Gifts for that special book lover in your life

Book Lover’s Gift List

Ah, Christmas is just less than 4 weeks away. This year it seems to be coming on so fast, but if you’re stuck on what to get that book lover in your life this year (outside of a trusty new book), we’ve compiled a handy little gift idea list.

1.)

Book Lover Wine Glass Charms

Perfection!! and of course #1 on the list!

2.) Music for Book Lovers

Picture yourself toasty by the fire with a warm cuppa and the perfect mix of music playing softly in the background.

3.)   Personal Library Kit:

If you’re hoarding books like us, chances are you are lending them too. This great gift lets you channel your inner librarian and comes complete with date stamp and check out cards. Brilliant! Makes it “safe” and easy to loan your books.

4.)  Rectangle Magnet :

 

Snort! If you’ve ever attended a Wink 3 Book Club, this is completely hilarious and downright perfect! 

5.) Really, anything at all from the list here from Cafe Press!

6.) Your beloved book lover would never turn down gift cards to their favourite book place! And honestly, even if this is what you get them every year, it’s always welcome!

7.)  Bookplates. Oh, how I love these…what a lovely thing to add to the inside cover of your books.

8.) Board games for book lovers!

 

 

 

 

The list is endless, but I truly believe as book people we are perhaps the most low-maintenance group out there! Happy Shopping!

Review: Believing the Lie

If you’re looking for a harsh review of Elizabeth George, you won’t find it from me! My love for Elizabeth George is no secret (or lie!) so I’m not certain I’ll ever give her a poor review! However, Believing the Lie gives no reason for poor review. It’s another Elizabeth George masterpiece.

I anxiously await every 2 years for another instalment of Inspector Lynley and Barbara Havers. This time, thanks to Netgally and  Penguin Group (USA)  I was able to read more than 2 months in advance of the release date and I am so thankful for that!

Believing the Lie is quite simply more wonderful Elizabeth George. She has once again created a complex mystery with all the twists and turns to keep you guessing, while keeping keeping us informed of the latest with Lynley, Havers and the St. James’. Believing the Lie is a multi-character whodunit to question if the death of Ian Cresswell truly was an accident or was it murder? It’s a multi-layered mystery in which any one of the group of suspects had reason for killing him. Every suspected person has a “lie” hidden that they each wish to remain hidden. These lies come to a racing, unraveling and tumbling end, with heart pounding and all that! Is it an accident or is it murder? And what do all the lies have to do with Ian Cresswell? I won’t give anything away.  

“There was something behind those words that was unexpected, that sounded like anger, but more than anger. Tim thought in that instant that danger was anger with a d in front of it and maybe that’s where danger came from, born out of anger, and what people did when anger came upon them…”

“And people would believe him, of course. First, because people always believed what they wanted and needed to believe.”

“…secrets and silence caused this. Lies caused this…”

I was going through a bit of a Lynley overload though, as I discovered the Inspector Lynley series on DVD and was watching them nightly. I had to put that away while reading this because I think it was getting in the way and well, honestly, it was kind of too much Lynley. (and I was critiquing Havers for looking too sophisticated and wondering where Simon and Deborah St. James were?)

The book also gives us more on the lives of Lynley and Havers, and features the St. James quite a bit…and it’s all just oh so good.

At any rate, another solid, fast paced and great read by Ms. George. Of course it’s a 4 star for me.

Audiobook Review: A Trick of the Light

Why have I not read any Louise Penny before this? Wonderful, expressive writing, rich and vivid characters that are all at once charming, hilarious and interesting to spend time with. A smart mystery but with that little extra with sharp and very realistic characters.

Synopsis: ( and taken from The New York Times) In A Trick of the Light, Inspector Gamache returns to Three Pines, a village so tiny and secretive it doesn’t appear on any maps.  A dead woman in a red dress turns up in Clara Morrow’s flower garden, ruining this local artist’s moment of glory after her solo show at the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Montreal. When the victim is identified as an art critic and frenemy from Clara’s past, she becomes an obvious “person of interest” to the police. But with so many members of the cutthroat art community on hand to make what they will of Clara’s success, there are plenty of suspects to go around.

The narrator, of course, is an extremely important person for an audiobook. The first five minutes or so are crucial in letting me know if I can continue or I’ll be hitting eject (I’ve done that with a few but then I’ve also painfully endured through others)! At first, I wasn’t so sure about this one, but as the book progressed and Chief Inspector Gamache digs deeper in to the world of artists, art dealers, gallery owners, the stodgey, almost pompous-like voice becomes absolute listening perfection.

Such fluid beautiful writing with characters that pop off the page. I loved having this story read to me. Having Ruth, the old, ornery drunken poet, brought to life by the narrator is worth the price of admission alone. Her exchanges with Inspector Beauvoir are just awesome. The exchanges between Beauvoir and Gamache are brilliant as well.

But the beauty and feeling in her writing also made me cry when I drove to work (at the part where Gamache tells Lillian Dyson’s parents she has been murdered.) The tenderness, the emotion, in how it was written (and narrated) was done in such a way that I had trouble driving the car while blinking back the tears.

It did drag just a teeny-tad for me in the middle-to-the-end, but overall, a very enjoyable read. Her writing will most definitely draw me back for more, and in my opinion is far more satisfying than Kate Atkinson’s drab, non-descriptive style.

And…by the end I had it narrowed down to two suspects and I’m happy to say that one of my two was the actual murderer. Duh dunh dunhhh…. 🙂

Review: When God Was a Rabbit

2 or 3? 2 or 3?? 2 or 3??? 2 or 3?????!!!! Guess i will just start typing and by the end i should have my decision.

This was a book that has been on ALL of the “lists”– a “must read”, a “great debut”, winner or shortlisted for several awards– but i don’t think that it ever got there.

Sarah Winman sure made sure she had all of the elements: dysfunctional family? check! questioning the existence of God? check! misunderstood gay brother? check! movie-star lesbian aunt that is in love with your mother? check! sexual abuse? double check! lottery win? check! gay brother’s lover kidnapped by terrorists and gets his ear cut off? check! best friend in jail for murdering her abusive husband? check! dramatic and sad cancer death? check! 9-11 sequence with amnesia? check! quirky, flamboyantly gay uncle-figure and home-school teacher whose autobiography you are writing gets hit in the head with a coconut and instead of dying (like he expected) just regains his sight that he had lost from using a certain erectile dysfunction medication? check! excellent writing that at least made you appreciate the effort? hmmmmmm? characters you actually care about? uhhhhhh???

so much was there– i just don’t think it came together. gonna have to say… 2