Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


The Apostate by Jack London

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on October 31, 2011
Posted in Short Story Read in 2011  | 4 Comments

I came across this short story by Jack London awhile ago and finally got around to reading it.  I have a faint recollection of someone reading The Call of the Wild to me but I’m not sure.  It is a book on my TBR.

There are no dogs in The Apostate but it is a good social commentary on child labor.

Johnny is just 12 years old when the story opens.  He is working in a factory to help support his mother and siblings.  His mother works in a factory as well, in fact it was twelve years ago the she gave birth to Johnny on a factory floor.

“It was Johnny, born with the pounding, crashing roar of the looms in his ears, drawing with his first breath the warm, moist air that was thick with flying lint. He had coughed that first day in order to rid his lungs of the lint; and for the same reason he had coughed ever since.”

Johnny is a very hard worker and he get promoted to other tasks the earn more money.  He does best with tasks that pay per piece because he is very fast, almost like a machine, himself.  
There were childhood labor laws in place by this time but Johnny was taught to lie and the factories ignored the fact that many of there workers were under age.  When his brother Will turned 12, Johnny asked his mother why Will couldn’t work for awhile so he could go to school but she refused and said he was too young.  Johnny knew that she actually had plans for Will to stay in school so he could get a better job.
One day Johnny…
Yeah, you’ll have to read the story to knows what happens.  Like I said, it is a good social commentary of the days back in the U.S. when children worked in factories.  It’s well written and engaging.  From the descriptions of the tasks that Johnny did, I felt like I was a child working along side him.  You can read it here.
Did you review this story or another by Jack London?  If so, please leave the link in the comments.

Short Story Monday is hosted by John at The Book Mine Set.
Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Giveaway: See Mix Drink by Brian D. Murphy

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on October 29, 2011
Posted in My Past Giveaways  | 68 Comments

Thanks to Anna Balasi of Grand Central Publishing, I am giving away 2 copies of See Mix Drink.

Book Description:

Have you tried mixing a Mojito? What about a Rusty Nail? Or a Cosmopolitan? With SEE MIX DRINK by Brian D. Murphy, the first-ever cocktail book to offer instruction through info-graphics, making the drinks you love at home is as easy as, well, See, Mix, Drink.

This unique, illustrated guide graphically demonstrates how to make 100 of today’s most popular cocktails. For each drink, color-coded ingredients are displayed in a line drawing of the appropriate glassware, alongside a pie chart that spells out the drink’s composition by volume for intuitive mixing. No other cocktail book is this easy or fun. Instantly understandable 1-2-3 steps show exactly how each drink is prepared, and anecdotes, pronunciation guides, and photographs of the finished drinks will turn newbie bartenders into instant mixologists.

Brian D. Murphy’s favorite mixed drink is the Old Fashioned, having been inspired to try it after watching Mad Men. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife Nicole and their three pets Kate, MeowMeow, and Maya.You can learn more about Brian on Facebook.com/SeeMixDrink.

You can read an excerpt here.

To Enter:
Leave a comment with your email address, so I can contact you if you win.
Extra Entries:  (please leave a separate comment for each, for instance you you are a follower, leave 3 comments that you are a follower).
+3 Old or new follower of this blog.
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(Up to 1 time per day) 
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+4 for filling out the  Tour Host Interest Form (please do this if you have a book blog and you are serious about wanting to be a tour host)
+ 5 if you have been a tour host for Premier Virtual Author Book Tours (please specify which tour)
+2 for each comment on a book review I have done. (Be sure to tell me which ones).
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+1 for clicking to give free books at The Literacy Site (tell me you did it). ( Up to 1 time per day)

That’s 36 or more possible entries!  Sorry, this giveaway is open to U.S. only.
The winner’s mailing address: No P.O. Boxes
Only one entry per household/IP address
Winners will be subject to the one copy per household rule, which means that if you win the same title in two or more contests, you will receive only one copy of the book.
This giveaway will end on Saturday, November 12th, 11:59 P.M. E.S.T. The winners will be notified by email. Winners must respond within TWO days or will be disqualified.


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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.
Thanks to Liz Leong of Doubleday, I am giving away 2 copies of In Other Worlds to my U.S. readers.
Book Description:

In Other Worlds: Science Fiction and the Human Imagination is Margaret Atwood’s account of her rela­tionship with the literary form we have come to know as science fiction. This relationship has been lifelong, stretch­ing from her days as a child reader in the 1940s through her time as a graduate student at Harvard, where she explored the Victorian ancestors of the form, and continuing with her work as a writer and reviewer. This book brings together her three heretofore unpublished Ellmann Lectures of 2010—“Flying Rabbits,” which begins with Atwood’s early rabbit superhero creations and goes on to speculate about masks, capes, weakling alter egos, and Things with Wings; “Burning Bushes,” which follows her into Victorian other-lands and beyond; and “Dire Cartographies,” which investi­gates utopias and dystopias. In Other Worlds also includes some of Atwood’s key reviews and musings about the form, including her elucidation of the differences (as she sees them) between “science fiction” proper and “speculative fiction,” as well as “sword and sorcery/fantasy” and “slip­stream fiction.” For all readers who have loved The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake, and The Year of the Flood—not to mention Atwood’s 100,000-plus Twitter fol­lowers— In Other Worlds is a must.

Margaret Atwood, whose work has been pub­lished in over thirty-five countries, is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. In addition to The Handmaid’s Tale, her nov­els include Cat’s Eye, shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; Oryx and Crake, shortlisted for the 2003 Booker Prize; and her most recent, The Year of the Flood.  She live in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
To Enter:
Leave a comment with your email address, so I can contact you if you win.
Extra Entries:  (please leave a separate comment for each, for instance you you are a follower, leave 3 comments that you are a follower).
+3 Old or new follower of this blog.
+3 Old or new follower on Twitter (@teddyrose1).
+2 Tweet about this Giveaway
(Up to 1 time per day) 
+3 Be my friend on Facebook (Teddy Rose).
+3 “Like” the post about this giveaway on Facebook
+3 Be my friend on Goodreads (Teddy).
+3 for Joining my Books Won Reading Challenge (be sure to follow the rules and then let me know you joined here.)
+4 for filling out the  Tour Host Interest Form (please do this if you have a book blog and you are serious about wanting to be a tour host)
+ 5 if you have been a tour host for Premier Virtual Author Book Tours (please specify which tour)
+2 for each comment on a book review I have done. (Be sure to tell me which ones).
+1 for clicking to give free food at The Animal Rescue Site (tell me you did it).( Up to 1 time per day)
+1 for clicking to give free books at The Literacy Site (tell me you did it). ( Up to 1 time per day)

That’s 36 or more possible entries!  Sorry, this giveaway is open to U.S. only.
The winner’s mailing address: No P.O. Boxes
Only one entry per household/IP address
Winners will be subject to the one copy per household rule, which means that if you win the same title in two or more contests, you will receive only one copy of the book.
This giveaway will end on Wednesday, November 11th, 11:59 P.M. E.S.T. The winners will be notified by email. Winners must respond within TWO days or will be disqualified.


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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.