My First Carnival!

. Teddy Rose at So Many Precious Books, So Little Time is hosting the Bookworms' Carnival this month. The theme is "Historical Fiction" and Teddy has compiled a terrific list of essays, interviews, and book reviews. She organized the reviews by country, which I think was a great idea. This is the first time that I got my act together to contribute, and I am excited that three of my reviews are included. I plan to spend a lot of time at the carnival this weekend. There are so many reviews and other posts that I want to read. Thanks Teddy! .

Size Matters

This week's Booking Through Thursday questions asks:

What’s the biggest book you’ve read recently? (Feel free to think “big” as size, or as popularity, or in any other way you care to interpret.)

I have a couple of "big" books I can think of that I read recently: Big Book: Underworld by Don DeLillo (At 850+ pages, this one is a doorstop; reviewed here.) Big Deal: The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley (This book is not only a chunkster, it was hugely popular when I was in high school. I missed it back then, which is too bad, because I don't think it packs the same wallop as an adult.) Big Ideas: The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (Not an easy book, but one I will think about for a long time; reviewed here.) Big Favorite: Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey (An Oregon classic and new personal best.) .

Challenge Update: The Spice of Life Challenge

. I love the Spice of Life challenge. This is one that will be easy to finish by the end of the year, because I had already planned to read these books. So far, I finished my non-fiction book: Au Revoir to All That by Michael Steinberger. My review is posted in the current edition of the Internet Review of Books. I am halfway through with my cookbook choice: The Silver Palate Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins (which overlaps with my "silver" choice for the Colorful Reading Challenge). It is tremendously fun to read this book, although it makes me almost maudlin with nostalgia. I started my fiction choice this week: The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones. I really enjoyed her novel, Lost in Translation, and sinking deep into this one already. And, finally, I am going to get to my "memoir/essays" pick soon: Julie & Julia by Julie Powell. I must read this before I see the movie. This is one challenge that is going by too fast. I think I should have signed up for the eight course "feast" version. Hopefully, Rebecca will host this again next year and I will be a glutton! .

Book Trailers

. New technologies and marketing tools pop up fast enough to make me feel like even more of a curmudgeon than I thought I was. It seems like just yesterday I was waiving my cane and yelling at Twitter to get off my lawn, and now here come "book trailers." Like with all trends, it took a while for me to notice. In fact, maybe book trailers have been around for years and I never realized it. I know that Caitlin from Unbridled Books sent me this trailer to The Evolution of Shadows several weeks ago and I ignored it, like I do with all things I don't understand. It took this comment from Sarah Stonich, author of The Ice Chorus, for me to finally clue in:

Hi Rose City Reader, I'm hoping to get the opinions of bloggers on book trailers - the one linked here, as well as trailers in general. Are they effective? What makes a good one? A bad one? Please watch my mercifully brief book trailer, which I think conveys a sense and mood of The Ice Chorus, now out in paperback by Alma Books of London: [link to trailer] Any feedback would be appreciated. Cheers, Sarah Stonich

Because I react instantaneously to comments, so thrilled am I to get any, I watched Sarah's trailer right away. It is the first book trailer I ever watched. I think I like the idea. It is just a short little video clip with still photos of Ireland (where the book is set) and other images that capture elements and themes of the book. There is a voice-over -- presumably the author -- giving a back-of-the-book type description. In the interest of research for this post, I went back through my email and found the link to the trailer for The Evolution of Shadows. It is a little different because there is no narration, just stark, black and white photos of war torn Bosnia, interspersed with written descriptions and snippets of praise from other authors. I have to say that these trailers makes me want to read the books. Both The Ice Chorus and The Evolution of Shadows have been sitting on my TBR shelf for several months. But so have 900 other books. Something has to make a book stand out over the others to make me turn to it sooner rather than later. Maybe trailers are the answer. What do you all think? Do you watch trailers? Are they effective? Are some better than others? RELATED POSTS ON OTHER BLOGS 5 Tips for Making a Good Book Trailer on Abel Keogh's Blog (If you have posted on this topic, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it here.) .

Teaser Tuesday: The Last Chinese Chef

. . "Every meal here had been a breakthrough into the unexpected, but the food she had eaten in his company had been something more. With him, this world of cuisine seemed not only intricate but coherently beautiful." -- The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones Magazine columnist and recent widow, Maggie McElroy, travels to China to handle a matter involving her husband's estate. She combines the trip with a story assignment to write about an up and coming Chinese American chef competing for a spot on the "culinary Olympics" team. It was not easy finding two sentences that capture the mood and appeal of this book, because there are several layers to the story. Like the classic Chinese cuisine Mones writes about, the book combines "flavors" and "textures" in ways that are satisfying, complex, and often surprising. I am reading this as my fiction choice for the Spice of Life challenge. Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event. .