the Apostolic Palace of The Vatican, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is the The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome, much of his work was designed by him and executed largely by the workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality.

He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael's more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models.

Raphael's work can be found all over Italy, due to rather nomadic style of living. He was much admired during his lifetime, even though it was cut tragically short at the age of 37.

About the Author:
Iain Pears (born in 1955) is an English art historian, novelist and journalist. He was educated at Warwick School, Warwick, Wadham College and Wolfson College, Oxford. Before writing, he worked as a reporter for the BBC, Channel 4 (UK) and ZDF (Germany) and correspondent for Reuters from 1982 to 1990 in Italy, France, UK and US. In 1987 he became a Getty Fellow in the Arts and Humanities at Yale University. His well-known novel series features Jonathan Argyll, art historian, though international fame first arrived with his best selling book An Instance of the Fingerpost (1998), which was translated into several languages. Pears currently lives with his wife and children in Oxford. He has written 12 books, 7 of which are part of the Argyll series.


Other books to consider: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber, and Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

Giveaway Winner!

Let's Celebrate!

The winner of my blog's very first ever giveaway is...(drumroll please)

MYSTEE!

Mystee will be receiving a lovely copy of Loving Frank by Nancy Horan.

Thanks so much to all who played. This was fun! It certainly won't be the last giveaway so keep your eyes peeled for the next one.

Book Blog Hoppin'

So the question this week for book blog hop is:

RIGHT THIS INSTANT, WHAT BOOK ARE YOU DYING TO GET YOUR HANDS ON (PAST, PRESENT, OR FUTURE)?

For me, the same book has been the answer to this question for eons now. I would like so much for A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin to get finished and published already! A Song of Ice and Fire has got to be the best fantasy series I've ever read. It has everything: magic, knights, kings and queens, swordplay, strong female characters, and list goes on. I can't wait to find out what happens to my favorite characters, and who will live to see the end of the series. I certainly hope Martin lives to write the end of the series. I'm getting a bit worried here!

So what's yours?

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

This book took me a long time to read, and for a lot of it, it just didn't grab me. The story follows two women, Alais in Carcossone in the 1200s and Alice, an English professor visiting France in 2005. Both stories move consecutively through alternating chapters and both have to do with protection of the Cathar's greatest secret: the Grail.

So everyone wants these books that tell one how to use the grail and gain its rewards. Alais devoted her life to protecting this secret, and Alice gets a lot of 800 year old baggage dumped on her head and people trying to kill her and whatnot because of these actions that happened in her past life-Alais' life. She seems to stumble blindly through almost the entire book, finally getting a clue in the last 50 pages or so.

While the story of Alais during the time of turmoil and the crusade against the Cathars is more interesting, it drags on forever with very little forward motion. And the fringe characters in both stories aren't very developed-they serve one specific purpose then drop off the page-leaving them very two dimensional and utterly forgettable. For example, the closest thing to a love interest in the modern-day part of the story is a completely hollow character who appears with a couple of aside chapters and one meeting with the main character. Then it's right back to the background. And I'm supposed to believe that this tiny bit of interaction should amount to happily ever after? Who is this person anyway?

All in all, not a bad book, but it could have used a bit more tightening to make the middle part less dry and history book-ish. I did gain a decent bit of information about the Albigensian Crusade and life in France in the early 1200's. But this was not enough to completely redeem it in my eyes.

History time: The Cathars:
Catharism was a name given to a Christian religious sect with dualistic and gnostic elements that appeared in the Languedoc region of France and other parts of Europe in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Cathars did not believe in one all-encompassing god, but in two, both equal and comparable in status. They held that the physical world was evil and created by Rex Mundi (translated from Latin as "king of the world"), who encompassed all that was corporeal, chaotic and powerful; the second god, the one whom they worshipped, was entirely disincarnate: a being or principle of pure spirit and completely unsullied by the taint of matter. He was the god of love, order and peace.

According to some Cathars, the purpose of man's life on Earth was to transcend matter, perpetually renouncing anything connected with the principle of power and thereby attained union with the principle of love. According to others, man's purpose was to reclaim or redeem matter, spiritualising and transforming it.

This placed them at odds with the Catholic Church in regarding material creation, on behalf of which Jesus had died, as intrinsically evil and implying that God, whose word had created the world in the beginning, was a usurper. Furthermore, as the Cathars saw matter as intrinsically evil, they denied that Jesus could become incarnate and still be the son of God. Cathars vehemently repudiated the significance of the crucifixion and the cross. In fact, to the Cathars, Rome's opulent and luxurious Church seemed a palpable embodiment and manifestation on Earth of Rex Mundi's sovereignty.

The Catholic Church regarded the sect as dangerously heretical. Faced with the rapid spread of the movement across the Languedoc region, the Church first sought peaceful attempts at conversion, undertaken by Dominicans. These were not very successful, and after the murder on 15 January 1208 of the papal legate Pierre de Castelnau by a knight in the employ of Count Raymond of Toulouse (a staunch Cathar at the time who then later changed sides and fought with the Catholics), the Church called for a crusade, which was carried out by knights from northern France and Germany and was known as the Albigensian Crusade.

The papal legate had involved himself in a dispute between the rivals Count of Baux and Count Raymond of Toulouse, and it is possible that his assassination had little to do with Catharism. The anti-Cathar Albigensian Crusade, and the inquisition which followed it, entirely eradicated the Cathars. The Albigensian Crusade had the effect of greatly weakening the semi-independent southern Principalities such as Toulouse, and ultimately bringing them under direct control of the King of France. Many thousands of Languedoc citizens were massacred under the flag of religious persecution. Arnaud, the Cistercian abbot-commander, is supposed to have been asked how to tell Cathars from Catholics. His reply was "Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius."—"Kill them all, the Lord will recognize His own."

Catharism all but disappeared by the 1260s, under pressure from the Inquisition that followed the crusade.

About the author:
Kate Mosse (born 20 October 1961) is an English author and broadcaster.Kate was born in West Sussex. She was educated at Chichester High School and New College, Oxford. After graduating, she spent seven years in publishing. Her bestselling books have sold millions in over 40 countries[1].

Kate married old school friend Greg Mosse, after meeting him again twenty years later on a train by chance. Mosse lives with her husband and children, Martha and Felix, in West Sussex and Carcassonne. She has written five books, and Labyrinth is her third.

Other Books to Consider:
Queen Isabella by Alison Weir, The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier, and Katherine by Anya Seton.