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My Bookshelf: Alcott, The Goonies, Masters, Armstrong, and Berube

The Goonies book cover

It’s time to take another peek at the items on my bookshelf! I’m having so much fun with this series, and I hope you are enjoying it. Has it encouraged you to go to your bookshelves and rediscover the books you own?

My husband purchased this hardback copy of Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott, edited by Madeleine Stern with stories by Louisa May Alcott. This beautiful Christmas gift thrilled me, as I had never heard of the four stories.

Some of the stories in the book were published anonymously or under the name A.M. Barnard. The stories included are: “Pauline’s Passion and Punishment,” “The Mysterious Key,” “The Abbot’s Ghost,” and “Behind a Mask.”

Six years before she wrote Little Women, Louisa May Alcott was in financial straits. She entered “Pauline’s Passion and Punishment,” a novelette, in a newspaper contest. She published it anonymously, and it won the $100 prize. The subsequent “blood and thunder” tales she published would provide her livelihood for years.

Download a copy of the story from Project Gutenberg.

Listen to the audio recording of the short story “Behind a Mask” by Green Audio Books.

 

Who doesn’t love “The Goonies” movie? I love the artwork on this 1985 edition.

Steven Spielberg presents The Goonies, a novel by James Kahn, story by Steven Spielberg, and screenplay by Chris Columbus. 

“I will never betray my Goon Dock friends,

We will stick together until the whole world ends,

Through heaven and hell and nuclear war,

Good pals like us will stick like tar,

In the city, or the country, or the forest, or the boonies

I am proudly declared a fellow Goony.” — The Goony Oath

If you haven’t heard, they are making a sequel.

I’ve been enamored with Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Less Masters since high school. A teacher read parts of the book to my class, and I found it to be a unique method of telling a story. The stories unfold in a series of epitaphs.

I’ve since purchased the audiobook, and I love to play it in the car for friends who’ve never read it. They are instantly drawn into the tragic and scandalous tales of the people buried in little Spoon River.

The book is in the public domain, and you can download a free version at Project Gutenberg.

Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong is a new addition to my bookshelf. If you haven’t done it yet, you should scoot over and give a listen to my podcast. I review this book and share news about the second book in the new trilogy.

Whenever my eyes fall upon Joint Mission by D. Gary Berube, I smile and instantly remember the author. He was my high school janitor. I was a reporter for the high school newspaper, and a teacher thought Mr. Berube’s story would make an interesting article.

Mr. Berube didn’t look like other janitors. His long hair fell just below his shirt collar, and he wore jeans and short-sleeved plaid shirts. I always thought he looked as though he were headed out to a concert. He was easy-going and kind. I remember how tickled he was when I interviewed him for the paper.

He autographed this copy he gave me, and I’ve always cherished it. The cover and internal illustrations are his work, too.

Did you miss the last items on my bookshelf?

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My Book Review Policy and Reviews of Midnight Crossroad and Sea of Shadows BUEP2

Bushnell Unscripted Logo

Bushnell Unscripted Logo

In this week’s Bushnell Unscripted Podcast, I talk about my policy regarding book reviews, and I include my book reviews for Midnight Crossroad and Sea of Shadows.

Below are just a few elements of the information available in the podcast. Note: Show notes are not complete transcriptions of the podcast show.

[typography font=”Smythe” size=”24″ size_format=”px”]My Book Review Policy[/typography]

I share my thoughts on five-star review systems, including what categories I believe deserve close scrutiny and warrant poor evaluations.

What are your thoughts on the five-star review system? Do you like it, or do you think it causes more confusion than it is worth? Is a simple thumbs up or down scale sufficient? Do you think people should be allowed to simply state that they couldn’t finish the book and that is a sufficient review? Let me know what you think!

[typography font=”Smythe” size=”24″ size_format=”px”]Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris[/typography]

Listen to the podcast for my full review of the book!

Midnight Crossroad book cover by Charlaine Harris

Book: Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris

Pages: Hardcover, 320 pages

Published: 2014

The Day Shift, book two in the Midnight Crossroad trilogy, will be published in Spring 2015.

Having stumbled across Ms. Harris by way of the television show True Blood, I quickly sought out her Sookie Stackhouse series and completed my feast with her other titles.

Midnight Crossroad is a tale of action, mystery, and intrigue! At the heart of the book is a great little town filled with interesting and comical characters who bond over their task of solving the mystery of what happened to the girlfriend of one their beloved citizens.

Let me say this: Midnight Crossroad is not about Sookie Stackhouse. I’m disappointed to discover that some readers are comparing this book to the Stackhouse series, and that is not a fair assessment. I’ll never understand why readers treat their beloved authors with such disdain when the author chooses to write a different series or create a new world or characters.

While there are elements of the supernatural and paranormal, the story doesn’t revolve around those elements.

Have you read it? What did you think of your visit to Midnight, Texas?

[typography font=”Smythe” size=”24″ size_format=”px”]Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong[/typography]

Listen to the podcast for my full review of the book!

Sea of Shadows book cover by Kelley Armstrong

Book: Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong

Pages: 392, paperback

Published: 2014

Empire of Night, book two in the Age of Legend series, will be published in April 2015.

Sea of Shadows by Kelley Armstrong isn’t a book that I would normally have picked up, but I’m glad I did. This young adult, epic high-fantasy, supernatural, and paranormal read is just the ticket for anyone looking to step outside of their reading comfort zone and explore a new world.

Do you use certain genres as palate cleansers between other books? Paranormal and supernatural reads are genres I turn to to cleanse the reading palate. I typically read very heavy literary pieces back to back, and these fun genres give me an escape from those subjects and help free my mind.

I haven’t read any of Ms. Armstrong’s previous work, but I can say that if they are anything like this read, I’m sure to quickly devour them. I can’t wait to find out what happens next in the Age of Legend series.

Ms. Armstrong offers some great extras on her website that I encourage you to check out.

Thanks for tuning in again!

Keep love and kindness on repeat!

 

Music Credit:

Monkeys Spinning Monkeys Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/