Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


Esch is a 14 year old living with her father and brothers in Bois Sauvage, Mississippi.  The live in a dilapidated house and Hurricane Katrina is going to strike in a few days.  Her mother died giving birth to Esch’s youngest brother and Esch is raising him as best she can because her father is an alcoholic and not around much.
Esch has to deal with a lot of things a 14 year old shouldn’t have to deal with including becoming pregnant.  She hides the pregnancy but one of her brothers, Randall  figures it out.  Her oldest brother Skeetah fights his pit bull and she just had a litter of pups that he is struggling to keep alive to sell.  Though he fight’s her, is evident that he loves her.  Meanwhile, Esch’s father is home and trying to get their house ready for the hurricane but gets hurt badly while doing it.

This book takes place over the span of twelve days, 10 leading up to Hurricane Katrina.  It shows the brutality of poverty in rural Mississippi.  It is also about the love of one family who come together during crisis.  This is Jesmyn Wards first novel but is written in near perfect pitch.  The reader comes to care for the family despite their many flaws.  Their courage is a testament to the reason humans fight to survive.  This is a brutal yet beautiful first novel.  I can hardly wait to read more by Jesmyn Ward!

5/5

About Jesmyn Ward: 

Jesmyn Ward is a former Stegner Fellow (Stanford University), and the Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi. She is an assistant professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Alabama.

Her work has appeared in BOMB, A Public Space and The Oxford American.

I received the advance readers copy of this book at the Book Expo in New York City in May, 2011.  Thanks to TLC Book Tours for allowing me to take part in the tour.  Please check out the other tour stops for more reviews and giveaways of this amazing book, here.

Now for the giveaway:

Thanks to TLC Book Tours and Jesmyn Ward, I am giving away one copy of Salvage the Bones.  Believe me, you need to read this book!
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 if 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 only open to the U.S and Canada.
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 Tuesday, September 20th, 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.
This is the first book in a new trilogy.  It covers Marie Antoinette’s life from when she was a pre-teen until she first became Queen of France.  She was raised with her brothers and sisters by the empress of Austria.  Her real name was Maria Antonia.  She knew that she would eventual be married off somewhere as her mother’s political pawn but she had no idea that it would start at the tender age of ten.  

Her mother summoned her and told her that she was to be betrothed to the Dauphin of France.  Soon after that representatives of King Louis XVI started flooding in to assess Marie to see if she could indeed become the Dauphine of France.  They picked apart just about everything about her.  Her teeth weren’t perfect, her hair, her posture, her education, and the list went on.  She had to endure braces for her teeth, a brace for her posture, numerous painful gadgets in her hair, etc.

Then, once she gets to court she finds a teenage boy who acts even younger than his years is her husband.  She is expected to start having babies right away but he is unable to consecrate their marriage.

Juliet Grey does not skimp on any detail, no matter how small.  I found myself getting bored in several parts of the book because of this.  Some of the details were important and interesting like what she had to endure with getting braces for her teeth and the torture she had to endure to get her hair just right.

The characters were well written.  I really enjoyed Maria’s relationship with her sister, Charlotte.  Grey weaved a sympathetic  and compassionate relationship between Marie and her awkward husband. 

Though there are other books out there that deal with Marie in her earlier years, I hadn’t read any before this.  Despite the parts that dragged, I did find this book worthwhile.  Will I read the next book in the trilogy?  I’m not sure at this point.

3/5

Thanks to TLC Book Tours for arranging the tour and allowing me to take part.  I received an advance reader copy at the BEA back in May.

Also reviewed by:

Did I miss your review?  Please leave a link in the comments.

Now for 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.)
+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 only open to U.S.
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, September 14th, 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.

Sweet Tooth: Animal Armies by Jeff Lemire

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on August 17, 2011
Posted in Books Read in 2011  | 5 Comments

Earlier this year I reviewed volumes 1 and 2 of the Sweet Tooth series, Out of the Deep Woods and In Captivity.   Volume 3, Animal Armies is out now and I was the first person at my library to check it out.

Gus is being held captive at a compound where the are experimenting on hybrid children such as himself, to try to come up with a cure that is killing the non-hybrids.  Now the man who brought him there, Jepperd has a plan to get Gus back out.  He had originally brought Gus there in exchange for his wife’s remains.  She died trying to deliver their baby.  Jepperd was glad to be able to give his wife a proper burial but felt guilty for what he was forced to do to get her back.

I didn’t think it was possible for this series to get any darker but it has.  It is written in Lemire fashion, keeping the pages turning until the end.  The graphics were still in color but darker, which captures the mood of the story well.  There were new turns and twists that had me finish the book in one big gulp.  The end leaves the reader hanging again, so that must mean that there will be a fourth volume.

4/5

Did you review Sweet Tooth: Animal Armies?  Please leave a link in the comments if you did.

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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.