Nabbing Nook Books

My Meme in honor of my Nook e-reader. It will show what books I added to my e-book library in the past week. I hope that other users of e-readers will join me.

Earlier this month, was able to really increase the Classics in my Nook Library and all for nothing! I nabbed:

Jungle Books

Prince and the Pauper

Arabian Nights

Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen

The Canterbury Tales

Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Gulliver's Travels

I'm definitely keeping my eyes open for more freebies of the classics!

The Pemberley Chronicles by Rebecca Ann Collins

Read: September 22 - September 28
Format: 366 Pages
Source: Barnes & Noble
Subject: Pride and Prejudice sequel
Challenges: 101020, 75 Book, TIOLI, BOSC
Category: Miss Austen and Her Relations (P & P lives on!)
Genre: Romance
Stars: 2½

This is the first of the series by Rebecca Ann Collins which takes the Jane Austen characters from Pride & Prejudice (P&P) and continues their story in her own particular way.

In Pemberley Chronicles, the reader not only sees how Elizabeth and Darcy's lives advance, we are also shown the lesser characters of P&P and are introduced to the next generation of Darcys, Gardiners, and Bingleys. We see their joys and heartbreaks, successes and failures. This book also tries to include some historical accuracy of the issues in Great Britain of the time.

Reading several of the P&P sequels and comparing the writing styles and to an extent the story content, I have to admit that even though I liked this book for what it told and I'll go on in the series, I prefer the Sharon Lathan series more - at this point.

Mailbox Mondays

Another Mailbox Monday!!! Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. This is a feature where we all share with each other the exciting books that showed up at our doors this week. WARNING: Mailbox Mondays can lead to extreme envy and ever-growing wishlists!!

This week my mailbox was bombarded with great books.

Three books from the Rebecca Ann Collins' Pride & Prejudice sequels - Netherfield Park Revisited, Ladies of Longbourn, and Mr. Darcy's Daughter. Rebecca Ann Collins is the pen name of a lady in Australia who loves Jane Austen's work so much that she has written a series of 10 sequels to Pride and Prejudice, following Austen's beloved characters, introducing new ones and bringing the characters into a new historical era.

Valcourt Heiress

by Catherine Coulter

This was a LibraryThing ER book and will be part of my October reading very soon.

Set in medieval England, this lively historical romance delivers the trademark wit that fans have come to know and love from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author.
Garron of Kersey returned home triumphant, expecting to receive a barony for his royal service. Instead, he stands stricken at the sight of his castle in ruins. His few remaining servants tell him that a ruthless man dubbed the Black Demon ravaged the grounds in search of gold supposedly hidden by the returning warrior's brother. Brave Garron discovers, however, that he has one new, mysterious ally: A beautiful, enigmatic woman who calls herself Merry. Together, they will restore the estate and solve more than one looming mystery. A new romance by a regular on Barnes & Noble bestseller lists.

The Border Vixen

by Bertrice Small

The fifth installment of Small's popular Border Chronicles (The Border Lord and Lady) offers a rollicking portrait of Scottish lass Margaret "Mad Maggie" Kerr, who in 1532, at 17, is looking for a husband who "will be content to let me do what needs doing." Her grandfather Dugald Kerr puts out a challenge for a man who can "outride, outrun and outfight" Maggie, his only heir to the family fortune, which includes control of a vital passage between Scotland and England that the Kerrs have protected (and collected tolls on) for more than 500 years. Winning Maggie's hand intrigues many men, especially Ewan Hay, who's furious when he fails the test. Enter Edinburgh's handsome Fingal Stewart, dispatched by his cousin, King James V, to claim Maggie and get control of the passage. Not too surprisingly, Fingal not only succeeds with the test but also wins Maggie's heart. Ewan, however, is not ready to relinquish his desires and will stop at nothing to claim the passage and conceive an heir with Maggie. Small's satisfying, heavy-breathing romp reaffirms her standing as a historical romance stalwart.

My Mailbox was definitely hot this week!

Bookin' through Thursday

Here's this week's Booking Through Thursday question hosted by Shelf Life:
What are you reading right now? What made you choose it? Are you enjoying it? Would you recommend it? (And, by all means, discuss everything, if you’re reading more than one thing!)

I am currently concentrating on two books...

The first is titled The Pemberley Chronicles by Rebecca Ann Collins and is a sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Last year I came across a book by Elizabeth Aston which told the story of the daughters of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy from Pride & Prejudice (P&P). Since I truly loved the original characters I wondered if there were more books that told of Elizabeth and Darcy and started hunting. Little did I know that I was going to be overwhelmed with the number of books that take these two beloved characters through some very different adventures. I stopped searching when I had found ten authors writing sequels. I decided that I would read several of the different series to see how they treated the after-Austen time. So far it's been a lot of fun and since this is the 1st book in Collins' series (she has 10!) I won't be running out of P&P sequels for quite some time.

The second book is an Inter-library loan that I just picked up titled Confederate Ordeal: The Southern Homefront. I have been "studying" the Civil War era this year with books that relate not the battles but the impact of the War on the people of the time. I've also read several great books about Lincoln to go along with the histories of the period. We normally read so much about this battle and that battle but I had never concentrated on the background of what brought the war about and how it affected the people - North and South - so this year I set about to remedy this oversight and have read some great books. This one is rather small, only 136 pages with a number of vintage photographs throughout. I'm excited to see what it reveals.

What are you reading right now? Why did you choose it?

This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust

Read: September 16 - September 21
Format: AUDIO VERSION EQUIVALENT 645 pages
Source: Public library
Subject: Civil War, Death
Category: Civil War and its Leaders
Genre: History
Challenges: 101020, 75 Book, SYLL, TIOLI, Audio, Chunkster
Stars: 1½

This book is about the carnage that was the result of the Civil War.

The reader is told of the total of casualties - dead, missing in action, and injured. We are also told of the indignity of the bodies that are left on the battlefields, unburied. We hear this through diary excerpts, journals and first hand accounts from Union as well as Confederate soldiers.

It is sad to think that this time of literal carnage on the battlefields that there were no contingencies for aiding the injured so that many were just left on the field where they fell.

This book also relates the improvements that were made to embalming processes and to the federal cemetery system so that families were able to accept the bodies of their loved ones or visit their final resting places.

I didn't like this book because it just seemed to have no direction and to continually run on from one topic of death to another with no purpose. It didn't seem to have any continuity or justification for what it was stating, it just stated it. Information - yes, purpose - No.

Loving Mr. Darcy: Journeys beyond Pemberley by Sharon Lathan

Read: September 14 - September 20
Format: 425 Pages
Source: Prize in Giveaway
Subject: Pride and Prejudice sequel
Challenges: 101020, 75 Book, TIOLI, BOSC
Category: Miss Austen and Her Relations (P & P lives on!)
Genre: Romance
Stars: 3

Being a fan of Pride and Prejudice by Jane and Austen and not a fan of Zombies, I have found that there are numerous authors who have taken Austen's characters and continued their story. This book is the second in the Darcy Saga by Sharon Lathan. I read the first and this faithfully follows upon that story. (I would suggest reading them in order).

This portion of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy's story starts about 6 months after their marriage and involves their first trip to London as well as introducing and expanding on family members from the other books. It's interesting to see the character development of minor characters along with learning more about the Darcy Family history.

I will grant that Darcy and Elizabeth are not exactly the same characters that Austen wrote in P&P but then all characters have to evolve in some manner, and they grow in a pleasant direction for P&P fans, IMHO.

This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust

Read: September 16 - September 21
Format: AUDIO VERSION EQUIVALENT 645 pages
Source: Public library
Subject: Civil War, Death
Category: Civil War and its Leaders
Genre: History
Challenges: 101020, 75 Book, SYLL, TIOLI, Audio, Chunkster
Stars: 1½

This book is about the carnage that was the result of the Civil War.
The reader is told of the total of casualties - dead, missing in action, and injured. We are also told of the indignity of the bodies that are left on the battlefields, unburied. We hear this through diary excerpts, journals and first hand accounts from Union as well as Confederate soldiers.

It is sad to think that this time of literal carnage on the battlefields that there were no contingencies for aiding the injured so that many were just left on the field where they fell.
This book also relates the improvements that were made to embalming processes and to the federal cemetery system so that families were able to accept the bodies of their loved ones or visit their final resting places.

I didn't like this book because it just seemed to have no direction and to continually run on from one topic of death to another with no purpose. It didn't seem to have any continuity or justification for what it was stating, it just stated it. Information - yes, purpose - No.

Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Read: September 13 - September 15
Format: Audio 5 CDs equivalent 173 Pages
Source: Public library
Subject: Civil War
Challenges: 101020, 75 Book, Audio, SYLL, TIOLI
Category: Civil War and its Leaders
Genre: History
Stars: 1
The Red Badge of Courage is the tale of the initial cowardice and later courage of a Union soldier in the Civil War. The young soldier grows up and learns to deal with his feelings about the war.
I had heard so much about this book but was terribly disappointed. I had a very difficult time getting through this "saga". Just a another CLASSIC that didn't grab me. Don't know what the fuss was all about.

Desperate engagement : how a little-known Civil War battle saved Washington, D.C., and changed American history by Marc Leepson

Read: September 9 - September 14
Format: 236 pages
Source: Public library
Subject: Civil War, Battle of Monocacy, Capital defenses
Category: Civil War and its Leaders
Genre: History
Challenges: 101020, 75 Book, SYLL, TIOLI
Stars: 4

How amazing is it to live within a 50 mile radius of an area and never know the historical impact that it holds? We've all heard of Bull Run, Gettysburg, Appomattox but how many of you have ever heard of the Battle of Monocacy? I hadn't and I've lived in the area for nearly 40 years. How many of you knew that the Confederate Army ever threatened to invade Washington D.C.? Did you know that Abraham Lincoln was actually fired upon by a hostile army?

This book told the tale of the Confederate invasion of the state of Maryland in 1864 by Jubal Early and his regiments. They marched through most of the far northern suburbs of Washington D.C. - Frederick, Hagerstown, Urbana and were confronted by a small contingency of union soldiers led by Lewis Wallace (author of Ben-Hur) who knew that Washington was undermanned and also realized that for there to be enough time for reinforcements to arrive to man the fortifications of the capital, his men would have to engage and prevent Early's army from progressing beyond the Monocacy River for at least a day - 5,800 men against 16,000 - not promising but somehow the union soldiers held their ground for the necessary time before their retreat. Early moved on to Rockville, Silver Spring, Tenleytown - and were "knocking at the door of a nation's capital when the reinforcements from General Grant arrived in the night.

I found this book to be terribly engrossing probably because it told me facts about the Civil War that I never knew as well as about an area that I have lived in and never fully realized its impact in history. Definitely a book that should receive more exposure.

Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as commander in chief by James M. McPherson

Read: September 1 - September 11
Format: Audio 8 CDs equivalent 384 Pages
Source: Public library
Subject: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War
Challenges: 101020, 75 Book, USPC, Audio, SYLL, TIOLI
Category: Civil War and its Leaders
Genre: History
Stars: 3½

The most amazing point of interest regarding this book about Abraham Lincoln is that it is the first book that basically analyzes Lincoln's position as the Commander-in-Chief. His entire administration was impacted by war starting with letters from Fort Sumter requesting aid on the day of his inauguration and ending with his assassination 6 days after General Lee surrendered at Appomattox. We have books about Lincoln's writings, his humor, his views on religion and slavery, and his ideas of how to reunite the nation, but nothing that had centered on his military role as Commander-in-Chief.

Lincoln spent more time during his Presidency with matters of war - communications with his Generals in the field, visiting the troops and battlefields, international relations, and military strategy then any other aspect of his policies. Never having been a soldier (he actually only served in the military for a short period and saw no action), Lincoln spent hours studying military strategy. He had to deal with incompetent Generals who were either filled with their own thoughts of supremacy or with Generals who were afraid to move their troops. Not until Ulysses Grant was placed in the position of the General in charge did Lincoln have a leader that would eventually end the Confederacy's drive toward separation from the Union.

I found this book fascinating in that the reader can see all the abilities that Lincoln had to put in place to prevent the Southern forces from completely demolishing the morale of the North and at the same using the knowledge that he had gathered from his military studies to instruct the officers in the Union Army to do what was need to win the war.

After reading this book, I am really glad as an American, that at this time, Lincoln was the President of our nation. He was the man that was needed at the time and he truly completed the task that was given to him.

Clash of cavalry; the Battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863 by Fairfax Downey

Read: September 4 - September 9
Format: 153 pages
Source: Public library, ILL
Subject: Cavalry during the US Civil War, Battle of Brandy Station
Category: Full Course Meal
Genre: History
Challenges: 101020, 75 Book, SYLL, TIOLI
Stars: 2½

During the American Civil War, numerous improvements were made to the "art of war" for the time but the most surprising may have been the improvement of the Calvary for the Northern/Union forces. This may have been best seen at the battle of Brandy Station (a small railroad post near Culpepper VA less than 40 miles from Washington, D.C. so named because "they had Brandy") which was fought on June 9, 1863 and by some historians was the opening of the Gettysburg campaign.

The main focus for the Confederate Army was to take the war to the North while for the Union forces, their goal was reconnaissance of the Rebel army. During this battle with JEB Stuart in charge of the Southern units and Pleasanton commanding the Union troops, the northern Calvary made tremendous gains in confidence while the battle was a considered a draw. Many historians apparently argue over the importance of this battle citing the start of the supremacy of Northern Calvary troops and at the same time, the deterioration of Stuart's Confederate dominion.

This was an unusual book and I don't necessarily mean that in a good way. It was filled with information - maps that were too small to read, lists of military officers and units from numerous states and areas of the nation, commanders of both sides, descriptions of horses and what color horse went with what unit (did I really need to read that?), sheet music which told the troops to charge, retreat, etc., pictures of armaments and their use and descriptions, troop movements, it went on and on. I did manage to gather in the midst of all this miscellaneous information the value of the Calvary officers and their role in the battles - not clearly but to a certain extent. This book was poorly written, very disjointed and jumpy and, I fear, that this little known battle does not receive it's proper significance because of such coverage. But I am glad I read it.

In the Bleak MidWinter by Julia Spenser-Fleming

Read: September 3 - September 5
Format: Audio 11 CDs equivalent 384 pages
Source: Public library
Subject: New York, Female ministry, out of wedlock pregnancy, cold weather
Category: Niagara Falls - Overflows - #7 I Heard That!
Genre: Thriller
Challenges: 101020, 75 Book, Audio, SYLL, Thriller
Stars: 3

Clare Ferguson is the new Episcopal minister in Miller's Kill, NY where she has some problems fitting into the community. Besides being a female, she's also ex-army and a southerner who doesn't understand the difficulties of a hard cold winter. Shortly after her arrival, she discovers an abandoned baby on her doorstep and throws herself into the investigation of first who the parents may be and then who murdered the mother and grandfather.

I had heard a great deal about how good this series was from several friends, so I thought I would give it a try when I had the time. First, I liked the plot and the two main characters. They were well-developed and interacted in a interesting manner. But the other characters and the lack of clues make me wonder what I missed that others saw. I'll have to try another in the series before I can make a definite decision.

Hooked on Murder by Betty Hechtman

Read: August 28 - September 3
Format: paperback 273 Pages
Source: Private library
Subject: crochyeting, public relations
Challenges: 101020, 75 Book, BOSC,
Category: Niagara Falls - Cuddle up with a Cozy Mystery
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Stars: 3

Molly Pink is a widow trying to put her life back together after her husband's unexpected death. She's got a job as an event coordinator for a local bookstore. The bookstore is sponsoring an auction of a hand crocheted afghan when disaster strikes - the leader of the Tarzana Hookers (who are making the afghan) is found dead in her home by Molly. Before she can call for help., the [police arrive and find her with the body. Fortunately, Molly's boyfriend, (a police detective) is able to convince the officer in charge that Molly is not involved. However, Detective Heather Gilmore has the hots for Greenberg so she places Molly at the too of her suspects list.

With a Ellen dead, the Hookers are runny short of crocheters so Molly and her friend Dinah volunteer to help even though they are only beginning crocheters. As they learn more and more about the members of the group, Molly and Dinah work to figure out who killed Ellen.

The book lacked a bit in the character development area and some of the clues were a bit vague, but overall it was an enjoyable cozy mystery. I'm hoping that the next in the series will improve.