Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


Jun 11

18

Review and Giveaway: Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on June 18, 2011
Posted in My Past Giveaways  | 36 Comments

I posted the following review back in October, 2010.  In celebration of Safe From the Sea coming out in paperback in September, 2011, I am posting it again.  Also, thanks to Caitin Hamilton Summie of Unbridled Books, I am giving away a copy to one lucky winner.  This was my top 10 list of favorite books of 2010 and I want to share it with you!

My Review: 

After Noah’s father, Olaf phones him with a plea to come help him, Noah tells his wife Natalie that he has to go. Since Noah hasn’t seen Olaf since his wedding, many years ago and is estranged from his father, Natalie isn’t supportive at first. After all, she is just about to ovulate and the wind for trying to become pregnant is narrowing.

Noah and Natalie live in Boston but Noah does make the trip to his father’s home at Misquah, Minnesota, on Lake Superior. As soon as he arrives and sees his father, he knows he did the right thing. Noah want to take Olaf to the hospital to see a doctor but Olaf refuses. It doesn’t take a doctor to see that something is wrong with Olaf.
Since Olaf doesn’t have a phone, Noah drives into town to phone his sister , Solveig. She said that she would make it there as soon as she can. He also phones Natalie. Just as she was about to hang up, she told Noah that she is coming out to his father’s.
Mean while, back at Olaf’s house, Noah gets reacquainted with his father. They talk about his mother and why Olaf didn’t rush back from a shipping job to see her before she died. Noah was just a child at the time and always resented Olaf for that. Then Olaf confided in Noah as to what really happened back in 1967, on the Ragnarøk. The ship that Olaf worked on. Olaf was one of the three men who survived the sinking.
“the crew of the ill-fated superior steel ship ss Ragnarøk, march 1967.”
Olaf still carried guilt all these years later for surviving. It’s the reason he drank all those years ago, though he did quit drinking a few years ago.
Noah and Olaf tried to make up for lost time with the short time they have together.
Safe From the Sea grabbed me from the start and will stick with me. It is a finely crafted character driven saga. Sure there have been stories done about father and son relationships before, but not like this. Peter Geye captures the relationship as well as the beautiful Lake Superior landscape with pitch perfect ease. In my opinion, it is a must read!
5/5
The Giveaway: 
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.)
+5 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)
+3 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 31 or more possible entries!
Sorry, the giveaway is only open US  and Canadian residents 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 Friday July 1,11:59 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.

Jun 11

17

Giveaway: Bride Flight by Marieke van der Pol

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on June 17, 2011
Posted in My Past Giveaways  | 56 Comments

Thanks to Music Box Films, I am giving away 3 copies of Bride Flight by Marieke van der Pol, to my U.S. readers.  This is to celebrate the release of the motion picture, Bride Flight, this month. 

Directed by Ben Sombogaart. Stars Waldemar Torenstra, Karina Smulders, Anna Drijver, Elise Schaap, Rutger Hauer, Pleuni Touw.

Book Description:

Based on a true story, this evocative period piece is filled with chance meetings, pioneering women, and sparkling romance

It is 1953, and the last great transcontinental air race from London to Christchurch is about to begin; but even before the plane has left the runway, it has already become famous as the “bride flight.” Of its 60 emigrating passengers, many are brides-to-be flying out to join their fiancés on the other side of the world. Among them are Ada, Marjorie, and Esther, each of them with their own reasons for wanting to leave behind the hardships of post-war life at home and their own pasts. During the trip they meet Frank, a charismatic bachelor, who will come to have a dramatic influence on their lives and who exerts a continued hold over each of the women as they follow their very different paths in New Zealand. It is only when they meet again, years later, at Frank’s funeral, that the three women—now “brides in black”—get to hear each other’s stories for the first time and realize just how closely their lives have been bound together by what happened on the bride flight.

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.)
+5 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)
+3 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 31 or more possible entries!
Sorry, the giveaway is only open US residents 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 Friday July 1,11:59 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.

Jun 11

14

The Jelly-Bean by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on June 14, 2011
Posted in Short Story Read in 2011  | 8 Comments

The Jelley Bean is what they called Jim Powell.  How did he get that name you wonder?  F. Scott Fitzerald tells us early in the story:

“Jelly-bean is the name throughout the undissolved Confederacy for one who spends his life conjugating the verb to idle in the first person singular – I am idling, I have idled, I will idle.

Jim returned home from the war at age 21 and lived above Tilley’s Garage.  He felt most comfortable hanging out in the garage. He was pretty much a loner and didn’t like parties.  He couldn’t dance and he couldn’t get the courage up to ask a girl any way. However, his friend, Clark invited him to one and promised he wouldn’t leave him in a corner, sitting by himself the entire time.

Despite the prohibition, Clark smuggled in a bottle of Corn moonshine.   They sneaked outside to have some and then Jim got left hiding the bottle on him.  That’s when Nancy Lamar showed up with gum on her shoe.  Jim siphoned gas out of a car to get the gum off.  He was entranced by her beauty and also knew that she got herself in trouble when she drank the corn.  However, he shared it with her, non the less.

After the dance, a group stayed and played craps including Jim and Nancy.  Read the story, here to see what happend next.

It took me a couple of pages to get into The Jelly Bean.  Mostly that is because it took until then for Fitzerald to explain why Jim was a Jelly Bean.  Then the story really took off.  This story reminded me why I adored The Great Gatsby so much back in high school.  I really hope to read it again someday.

Also reviewed by:


Did you review The Jelly Bean?  Please leave the link in the comments.

If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays, go to John of The Book Mine Set. He has a short story review every Monday and a place for you to link your short story review. Come join in the fun and add to my short story TBR!

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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.

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