By Rachel Laudiero on Sep 3, 2008 in Featured, Review | 1 Comment
Growing up, Kathleen Kent heard stories about her ancestors, the Carrier family, and the lives they led. She knew of the nineteen men and women who were executed because they were found guilty of being witches during the Salem Witch Trials. She came to understood these men and women were not witches, but unfortunate victims of the times they lived in. Kent also knew, she was a tenth generation descendant of Martha Carrier, the woman Cotton Mathis declared was the ‘Queen of Hell’. Knowing all this, it makes perfect sense her first novel would take its readers back in time to an appalling time in our country’s history we came to refer to as the Salem Witch Trials.
After reading The Heretic’s Daughter, I was curious about how accurate the events in this book were. Based on court records, Martha Carrier was in fact tried, convicted and hung for being a witch. She also remained unyielding in her innocence plea when others were telling the courts what they wanted to hear in order to save their own lives, so much so that she pointed out the ridiculousness of the court for listening to the young girls’ accusations. Read the rest
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By Rachel Laudiero on Aug 29, 2008 in Editorial, Featured | 0 Comments
Old Musty Book has a new feature - the Book Club Community. My intent is to help enhance the readers’ experience by having discussions, in the comfort of their own homes, they wouldn’t normally have unless they were a part of an active book club. Because let’s face it, who has time for extra club commitments in their lives? The beauty of an online book club community is you can come back to a discussion whenever you’d like. You don’t have to schedule an hour for a meeting, and you can spend some time really pondering the discussion before you reply.
Right now, there are seven new books being offered free to the first five to ten people who send a private message to the publisher through the book club. Go to the “Read My Book” forum to see if any interest you!
Send me an email if you have any difficulties - rachel@oldmustybooks.com
By FlamingJune on Aug 24, 2008 in Review | 0 Comments
I picked this paperback up at my local big mart on a blind whim. I needed a romance fix and thought I had low enough expectations to put up with about anything. It is titled, Simply Magic, which reeks of cheese, and there’s already at least one out there by Balogh called Simply Love. So maybe I even made this purchase against my own better judgment. But, to my great surprise, there was something substantial about this cheesy romance novel! Read the rest
By Rachel Laudiero on Aug 22, 2008 in Featured | 0 Comments
Every year, over a eight day period in November, downtown Miami becomes the center of the literary world. This year will be the Miami Book Fair International’s 25th Anniversary. During the week of November 9th-16th, 2008, Miami will be welcoming hundreds & thousands of people who attend readings and discussions featuring prize-winning, best selling and emerging authors from the U.S. and around the world. Miami Book Fair International is a premier program of the Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College and is held in Miami, FL, and surrounding downtown streets.
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By Rachel Laudiero on Aug 20, 2008 in Featured, Review | 1 Comment
An author will often use a quest as a catalyst for the protagonist to realize something significant about him/herself. The result of a quest almost always combines the satisfactory completion of the journey’s goals and an increased self-awareness for the protagonist. In adult literature, the quest can be as subtle as driving back to one’s childhood home for a weekend visit with mom. In young adult literature though, a quest is normally not subtle at all.
The most blatant examples of quests in young adult literature feature a teenager being called into “action” by some otherworldly creatures to save their world. Quests in young adult literature are, more often than not, metaphors for coming-of-age. Normally, in the case of YA literature our protagonist will not be completely aware of his/her heritage (Lyra in The Golden Compass), will be caught by surprise by something of importance falling into his/her path (Eragon and the dragon’s egg in Eragon), or will have to deal with some perceived disaster (Dorothy and the tornado in the Wizard of Oz).
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By Rachel Laudiero on Aug 12, 2008 in Featured, Review | 0 Comments
Every once in a while, I run across a book I can’t decide if I enjoyed or not. When this happens, this indecision is because I ask myself this question - “If I didn’t enjoy it, what are the reasons?” The answer to this question has rarely been the same for any two books. However, the process for finding a satisfactory answer is always the same. I have been putting off a review for New England White by Stephen Carter for several weeks now, as I tried to figure out what my thoughts on this book were.
The author kept my attention for the first half of the book. At some point, right around the middle, some pretty strange twists started occurring. Read the rest
By Rachel Laudiero on Aug 3, 2008 in Featured, Review | 1 Comment
Stories of redemption and human survival fascinate me to the nth degree. I enjoy stories of great epiphanies which lead to inner turmoil and a change in ideologies and one’s faith in humanity. I love stories about the search for the truth and how that truth changes someone’s sense of self.
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith is such a story. The main character is a former war hero, who through a series of events gets denounced from his high profile position in the MGB, and sent to a small town, far away from Moscow. He figures out there have been series of murders happening across the country-side. Because he has been denounced and is considered an enemy of the state by his nemisis, he can’t really investigate these murders on his own. During the investigation, he has a series of epiphanies that changes his belief in the system he had put so much faith into. Read the rest
Growing up, Kathleen Kent heard stories about her ancestors, the Carrier family, and the lives they led. She knew of the nineteen men and women who were executed because they were found guilty of being witches during the Salem Witch Trials. She came to understood these men and women were not witches, but unfortunate victims of the times they lived in. Kent also knew, she was a tenth generation descendant of Martha Carrier, the woman Cotton Mathis declared was the ‘Queen of Hell’. Knowing all this, it makes perfect sense her first novel would take its readers back in time to an appalling time in our country’s history we came to refer to as the Salem Witch Trials.
