Kimberly Menozzi, Author
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Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen Books in my TBR Pile

25/2/2016

16 Comments

 
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Ciao a tutti! Hi, everybody! I'm back again for Thursday Thirteen, and this week, I'm keeping it simple by sharing something we can all identify with: that stack of books (or the bookshelf, in some cases) yet to be investigated at length.

Let's jump in and see what we have in common, shall we?

Thirteen Books in my To Be Read Pile!

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Trigger Warning explores the masks we all wear and the people we are beneath them to reveal our vulnerabilities and our truest selves. Here is a rich cornucopia of horror and ghosts stories, science fiction and fairy tales, fabulism and poetry that explore the realm of experience and emotion. In Adventure Story—a thematic companion to The Ocean at the End of the Lane—Gaiman ponders death and the way people take their stories with them when they die. His social media experience A Calendar of Tales are short takes inspired by replies to fan tweets about the months of the year—stories of pirates and the March winds, an igloo made of books, and a Mother’s Day card that portends disturbances in the universe. Gaiman offers his own ingenious spin on Sherlock Holmes in his award-nominated mystery tale The Case of Death and Honey. And Click-Clack the Rattlebag explains the creaks and clatter we hear when we’re all alone in the darkness.
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Sex is forbidden at the Dasgupta Institute. So what is the sparkling, magnetically attractive Beth Marriot doing here? Beth is fighting demons: a catastrophic series of events has undermined all prospect of happiness. Trauma leaves her no alternative but to bury herself in the austere asceticism of a community that wakes at 4am, doesn't permit eye contact, let alone speech, and keeps men and women strictly segregated. But the curious self dies hard. Conflicted and wayward, Beth stumbles on a diary and cannot keep away from it, or the man who wrote it. Originally published with the title The Server
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In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes. In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the “perk” and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy. Brady Hartsfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with two new, unusual allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady’s next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.
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Rattle of Want ranges from brilliant brief experiments (such as Abbreviated Glossary and Appendages) to a novella-in-flash (The Old Road) for the canon in that new genre. Altogether these stories mine the wants and desires in the breakups of families, rebellions of youth, and occasional ascents of the spirit. Often they beautifully, and simply, nail a place, as in Small Town (a perfect evocation of the title), report an impending explosion, as in Kindling (a quintessential flash), or capture a character (if you haven’t met Blusterfuck … do so at your own peril). Few writers can do all that Gay Degani does.
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...Presented here as a guide--and a warning--to aspiring racers who dream of joining the professional racing circus, Phil's adventures in road rash serve as a hilarious and cautionary tale of frustrating team directors and broken promises. Phil's education in the ways of the peloton, his discouraging negotiations for a better contract, his endless miles crisscrossing America in pursuit of race wins, and his conviction that somewhere just around the corner lies the ticket to the big time fuel this tale of hope and ambition from one of cycling's best story-tellers. Pro Cycling on $10 a Day chronicles the racer's daily lot of blood-soaked bandages, sleazy motels, cheap food, and overflowing toilets. But it also celebrates the true beauty of the sport and the worth of the journey, proving in the end that even among the narrow ranks of world-class professional cycling, there will always be room for a hard-working outsider.
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Rock star, crowdfunding pioneer, and TED speaker Amanda Palmer knows all about asking. Performing as a living statue in a wedding dress, she wordlessly asked thousands of passersby for their dollars. When she became a singer, songwriter, and musician, she was not afraid to ask her audience to support her as she surfed the crowd (and slept on their couches while touring). And when she left her record label to strike out on her own, she asked her fans to support her in making an album, leading to the world's most successful music Kickstarter. Even while Amanda is both celebrated and attacked for her fearlessness in asking for help, she finds that there are important things she cannot ask for-as a musician, as a friend, and as a wife. She learns that she isn't alone in this, that so many people are afraid to ask for help, and it paralyzes their lives and relationships. In this groundbreaking book, she explores these barriers in her own life and in the lives of those around her, and discovers the emotional, philosophical, and practical aspects of THE ART OF ASKING. Part manifesto, part revelation, this is the story of an artist struggling with the new rules of exchange in the twenty-first century, both on and off the Internet. THE ART OF ASKING will inspire readers to rethink their own ideas about asking, giving, art, and love.
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Family, that slippery word, a star to every wandering bark, and everyone sailing under a different sky. After his mother's death, Richard, a newly remarried hospital consultant, decides to build bridges with his estranged sister, inviting Angela and her family for a week in a rented house on the Welsh border. Four adults and four children, a single family and all of them strangers. Seven days of shared meals, log fires, card games and wet walks. But in the quiet and stillness of the valley, ghosts begin to rise up. The parents Richard thought he had. The parents Angela thought she had. Past and present lovers. Friends, enemies, victims, saviours. And watching over all of them from high on the dark hill, Karen, Angela's stillborn daughter. The Red House is about the extraordinariness of the ordinary, weaving the words and thoughts of the eight characters together with those fainter, stranger voices - of books and letters and music, of the dead who once inhabited these rooms, of the ageing house itself and the landscape in which it sits.
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Look at the Birdie is a collection of fourteen short stories from one of the most original writers in American fiction. This series of perfectly rendered vignettes, never before published in Kurt Vonnegut’s lifetime, reveals a warm, wise, and funny portrait of life in post–World War II America—a world where squabbling couples, high school geniuses, misfit office workers, and small-town lotharios struggle to adapt to changing technology, moral ambiguity, and unprecedented affluence. Featuring a Foreword by author and longtime Vonnegut confidant Sidney Offit, Look at the Birdie is an unexpected gift for readers who thought that Vonnegut’s voice had been stilled forever—and serves as a terrific introduction to his short fiction for anyone who has yet to experience his genius.
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Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever.
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With this wise, tender, and deeply funny novel, Marina Lewycka takes her place alongside Zadie Smith and Monica Ali as a writer who can capture the unchanging verities of family. When an elderly and newly widowed Ukrainian immigrant announces his intention to remarry, his daughters must set aside their longtime feud to thwart him. For their father’s intended is a voluptuous old-country gold digger with a proclivity for green satin underwear and an appetite for the good life of the West. As the hostilities mount and family secrets spill out, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian combines sex, bitchiness, wit, and genuine warmth in its celebration of the pleasure of growing old disgracefully.
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'In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, and if his name has been forgotten today, it is certainly not because Grenouille fell short of those more famous blackguards when it came to arrogance, misanthropy, immorality, or, more succinctly, wickedness, but because his gifts and his sole ambition were restricted to a domain that leaves no traces in history: to the fleeting realm of scent . . .'
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Neverwhere is the story of Richard Mayhew, a young London businessman with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he discovers a girl bleeding on the sidewalk. He stops to help her—an act of kindness that plunges him into a world he never dreamed existed. Slipping through the cracks of reality, Richard lands in the Neverwhere—a London of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels that exists entirely in a subterranean labyrinth. The Neverwhere is home to Door, the mysterious girl Richard helped in the London Above. Door, a noblewoman whose family has been murdered, is on a quest to find the agent that slaughtered her family and thwart the destruction of this underworld kingdom. If Richard is ever to return to his former life, he must join the journey to save Door's world—and find a way to survive.
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Allison Weiss is a typical working mother, trying to balance a business, ageing parents, a demanding daughter and a marriage. But when the website she develops becomes a huge success, she finds herself challenged to the point of being completely overwhelmed. As she struggles to hold her life together and meet the needs of all the people around her, Allison finds that the painkillers she was prescribed for a back injury help her deal with more than just physical discomfort - they make her feel calm and get her through the increasingly hectic days. Sure, she worries that the bottles seem to empty a bit faster each week, but it's not like she's some Hollywood starlet partying all night. It's not as if she has an actual problem. Until she ends up in a world she never thought she'd experience outside of a movie theatre: rehab. And as Allison struggles to get her life back on track, she learns a few life lessons along the way.





​And there you have them - Thirteen Books on my TBR Pile!


Do we have any in common? Let me know in the comments, eh?




Do you have any suggestions for titles I should add? Let me know those, too!











Because you know, I'm nothing if not a bookworm.










The only thing I need now?















​
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Someone to read them with, of course!
Ciao for now!
16 Comments

Alternate Rialto (ebook) is now FREE!

29/1/2014

0 Comments

 
Cover of Alternate Rialto
In case you've missed the news, Alternate Rialto is once again available in paperback - and the ebook is currently FREE via Amazon US, Nook, Sony, iTunes, Diesel and Kobo! Grab a copy today!
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Thursday Thirteen: 13 Things Which Have Been Keeping Me Busy

20/9/2012

24 Comments

 
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Hello, everyone! I've been away for a long while, it's true, and haven't posted much until the last couple of weeks. Well, I'm back, and hope to get "back in the saddle" again now I'm in Italy once more.

I thought I'd take advantage of this week's Thursday Thirteen post to share what I've been up to lately, so if you'll permit me, here are

Thirteen Things Which Have
Been Keeping Me Busy!

1) Recovering from Jetlag. After four months in the US (from April to the end of August), it's hard to get back into my normal schedule in Italy. I'm still not quite completely adjusted (if my plans allowed it, I could easily stay up until four a.m. with no problem), but I can get up in the a.m. without wanting to hurt myself or somebody else, so I'm doing as well as can be expected.
When I'm awake, I have, of course, been reading. It feels great to get some reading in, as I've been too distracted and busy all summer to just settle in with a good book. Here are the last three books I've read - all since I've been home.
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2) Will You Love Me Tomorrow - Danny Gillan

Some aspiring musicians wait a lifetime for that elusive record deal. Bryan Rivers waited a lifetime plus three days. As if dealing with the suicide of her clinically depressed husband wasn't difficult enough, to Claire Rivers' amazement one of the biggest record companies in the country suddenly wants to offer him a contract. When his status is viewed as only a minor inconvenience, she begins to wonder if someone, somewhere, is playing a very distasteful joke on her. Will You Love Me Tomorrow is a comedy about death, depression, grief, loss, friendship, family, haircuts and the music business.

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3) Conversations with S. Teri O'Type -
Christopher Allen

Curt Child is a man who just can't seem to get gay, so he's enlisted the help of his oldest--and gayest--friend S. Teri O'Type to drag him a few inches down The Road to Greater Gayness.

(Some of you might remember this title from last week's Thursday Thirteen where I interviewed the author - I'm currently reading the book and am laughing with every page.)

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4) The Diary of a Single Parent Abroad - Jill Pennington

When Jill and her family moved to Italy she expected life to change but she had no idea how massive that change would be. Shortly after the move, she discovered her husband had been having an affair and had no intentions of staying in Italy.

Despite being in a foreign country with no income, limited language skills, a house that needed rebuilding and three young children to care for, she never once considered returning to the UK. With strength and determination she accepted any challenge, dismantling a derelict house to ground level, digging out a three metre deep well with her hands to get free water and overcoming her fear of the chainsaw to cut the winter wood. When there was very little money for food she made risotto with nettles collected from the roadside. She overcame many problems, learned new skills and discovered that money is not important, the only things in life that matter are health, happiness and her children.

Jill's story is delivered with an ever present hint of humour because, as she says, 'Without laughter life wouldn't be funny'.

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5) I built a bookshelf - at least, that's what I'm calling it. Yes, it's from IKEA. Yes, the kitty seems to approve.
6) In addition to the bookshelf, I've also built two IKEA chairs for the kitchen. Unfortunately, they're a tad wobbly. (Uh-oh.) I'll see if I can sort that out, shortly.
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7) I've watched several episodes of Big Bang Theory - including a few I didn't see while in the US!

8) Since the hubby had the chance to stay home and use up some vacation time the first week we were back from the US, we got some serious housework done. As suspected, I needed some good, strong muscle to get it all taken care of. There's more to do (Autumn cleaning?), but the place is looking better all the time!
9) As mentioned above, there was a spur-of-the-moment trip to IKEA.
I maintained control, much to my own astonishment, and walked out having purchased ONLY WHAT I'D GONE IN FOR!!!!! I should have written that day down in my diary...
10) I did another voiceover job. As before, it was fun to do, and Paolo, who does the recording on a professional-grade video camera (no, I'm not filmed, we just tape the audio), is a really sweet guy. Luckily, my hubby was home this time to keep tabs on the kitty and make sure she didn't get into mischief which would have ruined the recording.
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11) I renewed my Italian I.D. card. Belatedly.
Very belatedly.
As in, one year late.
Oops.
Upon my return home, I found this snail on my sidewalk.
Et tu, Snail?

12) I started sketching out ideas for my next project(s). Included among them are The Off Season (a sequel to 27 Stages) and an untitled novel (a sequel to Ask Me if I'm Happy)
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13) Due to my efforts over the summer on my mother's exercise bike, my hubby and I decided to purchase a bike for me when we got home. We selected this one.
Unfortunately we've had some mechanical issues with it, so were trying to get those sorted out. Once we have, I'm hoping to get back to my twenty- and thirty-mile rides again.

Wish me luck!

And there you have them: Thirteen Things Which Have Been Keeping Me Busy!

I'm willing to bet we have some of these in common, right?

Because I know just about every one of you is a busy, busy bee.









And I know the reason most of you normally stop by here.











It's been a long summer, but I haven't forgotten. No way!










And as summer fades into autumn...












How about a little musical interlude?
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Yeah, it's good to be back.

Ciao for now!
24 Comments

13 Opening Paragraphs/Pages

24/11/2011

12 Comments

 
This week, I've found inspiration in a number of places, not least of which include the opening pages of the novels I've read recently. I shared the source of inspiration which made me want to be a (better) writer in an earlier post this week, and that in turn got me to thinking about what makes a book grab you and want to keep reading.

I wanted to do this post to share the opening paragraphs of the books which are currently strewn about my desk at the present time. Some of them I read last winter, others I read just yesterday. I thought maybe it would be interesting to show how different writers have constructed that all-important first paragraph (or, to be fair, first page or so). For this post, however, I skipped any prologues or forewards in order to get right to the story itself. (And, yes, my own book is on my desk, in both printings.)

So now, please allow me to present to you:

13 Opening Paragraphs/Pages

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1) Blackeberg.

It makes you think of coconut-frosted cookies, maybe drugs. "A respectable life." You think subway station, suburb. Probably nothing else comes to mind. People must live there, just like they do in other places. That was why it was built, after all, so that people would have a place to live.




Let the Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist:


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2) "Have you seen it?" asked Samantha.

I leaned close to my computer so my editor wouldn't hear me on a personal call.

"Seen what?"

"Oh, nothing. Never mind. We'll talk when you get home."

"Seen what?" I asked again.

"Nothing," Samantha repeated.

"Samantha, you have never once called me in the middle of the day about nothing. Now come on. Spill."

Samantha sighed. "Okay, but remember: Don't shoot the messenger."

Now I was getting worried.



Good in Bed - Jennifer Weiner


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3) Hollyhocks don't grow in the desert. Yet hundreds and hundreds of their red satin blossoms line a wide stone path to a flung iron gate. I know this is a dream. Through the gate lie astonishing, sweeping gardens. There are roses. Ivory and white and the color of burnt cream, they climb trellises and sprawl in beds, spill and ramble and entwine. Boxwood parterres, hedges of yew, clumps of lavender, fat and tall, and white foxgloves nod among dahlias, among white peonies. I know that the castle and the roses and the hollyhocks are sun-stroke illusions. The hallucination will pass. We'll climb back in the car and drive away from this madness of silence and mockery. But while the hallucination endures I want to look over there, where gnarled trunks of wisteria and jasmine and grapevines tent a pergola, make a dark, shady room from whose depths laughter comes. How many days has it been since I've heard laughter? Even my own? I walk toward the pergola, and stand at the opening to see a clutch of women in long black dresses who sit 'round an oilclothed table. Tremulous light insists among the leaves, spangles the women's fingers flurrying over a heap of yellow beans.

"Buongiorno," they say before we can.



That Summer in Sicily - A Love Story - Marlena de Blasi


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4) Jude had a private collection.

He had framed sketches of the Seven Dwarfs on the wall of his studio, in between his platinum records. John Wayne Gacy had drawn them while he was in jail and sent them to him. Gacy liked golden-age Disney almost as much as he liked molesting little kids; almost as much as he liked Jude's albums.



Heart-Shaped Box - Joe Hill


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5) I can recall the exact moment I got hooked on the sport of bike racing. It was 1968, and I was eight years old. My cousin brought his ten-speed racing bike to my grandmother's house one summer day. It was the most foreign thing I had ever seen, with its crazy handlbars, skinny tires, tiny seat and angry-looking cogs. Everyone in my neighborhood rode Schwinn Sting-Ray bikes, so I stood awestruck in the driveway and looked at that bike like it was from Mars. And though the top of my head barely came up to the tip of the saddle, I knew right then and there that this thing "fit" me.



Roadie - the Misunderstood World of a Bike Racer - Jamie Smith


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6) 'It's your mother.'

Three simple words that chilled me to the core as I accepted the phone from Joyce, the school receptionist. Point one, my mother never, ever  called me at work, and point two, she'd never say she was my mother. She was always Marla -- even as a child I had never been allowed to call her Mum.


Crystal Clear - Nell Dixon


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7) They used to be called the Firefly Lane girls. That was a long time ago--more than three decades--but just now, as she lay in bed listening to a winter storm raging outside, it seemed like yesterday.

Firefly Lane - Kristin Hannah


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8) Dan Swansea came awake in the darkness, not knowing for a minute who he was or where. He lifted one hand to his head and groaned when it came away sticky with blood. Slowly (or at least it felt that way), things returned to him. His name. That he was outside in a parking lot, on his back in the gravel, and he was freezing. Also, except for his shoes and socks, he was naked.

Best Friends Forever - Jennifer Weiner


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9) Restlessly, Emily’s feet slid over the pockmarked concrete of the Rovigo train station platform, chips of disintegrating cement gritting under the soles of her shoes. Two hollow blasts of a distant whistle shook her out of her daze and she sat up on the bench to focus on the pinprick of light emerging from the fog.

Ask Me if I'm Happy - Kimberly Menozzi



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10) In June of 1980, Lydia Arnaud travelled with her parents and two brothers to a critérium - a town centre, short-circuit race - in Longjumeau on the southern end of Paris. Born into a cycling-mad family in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a large suburb on the north-western outskirts of the French capital, fifteen-year-old Lydia was the only daughter of André and Marie-Louise Arnaud, and her weekends were invariably spent supporting her brothers, Thierry and Michel, at various amateur bike races around Paris.


Inside the Peloton - My Life as a Professional Cyclist - Nicolas Roche


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11) My suffering left me sad and gloomy.

Academic study and the steady, mindful practice of religion slowly brought me back to life. I have kept up with what some people would consider my strange religious practices. After one year of high school, I attended the University of Toronto and took a double-major Bachelor's degree. My majors were religious study and zoology. My fourth-year thesis for religious studies concerned certain aspects of the cosmogony theory of Isaac Luria, the great sixteenth-century Kabbalist from Safed. My zoology thesis was a functional analysis of the thyroid gland of the three-toed sloth. I chose the sloth because its demeanour--calm, quiet and introspective--did something to soothe my shattered self.


Life of Pi - Yann Martel


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12) It is early morning.

I have been dozing. I open my eyes.

For a moment, I don't know where I am.

Then I remember the night before, the hands on my shoulders, pushing me, shoving me, the rage and the abuse, my heart racing, my palms sweating.

And then, my guts in sudden freefall, I recognise where I am, the bare walls, the rough blanket, the hanging light bulb.

I am in a French police cell, below Biarritz town hall, in an empty basement. A smell of piss and disinfectant hangs in the air. A drunken man shouts relentlessly in a cell somewhere down the corridor.


Racing Through the Dark - David Millar


And, finally, the reason I wanted to post this topic in the first place:

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13) The primroses were over. Toward the edge of the wood, where the ground became open and sloped down to an old fence and a brambly ditch beyond, only a few fading patches of pale yellow still showed among the dog's mercury and oak-tree roots. On the other side of the fence, the upper part of the field was full of rabbit holes. In places the grass was gone altogether and everywhere there were clusters of dry droppings, through which nothing but the ragwort would grow. A hundred yards away, at the bottom of the slope, ran the brook, no more than three feet wide, half choked with kingcups, watercress and blue brooklime. The cart track crossed by a brick culvert and climbed the opposite slope to a five-barred gate in the thorn hedge. The gate led into the lane.


Watership Down - Richard Adams




And there you have them. I hope they've intrigued, baffled or otherwise claimed your attention for whatever reason.















And I'm not crazy. I know other things get your attention, too.





















Shiny things. Pretty things.

























Pretty, pretty things.
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Yeah, you've seen him before. But do you really mind? And hey - he's readin' a BOOK! Sexay!!!
12 Comments

13 Books I Brought Home From the U.S. This Summer

22/9/2011

15 Comments

 
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Okay - several forces conspired against me doing a particularly well-thought-out Thursday Thirteen this week. With that caveat, please allow me to present:

13 Books I Brought Home From the U.S. This Summer

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1) Juggling the Stars - Tim Parks.

Although I've already read this one as a library selection, I bought a copy to go on my shelf. I've enjoyed just about everything I've ever read by Tim Parks. Unpredictable, dark and funny.


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2) Family Planning - Tim Parks.

I'm presently reading this one, which is proving to be another funny, dark and sometimes disturbing story by Mr. Parks. I love the way he blends dark elements and dark humor at once, creating characters you feel for and root for almost in spite of yourself.


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3) Fly Away Home - Jennifer Weiner.

I bought this in the airport, read some there, read some on the plane and then finished it at home. An engaging read and just unpredictable enough to keep me pleased and turning pages at a swift rate.


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4) The Opposite of Me - Sarah Pekkanen.

I really, really wanted to be more enthusiastic about this one. I was drawn in, and there were enough twists and turns to keep it from being just another "Chick-Lit" title, but she hit so many cliches along the way, I was left a tad disappointed. And the tacked-on feel of the ending (which felt broadcast from the start of the book, for me) didn't help.


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5) Shadow of Ashland - Terence M. Green.

I first read this one nearly thirteen years (or so) ago, when I stumbled across it in a library in New Jersey. It takes place in my hometown of Ashland, Kentucky, and I was amazed that anyone would write about that small steel town on the Ohio river. It's an interesting story - not just because of that link to my own life - involving time travel and reaching into one's family's past. Surprisingly touching and romantic, too.


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6) Brava, Valentine - Adriana Trigiani.

I've been a fan of Trigiani's work since I first read Big Stone Gap (again, a book based on a place where I've lived - or in this case, a place I lived near). For the most part, I enjoyed this story (a sequel to Very Valentine), but there were a few stumbles along the way. One thing which particularly leapt out at me was a mistake in Italian (yes, I'm that nitpicky). It pulled me right out of the narrative for a few moments, and I kept thinking "She should know better than that - anyone who's first learning Italian should know better than that." Otherwise, it's another great read with surprising heart and emotion within.



And now, a few books I haven't read, yet...
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7) The Gunslinger Born - Stephen King/Marvel Comics.

I'm looking forward to savoring every panel of this one. The famous comic book adaptation of the "Wizard and Glass" tale in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King retells the story of the coming-of-age of Roland Deschain.



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8) Snuff - Chuck Palahniuk.

I bought this for a bargain price and it's next on my reading list. I really enjoyed Fight Club and Choke, and I'm looking forward to more of Palahniuk's twisted universe.


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9) Heart-Shaped Box - Joe Hill.

Another much-anticipated title for me. My hubby read it and liked it, and I've heard good things about this one - but I'm not letting Hill's parentage affect my opinion of his work. No. I won't.


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10) Great House - Nicole Krauss.

It's not often I buy a book without bothering to even read the blurb, just because I've liked the author's other work, but in this case, I took the leap. I adored The History of Love, and thought Man Walks Into a Room was a well-written and interesting story. We'll see how I feel about this one...


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11) Let the Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist.

This one has me bouncing in excitement already. The movie was fantastic (the original - I haven't seen the US remake), sort of an "Anti-Twilight", with vampires who, you know, actually kill people. I've been told there's so much more in the novel to enjoy, making it even better than the film. I'm putting off reading it because I want to read it when it's cold outside, and I can really sink into the story in the dark.

And I don't like scary stories.



Believe it or not, those are all the books I bought while in the States. The other books I purchased were for my mother (a voracious reader in her own right), and I kept myself on a pretty tight budget for most of my visit.

However, there were two other books I brought back to Italy in multiple copies:

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12) Ask Me if I'm Happy - Kimberly Menozzi.

The US edition of my book. Isn't it pretty-pretty?


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13) Alternate Rialto - Kimberly Menozzi.

I had to bring a few of these for my coworkers, students and other interested parties here in Italy.




And there you have them:
the 13 Books I Brought Home From the U.S. This Summer.



I've enjoyed a few already, and I'll enjoy the rest soon.
















Now if I could just get some more bookshelves built to put all these wonderful books on!





















I mean, I love a little DIY, when I'm up to it.
















But sometimes, I need a little help.


















And then, once I've got that work done...






















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I can settle down with a good...book.
Ciao for now!
15 Comments

13 Bits of Trivia from Ask Me if I'm Happy!

9/12/2010

15 Comments

 
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I've decided to do something a little different this week. If you are a member of Goodreads, it might be worth keeping a copy of this Thursday Thirteen around, as I'm prepping a quiz for that site, based on Ask Me if I'm Happy! (Which, by the way, would make an excellent gift for Christmas, either as a paperback or Kindle e-book...)

So when you've read the book, you can have fun answering these questions - and more! - or you can have a go without having read it yet. I promise, there are no spoilers.

So, I now present to you:
13 Ask Me if I'm Happy
Trivia Questions

1)     The novel is divided into how many sections?

a)     One

b)     Three

c)     Five

d)     Six
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2)     Davide shares his last name with a famous Italian. Who is it?

a)     Bruno Magli

b)     Sophia Loren

c)     Enzo Ferrari

d)     Anna Magnani

3)     Emily had a job in Italy. What was it?

a)     Singer

b)     Bank clerk

c)     Teacher

d)     Tour guide in Venice
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4)     There are two statues on the cover, one of which plays a role in the story. Where are the statues found?

a)     University of Bologna

b)     Piazza Maggiore and Piazza Galvani

c)     Piazza San Domenico and Piazza San Francesco

d)     Piazza del Nettuno and Parco della Montagnola

5)     The title is the translation of which Italian phrase?

a)     Chiedimi se sono felice

b)     Dimmi un piccolo bugia

c)     Dammi un piccolo sorriso

d)     Provare il tuo amore

6)     Where did Emily and Davide first meet?

a)     At the airport

b)     On the London Underground

c)     In a parking lot

d)     On a train

7)     Something about Davide's appearance makes Emily smile. What is it?

a)     His glasses

b)     His scarf

c)     His shoes

d)     His shirt
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8)     Why does this make her smile?

a)     They're scratched

b)     It's unraveling

c)     They're scuffed

d)     It's dirty

9)     Why does Emily go to Rovigo?

a)     To meet her ex-husband Jacopo and reconcile

b)     For a teaching conference

c)     Sightseeing

d)     For the sale of her house there
Picture

10) Why is Emily in Bologna at the beginning of the book?

a)     Italian lessons

b)     For the annual book fair

c)     She's stranded by a transportation strike

d)     She's there to hire a detective to follow her ex-husband

11) What happens when Davide goes to Milano?

a)     Trick question – he never goes to Milano

b)     He has dinner with Emily and falls asleep on the sofa in her room

c)     He stays up all night plotting to seduce Emily

d)     He spends a restless night alone thinking about his ex-fiancée
Picture

12) Where does Davide live in Bologna?

a)     A flat in the city centre

b)     In the suburbs

c)     A tiny, cramped loft near the university

d)     Next to McDonald's

13) What does Emily keep in her planner at the beginning of the novel?

a)     A receipt from her first dinner with Jacopo

b)     A movie ticket

c)     A photo of Jacopo in Rome

d)     A phone number on the back of a theatre ticket

How do you think you did? You can check your answers below.



















1) The novel is divided into how many sections?

b)     Three

2)  Davide shares his last name with a famous Italian. Who is it?

d)     Anna Magnani  

3)   Emily had a job in Italy. What was it?

c)     Teacher

4) There are two statues on the cover, one of which plays a role in the story. Where are the statues found?

d)     Piazza del Nettuno and Parco della Montagnola

 
5)     The title is the translation of which Italian phrase?

a)     Chiedimi se sono felice


6)     Where did Emily and Davide first meet?

d)     On a train


7)     Something about Davide's appearance makes Emily smile. What is it?

c)     His shoes


8)     Why does this make her smile?


c)     They're scuffed


9)     Why does Emily go to Rovigo?

d)     For the sale of her house there


10)Why is Emily in Bologna at the beginning of the book?

c)     She's stranded by a transportation strike


11)What happens when Davide goes to Milano?

b)     He has dinner with Emily and falls asleep on the sofa in her room


12)Where does Davide live in Bologna?

a)     A flat in the city centre


13)What does Emily keep in her planner at the beginning of the novel?

c)     A photo of Jacopo in Rome







And there you go - but wait!










There's one more thing!










Picture
You didn't think I'd leave you without a pretty, did you?
Ciao for now!
15 Comments

Thirteen Books I Bought This Summer

9/9/2010

12 Comments

 
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Hello, everyone! Ciao a tutti! It's good to be back, although I am still bit a jetlagged. Bleah.

In what is becoming something of a habit, now, I spent the summer months in the US while my handsome hubby stayed behind in Italy to work. While this isn't exactly optimal, it has to suffice until I become a multi-million-selling writer and he can retire early to ride his bike and become my full-time toy-boy.

In light of this fact, I needed alternatives to pass my time when I wasn't doing the final, final, OHMYGODI'MSOGLADIFINISHEDTHESETHINGS!!!! edits, or when I wasn't actively watching Le Tour de France on Versus (and silently screaming every time they mentioned that this was Lance's final Tour - we knew, guys, WE KNEW, ALREADY!!!).

In other words, I needed something to do when it wasn't July.

Anyway, this week, to ease myself back into the groove, I've decided to share

13 Books I Bought This Summer



I bought a lot of books for my mom, who, like me, doesn't read books, but eats them. I decided to turn her on to a couple of authors I admire, and she really enjoyed the selections I made. But I purchased the following titles on her behalf.
I started off with a bang - or four, actually - all of which were by my Critique Partner, the lovely and talented Nell Dixon:
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1) Animal Instincts
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2) Blue Remembered Heels
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3) Crystal Clear
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4) Just Look at Me Now (this was my first project with Nell, and I'm soooo proud of how well it turned out!)
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5) Last Night in Twisted River (Actually, this was *my* copy, but Mom read it before I left the US to come home. It took her a few days.)
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6) The World According to Garp (I couldn't let Mom go another day without reading this one! I couldn't believe she hadn't read it already.)
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7) Whom Must I Kill to Get Published? (Another title by a friend, which I purchased for Mom. She really enjoyed it, too!)
The book-buying frenzy continued, of course. I need more books just for myself! And so, I purchased these titles:
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8) Son of a Witch (The sequel to an old favorite of mine, Wicked - which I discovered by chance in 2001.)
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9) A Lion Among Men (The second sequel to Wicked - I haven't read it yet, but I have high hopes for it.)
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10) That Summer in Sicily (I haven't read this one, yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Marlena De Blasi writes with a wonderful balance between the bitter and the sweet when it comes to recounting her Italian life. I'm hoping it holds true here, where she's writing about someone else.)
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11) Tulagi Hotel (Yet another book by a friend, I have already read this one, and I haven't. I got to read an early draft in book form, before it was heavily edited and had some revisions done. I think it'll be great.)
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12) Die a Dry Death (Another Diiarts friend wrote this, and I'm looking forward to reading all the grisly and well-researched details of this novel. I read chunks of this in a preliminary draft and was captivated. I reckon I will enjoy the final product even more.)
And, finally, a two-fer! I was doing "research" by watching the Tour de France in July, and thought I'd like to have something besides my own notes to refer to when it was over. Luckily for me, I found two great titles for that purpose.
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13a) Tour de France for Dummies (Yes, I qualify. I understand the sport, but this book - although a tad outdated - had tons of inside info I can use in 27 Stages!)
Picture
13b) Roadie - the Misunderstood world of a Bike Racer (I loved this one! It brought back so many memories of tagging along with my cousin when he raced amateur races in the US when we were teenagers. It's both informative and hilarious, full of great details about life in the amateur or semi-pro peloton, and breaks all the info down so even absolute beginners can understand what this crazy sport is really all about.)



So, there you go! 13 Books I Bought This Summer!









Yes, I know...











Not even a long break from routine can make me forget!















So, here you go:






Picture
And hey, he fits the theme! :)
Ciao for now!
12 Comments

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    Kimberly Menozzi

    Author. Happily Married. Survivor of life with two deranged kitties.

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