Happy new year to all readers! Let's have another amazing year of love, happiness, health, prosperity, friendship, and of course, good BOOKS!!

And because it's Thursday, here's my TT #5: 13 Things to be grateful for in 2008!

1. My book blog has been revived!

2. I've had a great year of reading and discovering new books and authors.

3. I've learned so much from the books I read.

4. I've got enough books to sustain me, and many great 'suppliers' too.

5. I get free books for review.

6. Bookmoochers and Bookcrossers are such wonderful and generous people.

7. I've met many wonderful book bloggers.

8. Who've also supplied me with endless wonderful book recommendations.

9. And great reviews for books I want to read.

10. I started an online monthly real-time book chat because I was unable to find a real-life reading group in my area.

11. I ended up finding a real-life reading group anyway, and we're meeting up for our first book discussion on January 10th!

12. And the book chats are going great too, with 10 participants signing up so far for the first ever book chat (Water for Elephants)!

13. I am so happy and thankful to be a part of this wonderful blogging community.

My other TT is here, it's for 13 things my SO and I have achieved in 2008. =)

Unfortunately, Beth and Carol have stopped the official Thursday Thirteen, Carol's granddaughter has been recently diagnosed with leukemia. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

I've decided I'd go on with TT anyway, and anyone who wants to is welcome to join me. Leave your links with Mister Linky below if you're playing, and remember to leave a comment too. Happy New Year and Happy TT!

 

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

 

As I think is well-known by now, I've got an insatiable curiosity that can be both a good and a bad thing.

 

I read a basic synopsis about this book, and it said something about how Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy are three of a very special group of individuals, and how Kathy finds out exactly why they're so special, when she grows up and learns more about herself.

 

So I wondered why they were special too, and I wanted to find out why really quickly, 'cause I was curious, like I said, and I ended up reading this book really, really fast, just to get to the part that tells us why they're special.

 

Well, it's not that they don't tell you, because they do, but why are they special because of that? I wonder. I almost felt like I should have to extract information from Ishiguro painfully, the way he told us things. Evasive, unclear, hints to this and that, and I ended the book still confused and wondering what exactly happened.

 

Other than the fact that Ishiguro isn't very forthcoming with information, the book was a great read, and the premise of the book is fascinating, and really fires up your imagination. Perhaps that's why he doesn't want to tell too much, so that there would be something left to our imaginations.

 

It's quite a heartbreaking book really, and in some ways, scary, but I think it's a must-read, and it's well worth reading too.

 

This book is available for discussion on Betty's Book Chats.

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!
  

My Teaser:

 

Because everyone seems to be enjoying teasers from this book, and because it's a long and 'heavy' book and I'm still reading it, here's another teaser from The Lucifer Effect.

 

 

"Group pressure from other guards placed significant importance on being a "team player," conforming to an emergent norm that demanded dehumanizing the prisoners in various ways. The good guard was a group deviant, and he suffered in silence by being outside the socially rewarding circle of the other guards on his shift." ~p.221, Philip Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil

 

 

 

 

And here's a teaser from another book I'm reading at the same time:

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Looking back now, I can see we were pretty confused about this whole area around sex. That's hardly surprising, I suppose, given we were barely sixteen." ~p.95, Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go

 

 

 

 

 

 

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your 2 Teasers in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

The Demon Lover by Victoria Holt

 

Victoria Holt's name was familiar to me, but I've never read anything by her, and although I've had this book for a while, I wondered if I should read it or just give it away.

 

I decided to check Amazon.com's reviews, to get an idea of whether I'd enjoy this book or if it'd only be a waste of my time, and what I found was so controversial that I just had to read it, even if only for curiosity's sake.

 

I don't want to give away any spoilers, though you'd probably find them if you go ahead to Amazon.com and read the reviews for this book.

 

My own reaction, however, after finishing the book, is still quite confusing. Perhaps it's because I was forewarned by the reviews what to expect, that it didn't really shock me as much as it might have.

 

On the one hand, I did think that Holt's writing is great, and I'd probably read another book by her, since a lot of people mentioned in the review that they generally loved her books, just not this one. And other than that particular 'incident' in the book, I thought the whole story was very interesting and that it was very well-written.

 

That 'incident' does leave me a little confused though, I wonder about the need for it, and I wonder about the rationalization that allowed Kate to forgive the Baron, I wonder why he had to do it in the first place. As I said, I wasn't very shocked because I was forewarned, and in fact, Holt's narrator, Kate, seems to downplay it quite a bit too, which makes it seem acceptable.

 

I'm not sure if I like the book, and I'm not sure that I don't. It seems this book was more like an 'intellectual study' of the controversy it aroused, than an actual romance book I could read and relax with. Although I didn't exactly study it intellectually, ok I'll admit it, it was more for the sake of satisfying my curiosity.

My Secret Santa is Tarie from Into the Wardrobe, and she sent me a book from one of my favorite authors, Robin McKinley! I absolutely love McKinley's books! And she also wrote a very lovely note inside the Christmas card that came with it. Thank you so much, Tarie! =)

My gift almost didn't make it to me, because there was a problem with the mailing address; DHL mislabeled my address and left out a number, but Tarie was absolutely great with helping to fix the problem so that I could get my gift before Christmas. Thanks, Tarie! And Merry Christmas to you too!

I'm sorry that my post is a little late, I'm a singer in a band (ohh, I always wanted to say that) and Christmas and New Year's is always a busy time for us. Added to that, my father's birthday is on Christmas, so I had to celebrate an early birthday/Christmas with my family, in addition to practising and performing with my band, in addition to the other Christmas and New Year events with other friends...

Unfortunately, I'm not a very good time manager either, so it's always a struggle to know when to do what. LOL!

So anyway, I'll still be busy up until the 10th of January, that's when the first book chat will take place, and also the same day my real life book club is meeting to discuss our first book. I'm really psyched about both!

In the meantime, I'll be practising for my next performance on New Year's eve, having some belated Christmas dinners with some friends, doing some last minute shopping, registering for marriage with my beloved fiance, and meeting up with an old friend who'd been in Australia for the last 6 years!

I may or may not be able to post occasionally until then, but please do check back often because I will definitely miss you all!

A very Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year to all of Betty's Book's friends and readers! Enjoy your holidays!

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!
  

My Teaser:

 

I'm still reading this book, so this week's teaser is another one from the book. 

 

 

"Trying to remind himself that this is just an experiment, he continues raving, "You're messing with my head, man, my head! This is an experiment; that contract is not serfdom! You have no right to fuck with my head!"" ~p.77, Philip Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil

 

 

 

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Teaser Tuesdays post, or share your 2 Teasers in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!