Green book review & giveaway: A Walk for Sunshine by Jeff Alt

This review is part of the Green Books campaign. Today 100 bloggers are reviewing 100 great books printed in an environmentally friendly way. Our goal is to encourage publishers to get greener and readers to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books. This campaign is organized by Eco-Libris, a a green company working to green up the book industry by promoting the adoption of green practices, balancing out books by planting trees, and supporting green books. A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on the Eco-Libris website.

Back in September, I was offered a chance to receive a green book for review in conjunction with a campaign to raise awareness about environmentally-responsible books. Not only were many of the books about green topics, but most were printed on either recycled paper or paper made from sources certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. Participants were allowed to pick a first and second choice from the list of 100 books, and I was selected to review my top choice, A Walk for Sunshine by Jeff Alt.

My book is printed in compliance with the green press initiative on FSC-certified 100% post-consumer content paper. Recycled paper is a cause close to my heart, having spent several years in college in an environmental club that devoted some time to the Sierra Student Coalition's campaign to convince major paper companies to adopt sustainable forest management practices and increase the use of post-consumer content in their products.

I also have some first-hand experience with how difficult it is to convince businesses (and schools) to use recycled paper. In her fantastic book Garbageland, author Elizabeth Royte relays her experiences related to the cause. She asked her publisher to consider printing the book on recycled paper using soy ink, but they were unable to accommodate her and produce what they considered a cost-effective product. Knowing this, I appreciate even more a book that is printed on the best paper possible for the environment.


A Walk for Sunshine is author Jeff Alt's memoir of his 1998 thru-hike of the 2160-mile Appalachian Trail. A lifelong lover of the outdoors, Alt conceived the idea of an AT thru-hike as a fundraiser for the Sunshine group home where his disabled brother Aaron has spent most of his life. Alt spent a year preparing, researching, and recruiting sponsors before undertaking the five-month hike from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Mount Katahdin, Maine. He would eventually raise $16,000 for the Sunshine home and inspire a yearly fundraising walk in Sunshine's hometown of Toledo, Ohio.

But the book is mostly about Alt's experiences on the trail, and it is a great adventure tale. From the skunk who curled up on his feet on a cold night in Georgia to the bear who charged him on a wooded stretch of trail in Maine, from the thru-hikers he bonded with to the civilians who provided him with "trail magic," Alt weaves a light-spirited, bighearted tale that kept me turning pages from beginning to end. An AT thru-hike is a bit of a Holy Grail of outdoor experiences, something many nature lovers dream about but never attempt, let alone complete. Alt is refreshingly honest about the physical and mental hardships of the trail, but never stops feeling grateful for the experiences he is having on his journey. I found his optimism and good nature enjoyable.

Alt is not afraid to poke gentle fun at himself, and even chooses a trail name based on a silly rookie mistake -- he dubs himself Wrongfoot after spending his first day on the trails with his arch supports in the wrong boots, resulting in blistered feet. The book moves along at a good pace, and short chapters make for easy reading. Each chapter is preceded by a map of the Appalachian Trail with an arrow marking Alt's progress, a nice detail that keeps the reader rooted in the geographical significance of this truly epic walk.

I enjoyed the book very much, even though it did make me feel a bit sheepish about my own somewhat brief encounter with the Appalachian Trail. In the spirit of sharing, I'd love to pass on my copy of A Walk for Sunshine. For a chance at it, leave a comment here sharing a favorite hiking memory or a goal for something major you want to accomplish. For an extra entry, tweet with a link to the giveaway and leave a comment for me that includes your Twitter ID. I will accept entries with valid email addresses until Sunday, November 15, at midnight. US & Canada only, please!


And the winner is... Danger! Congrats :)

As for everyone else, check back in December...the author emailed me and is going to send a copy of the DVD that's being created to go along with the book, so I'll most likely have another giveaway after I've watched and reviewed it :)

BBAW winners!

Apologies for the delay in announcing the winners of the two book giveaways. We experienced a sudden computer death and are just now getting things back in order.

Congrats to Vicki, the winner of Homer's Odyssey, and to the two winners of The Lake That Stole Children, Book Dragon and Gaby!

I'll send all three winners and email and once I get addresses, I hope to get the books mailed out next week.

Thanks to all who commented!

BBAW Giveaway #2: The Lake That Stole Children (A Fable) by Douglas Glenn Clark

To wrap up Book Blogger Appreciation Week, I'll be giving away two copies of The Lake That Stole Children by Douglas Glenn Clark. In this fable-style tale, a village has been losing its children. After a stern and overbearing fisherman refuses to let his young son cast a line into the river, the boy sneaks out at night to try it on his own. He is pulled into the water and swept downstream to the ominous and forbidden Flat Horn Lake.

The fisherman tells a gathering of villagers of his son's disappearance and begs for help searching for him, but the people dismiss him by saying that his son has surely drowned. But the fisherman knows better, for he hears the voices of the missing children when he weeps for his lost son. The only people who respond are a husband and wife who recently lost their daughter. The two fathers head to Flat Horn Lake and discover that the missing children have been swallowed by a giant glass fish, guarded by schools of smaller, vicious fish. Unwilling to accept defeat, the fisherman sets about crafting special lures, designed to capture the glass monster.

I won't spoil what happens, because the end is well-crafted and well-written. As a fable requires, lessons are learned by all parties, but it never comes across as preachy or overly trite. Some of the language is downright lovely -- my favorite line describes the assault of the guardian fish, who rise to the surface of the lake with the "smooth aggression of a mushroom cloud." A slim volume, The Lake That Stole Children would be appropriate to share with young adult readers and maybe even kids. As always, I'd recommend reading it for yourself first.

For a chance to win a copy, leave a comment on this post by midnight on Sunday (September 20th) and tell me what your favorite fable or fairy tale is, either now or from childhood. Open to readers in the US & Canada!

shelfporn for Monday morn(ing)

I love seeing photos of other people's book collections, especially authors I love.

And so, Neil Gaiman's library, courtesy of Shelfari.




It's Book Blogger Appreciation Week! Click here for book giveaway #1, and come back later this week for at least one more.

BBAW Giveaway #1: Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper

It's time once again for Book Blogger Appreciation Week, and to celebrate, I am giving away a copy of Homer's Odyssey:  a Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned About Love and Live With a Blind Wonder Cat by Gwen Cooper.

I've got a bit of a soft spot for pet memoirs, as long as they're not too heavy on the schmoop. I've read and enjoyed the ubiquitous Marley & Me, the sweet Dewey, and the more cerebral The Dogs of Bedlam Farm. So when Homer's Odyssey appeared in the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program in June, I added it to my request list. For days afterward, I wondered if I'd made a mistake. The only problem with pet memoirs is that there's usually a heartbreaking if predictable ending. I tend to do most of my reading at work on my lunch breaks, and so a sob-inducing ending is something to be avoided. When I was selected to receive an advance-review copy of Homer's Odyssey, I was quite pleased, but set it aside to read in the evenings at home. But then I read the prologue, which talks about Homer in the present-tense, and it gave me hope that the book was work-safe.

When she met Homer, Gwen Cooper was living with a friend, trying to figure out where her life was headed after a breakup with the man she'd assumed to be "the one." Already a cat person, she was sharing her life with one-person-cat Scarlett (so named because when she was found, she was so dehydrated that she was prone to fainting spells. And if that's not the greatest cat-naming story ever, I don't know what is.) and sweet beauty Vashti. Even as she drove to the vet to meet Homer -- in desperate need of a home after losing his eyes to a life-threatening infection at two weeks of age -- Gwen was aware of the reasons she shouldn't adopt another cat, but as soon as she met him, her fate was fixed. Touched by Homer's resilience, heart, and literal blind trust, Gwen agreed at once to take him home.

The story moves smoothly through the months and years of Gwen's life with her now three cats, chronicling her realization that a nonprofit salary will not be enough to make her self-sufficient, her difficult decision to swallow her pride and move back in with her parents while she re-aligns her career path (perfectly described as a "break-glass-in-case-of-emergency scenario"), and her eventual move to New York City. Even though the story is largely about Homer, the blind cat who never spends a day of his life believing that he is disabled, the story is also about the people whose lives are touched by Homer. Everyone he meets (with the exception of one horrible first-date) is not only won over, but instantly converted to dyed-in-the-wool Homer fandom. And the story is ultimately about Gwen. Without getting too schmaltzy, she relates the ways in which Homer teaches her about, well, life and love.

Cooper is a great writer, blending insight with humor to create a book that is a fast read but not fluff, touching but not cheesy, and ultimately extremely satisfying. And best of all -- spoiler -- no pets die at the end of the book! There is a close call near the end that made me worry, but all three cats are alive and well at the close of the story. There were several sweet moments that made me a little sniffly, and the scenes of Gwen fleeing Manhattan on foot in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and then spending several days trying to get back to her cats, trapped in her apartment only a few blocks from Ground Zero, had me fighting tears. The difficult moments are never played as cheap tear-jerkers, though, which I greatly appreciated.

I loved Homer's Odyssey. In fact, upon receiving it, I was planning to use it as a giveaway book for BBAW, but as soon as I finished it, I couldn't bear the thought of giving it away. I already had a list of people I wanted to loan it to, and I wanted to be able to re-read it someday. On a whim, I emailed Cooper's editor, and she was kind enough to arrange for another copy to be sent just for this giveaway. How rad is that?


To enter to win, leave a comment on this post and tell me either your favorite animal-related memoir or a favorite pet story / memory of your own. You have until Friday (September 18th) at midnight to comment, and sometime after that, I'll put all the entries into random.org and choose one winner. The giveaway is only open to residents of the US and Canada, and you must include a valid email address to be eligible.

For other great BBAW giveaways, go here. To purchase a copy of Homer's Odyssey if you don't win (or if you do but need another copy to give as a gift), go here.

And finally, check back here later in the week...I'm planning to do at least one other giveaway, and maybe more!

Take Your Shirt Off and Cry by Nancy Balbirer -- Review & Giveaway!

In Take Your Shirt Off and Cry:  a Memoir of Near-Fame Experiences, Nancy Balbirer chronicles her years-long struggle to find fame, fortune, or just a living wage in the killing fields of LA. After receiving praise and encouragement throughout her tenure in acting school, a bright future in the industry seemed assured, but Nancy find that LA is, too often, the place where dreams go to wither under the strain of reality.

Nancy's tale isn't all doom and gloom, however, and she writes with a refreshing blend of humor and honesty. Vignettes about her acting school experiences, dysfunctional boyfriends, fellow actors, and rare glimpse of success blend together to create an interesting memoir. I was left with the impression that Nancy would be a great person to sit next to at a dinner party. And best of all, even though Nancy never lands the fame and fortune she went to LA to find, the story has a happy ending.


If you would like to win my copy of Take Your Shirt Off and Cry, leave a comment on this post and tell me what you always thought you'd be when you grew up and if you followed that path or not. The contest will close at midnight on Wednesday, August 5th, and is open to anyone in the US.

As for me, I always thought I'd be a paleontologist when I grew up. I never got there, but I did get my geology degree in college and I do work in a science field today.


Winner! Congrats to basscomm! It seems that random.org wants you to have this book!

The Séance by John Harwood

I was hoping to do a very thorough review of this one, but I've run through the maximum number of renewals allowed, and it's due back at the library tomorrow. The Séance was recommended to me by a coworker who had recently read The Thirteenth Tale on my recommendation and loved it.

The Séance is similar in tone to The Thirteenth Tale and shares a sad family mystery at its heart. The Séance is very Victorian, and though I usually don't enjoy the time period too much, I was able to look past the few obviously Victorian elements (woman meets man and decides within the space of an afternoon that they are meant to be, they get engaged days later; woman is overcome by fear / stress / shock and swoons). The heroine of the story is Constance Langton, raised in a sad, quiet life by a father so distracted by his work that he might as well be completely absent and a mother so blinded by grief for Constance's sister who died at age two that she might as well be alone in all the world. Constance drifts through life, mostly ignored, until developing a curiosity about séances and spiritualism in her late teens.

It begins as an attempt to coax her mother out of mourning for the dead child, Alma, but all of Constance's good intentions go tragically awry. I won't spoil it, but basically the next few years' events set up what will become the main thrust of the story. One day, while living with her uncle and still lacking purpose, Constance is informed that a distant relative she's never heard of has left her a crumbling mansion, Wraxford Hall. The lawyer who delivers the bequest tells her that she may do with the property as she wishes, but he begs her to never live there, and encourages her to sell it sight unseen. Instead, Constance becomes intrigued and begins to investigate the history of the house.

Constance begins to uncover the bizarre events that supposedly took place at Wraxford Hall many years ago, and as she immerses herself in the mystery, the story really takes off. I won't summarize it, but I will say that it is dark and interesting and at times a bit strange. There's a twist ending that I didn't see coming, too, which is always a nice surprise. If you've read and enjoyed The Thirteenth Tale, give The Séance a try. If you haven't read The Thirteenth Tale, read both!