August 26th, 2010
by Gwen
Welcome back to Chew & Digest Books. I am so glad that you are here!
Thank you so much to Gwen for hosting me this month! I’m really excited about sharing my pick for this month’s Cross-Bloggination! In looking back over the month I thought about all the great books I’ve had the opportunity to read, but one in particular stood out above the rest. Not only because I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but also because of the guest post by the author that accompanied my review. So, without further hesitation, my choice…
The Death and Further Adventure’s of Silas Winterbottom by Stephen Giles
This is the story of three very different, very unique children and their devious Uncle’s attempts to manipulate them to his dying day. And it’s brilliant! Adele, Milo and Isabella are three cousins from completely different walks of life, though each of their families struggle to make ends meet and live as luxuriously as they wished they could. That is until they each receive a mysterious letter with $10,000 in it and an opportunity to inherit a fortune from their recluse Uncle, Silas Winterbottom. In a strange and surprising turn of events suddenly it’s the children who are fighting for their lives and not their dying Uncle.
Not only were the characters and the story brilliant, but the author is just as amazing. In his guest post Stephen Giles discussed a bit about the book that got him “hooked” on reading as a child. For Stephen it happened to be The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis. Not only is this an all time favorite book of my own, but the way you could see it reflected in Giles’ own story was perfect. In no way were the stories similar, truly. It was more in the that way Giles developed his characters into rich and meaningful parts of a bigger picture. You could see how his passion for reading truly impacted his love of storytelling. Not only that, but his description of Turkish Delight is one not to miss!
Stephen M Giles
It was honestly my favorite author visits and I’m eager to read more by Giles. The Death and Further Adventure’s of Silas Winterbottom is out now and I’d highly recommend the story to children and adults alike. Though it’s especially great for middle grade readers and those that may be a little reluctant to pick up a book. I’m also holding a giveaway for one copy of the book, so make sure you enter before the 3rd of September for your chance to win a copy of The Death and Further Adventure’s of Silas Winterbottom.
Thank you so much Gwen for having me on today! I loved having the opportunity to chat a little more about this fantastic book and author.
It was a pleasure to have you here Danielle & I am going to have to snap this one up for the grandkids.
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July 29th, 2010
by Gwen
Cross-Bloggination is a brainchild of mine that spawned during the recent Bloggiesta. I knew I wanted to reach out to some bloggers and create a monthly feature that would give our usual readers something a little out of the ordinary. Gwen from Chew & Digest Books and Danielle from There’s a Book responded to the call. The last Friday of each month we will be posting on each others blogs and providing you all with something new and different to see; a featured book out of the books we’ve read that month – this book is special and one that really sticks in our minds as being a fantastic read.
I invite you to head over to both their blogs – I will be hosting Danielle this month and Danielle will be hosting Gwen.
It was rough for me to come up with a favorite book this month – I’ve read fantastic books ranging from older books like The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood to new ones such as Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok. I’ve read about dragons and the Napoleonic wars in the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik and then.. I traveled to North Carolina and fell in love with a little town called Mullaby – where there is a giant, the aroma of cakes and the mystery of glowing lights in the night-time.
I fell in love with Southern Literature fairly recently with Beth Hoffman’s Saving CeeCee Honeycutt and it wasn’t with a small bit of anticipation that I picked up The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen. I felt that catch in the back of my throat that I’ve come to recognize as a sign of anticipation and book-lovers joy when I know I am picking up a book I am going to fall in love with.
And sometimes it’s that easy, you know? It could be the title that does it for me… and who wouldn’t love a title such as this one? It could be just the name of the author, or the cover of the book. Maybe it’s those first few magical sentences. All I know is that when Grandpa Vance began to speak of the wallpaper in Emily’s room I got chills.
Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood.
Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight.
And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes.
I immediately purchased a copy of this book after I read my library copy. I hadn’t even closed the book completely before I was clicking buy on my B&N screen. This is a book I’ll be passing around to my neighbors and purchasing more copies of to distribute at Christmas-time, not because the book is profound and full of deep insight or is a masterpiece of scholarly writing… but because this book made me feel as if I was home and that my soul could rest.
My review of this fantastic book will be up at my website, The Lost Entwife, in the upcoming week. I invite you to come check it out and to leave your own comments here about what book provides rest in your soul for you.
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