Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on November 21, 2009
Posted in Guest ReviewsHistorical FictionLawrence Hill  | 20 Comments

I won this book back in March from Joanne of The Book Zombie. Can you believe I haven’t had a chance to read it yet. Me either since it was one of my most coveted books then. My only excuse is my out of control ARC’s.
Then one day recently, my husband Bill asked me if I had The Book of Negroes. I was surprised he asked because he rarely reads fiction. I handed it over to him with the stipulation that he would have to write a guest review of it for my blog.

Without further ado, here is Bill Rose’s Review:
Book of Negroes, the fourth novel by Canadian author Lawrence Hill, is a truly remarkable work of historical fiction. It details the life of Amanata Diallo, who was kidnapped from her home in West Africa when she was only 11 years old, and sold into slavery. The book opens in 1802 when she is living in London, and being wooed by British abolitionists to speak publicly on behalf of their cause. The reader is then led back into her childhood describing an idyllic life in the village of Bayo, where she was born into a Muslim family and learned midwifery skills from her mother. This life is tragically interrupted one night when she is captured with others and led in chains on a three-month trek to the coastal port where they are placed on a slave ship for transport to America.
It is a voyage many will not survive, and at the end of it she finds herself in Charleston on the way to an indigo plantation on the South Carolina coast. The land is completely strange to her, and she only speaks the languages of homeland. Meena (as she is now called) learns English and is eventually put to work “catching babies”. From there we follow her as she is sold to another, seemingly more benevolent owner who teaches her to read and write, skills she masters well. Eventually he takes her to New York where she teaches English to other blacks (slave and free) while the American Revolution begins. The British offer freedom to all slaves who will fight for them, and with the end of hostilities approaching, she is hired by them to record the names and data of those who will be taken to Nova Scotia. She sails with them to finally be formally emancipated.
The life they find there is exceedingly hard, and when Meena is offered passage to England by an army officer sympathetic to the abolitionist cause, she accepts. Though she is now free, she finds London to be a strange place, and still yearns to return home to her village Africa. At the urging of her abolitionist friends, Meena agrees to be resettled in Freetown, a settlement for freed slaves ironically close to the slaving port she was shipped from decades previously. Our heroine is then faced with the momentous decision whether to risk a long and dangerous journey back to Bayo, without even knowing if it still exists.
This is a story punctuated by marvelous historical detail and character development. The numerous cruelties of the slave trade are detailed in ways that will shock the conscience. That its effects still reverberate to present day race relations, comes as no surprise after reading this book. The narrative voice of our heroine matures throughout the novel and adds to its richness. Though I am not normally a fiction fan, I found this novel certainly deserving of the buzz it has generated and a very rewarding read. It is highly recommended.
5/5

Please note:  In the U.S.A. this same book is titled “Someone Knows My Name”.   Thanks to Wendy of Caribousmom for alerting me to that.

Also reviewed by:
If I missed your review, please leave the link in the comments.
Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.
Like I said in the previous post, November 1st marked the second year of So Many Precious Books, So Little Time!

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate other than to thank all my readers and subscribers with a giveaway.

Note: This giveaway is for my international readers only.  If you live in the USA or Canada, please do not enter!   
I have one copy of this gently used audiobook to giveaway:
Product Description:
On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens — at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world — hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever.
Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London- mere research . . . or something more terrifying?

Just as he did in The Terror, Dan Simmons draws impeccably from history to create a gloriously engaging and terrifying narrative. Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens’s life and narrated by Wilkie Collins (Dickens’s friend, frequent collaborator, and Salieri-style secret rival), DROOD explores the still-unsolved mysteries of the famous author’s last years and may provide the key to Dickens’s final, unfinished work: The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Chilling, haunting, and utterly original, DROOD is Dan Simmons at his powerful best.

Here are the rules (please follow exactly or you will be disqualified):

1. For one entry, leave a comment on any of my posts other than this one.  Then, come back to this post and let me know that you did it. Please be sure to include your email address (if it isn’t available in your profile), so that I can contact you if you win. If I can’t find your email either in the comments or your profile, you will be disqualified!

2. For two more entries, post about this giveaway on your blog and leave link to your blog post in the comments. You will also get an entry for each person who tells me that they learned about this
giveaway from you.

3. For another 5 more entries: Become a Follower of my blog or subscribe to my blog through Google Reader or other subscription service. If you are already a subscriber or follower you still get the
five extra entries! Please do not comment that you are a follower five times! I will give you the extra entries myself. I will delete any extra entries that you make as it will just confuse me when I go to pick the winners.

Only one entry per household/IP address.

This giveaway will end on Sunday November 29th 11:59 P.M. E.S.T. The winners will be notified by email, so remember to include your email address in the comments, if it isn’t available in your profile! Winners must respond within three days or will be disqualified.

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

Celebrate My 2 Year Blogiversary: Giveaway

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on November 19, 2009
Posted in My 2009 Giveaways  | 14 Comments

November 1st marked the second year of So Many Precious Books, So Little Time!
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate other than to thank all my readers and subscribers with a giveaway.
Thanks to Anna of Hachette Books I am giving away up to 3 copies of the following audiobooks.

Product Description:
Margaret and Patrick have been married just a few months when they set off on what they hope will be a great adventure-a year living in Kenya. Margaret quickly realizes there is a great deal she doesn’t know about the complex mores of her new home, and about her own husband.

A British couple invites the newlyweds to join on a climbing expedition to Mount Kenya, and they eagerly agree. But during their harrowing ascent, a horrific accident occurs. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Margaret struggles to understand what happened on the mountain and how these events have transformed her and her marriage, perhaps forever.

A Change in Altitude illuminates the inner landscape of a couple, the irrevocable impact of tragedy, and the elusive nature of forgiveness. With stunning language and striking emotional intensity, Anita Shreve transports us to the exotic panoramas of Africa and into the core of our most intimate relationships.

Book Extras

Product Description:

#1 bestselling author Nicholas Sparks’s new novel is at once a compelling family drama and a heartrending tale of young love.

Seventeen year old Veronica “Ronnie” Miller’s life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alientated from her parents, especially her father…until her mother decides it would be in everyone’s best interest if she spent the summer in Wilmington with him. Ronnie’s father, a former concert pianist and teacher, is living a quiet life in the beach town, immersed in creating a work of art that will become the centerpiece of a local church.

The tale that unfolds is an unforgettable story of love on many levels–first love, love between parents and children — that demonstrates, as only a Nicholas Sparks novel can, the many ways that love can break our hearts…and heal them.

New Feature Box – Main site, blank 65359

Product Description:
Once in a generation a novel comes along that taps a vein of universal human experience, resonating with readers of all ages. THE LOVELY BONES is such a book — a #1 bestseller celebrated at once for its artistry, for its luminous clarity of emotion, and for its astonishing power to lay claim to the hearts of millions of readers around the world. Now in an audiobook edition read by the author, with movie tie-in art.

“My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.”
So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her — her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, THE LOVELY BONES succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.
The major motion picture version of THE LOVELY BONES, directed by Peter Jackson and starring Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, and Saoirse Ronan is scheduled for release on December 11, 2009.

The number of entrants to this giveaway will determine how many copies of each book I will giveaway:


1-10 entrants= 1
11-20 entrants= 2
21-30 entrants= 3
31-40 entrants=4

41 or more entrants=5

Here are the rules (please follow exactly or you will be disqualified):

1. For one entry, a) leave a comment on any of my posts other than this one. b) Then, come back to this post and let me know that you did it. c) Tell me which title or titles you would like to enter for. Note, you can enter for all 3 but you can only win one.   Please be sure to include your email address (if it isn’t available in your profile), so that I can contact you if you win. If I can’t find your email either in the comments or your profile, you will be disqualified!

2. For two more entries, post about this giveaway on your blog and leave link to your blog post in the comments. You will also get an entry for each person who tells me that they learned about this
giveaway from you.

3. For another 5 more entries: Become a Follower of my blog or subscribe to my blog through Google Reader or other subscription service. If you are already a subscriber or follower you still get the
five extra entries! Please do not comment that you are a follower five times! I will give you the extra entries myself. I will delete any extra entries that you make as it will just confuse me when I go to pick the winners.

Sorry, the giveaway is only open US and Canadian residents only.  However, I will be posting a different giveaway for my international readers.

The winner’s mailing address: NO P.O. Boxes.

Only one entry per household/IP address.

This giveaway will end on Sunday November 29th 11:59 P.M. E.S.T. The winners will be notified by email, so remember to include your email address in the comments, if it isn’t available in your profile! Winners must respond within three days or will be disqualified.

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