20 February 2012

The Book of Lost Fragrances - M.J. Rose



  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Atria Books (March 13, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1451621302

 ***


A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra--and lost for 2,000 years. 
 
Jac L'Etoile has always been haunted by the past, her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up surrounded by as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances--and of her mother's suicide--she moved to America. Now, fourteen years later she and her brother have inherited the company along with it's financial problems. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing--leaving a dead body in his wake--Jac is plunged into a world she thought she'd left behind.
 
Back in Paris to investigate her brother's disappearance, Jac becomes haunted by the legend the House of L'Etoile has been espousing since 1799. Is there a scent that can unlock the mystery of reincarnation - or is it just another dream infused perfume?
 
The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra's Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet's battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac's quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.



 ***


Read an excerpt from The Lost Book of Fragrances.

But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, taste and smell alone, more fragile but more enduring, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, remain poised a long time, like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unflinchingly, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection. —Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past

Chapter 1.
Alexandria, Egypt, 1799


Giles L’Etoile was a master of scent, not a thief. He had never stolen anything but one woman’s heart, and she’d always said she’d given that willingly. But on this chilly Egyptian evening, as he descended the rickety ladder into the ancient tomb, each tentative footstep brought him closer to criminality.

Preceding L’Etoile had been an explorer, an engineer, an architect, an artist, a cartographer and, of course, the general himself—all the savants from Napoleon’s army of intellectuals and scientists now stealing into a sacred burial place that had remained untouched for thousands of years. The crypt had been discovered the day before by the explorer Emile Saurent and his team of Egyptian boys, who had stopped digging when they unearthed the sealed stone door. Now the twenty-nine-year-old Napoleon would have the privilege of being the first man to see what had lain lost and forgotten for millennia. It was no secret that he entertained dreams of conquering Egypt. But his grand ambitions went beyond military conquests. Under his aegis, Egypt’s history was being explored, studied and mapped.

***

What a truly lovely novel this was to read.  A love story spanning the ages, an intricate mystery set in the recesses of time...all of this set in some of the most beguiling and intriguing locations around the world.  It was, for me, the ideal way to escape the 'real world' for awhile...just kick up my feet and allow myself to be transported into a fictional world that seemed so familiar and yet magical, surreal.  MJ Rose has crafted that rare novel that manages to be believable and fantastical at the same time.  

Oh, and what's not to love about a book that launches with it's very own personalized signature fragrance?  

Discover the perfume inspired by The Book of Lost Fragrances

Pre-order The Book of Lost Fragrances and we'll send you a free sample of Âmes Soeurs, the Scent of Soulmates. This exclusive fragrance, inspired by the novel, was created by Joya Studios and is not yet for sale.

Just use one of the above links to buy the book and then email the receipt, or a scan of it, to LostFragrances@gmail.com. Include 1) your name, and 2) snail mail address so we can send you the fragrance.
(no post office box addresses, please!






AUTHOR

M.J. Rose (www.mjrose.com) is the international best selling author of eleven novels and two non-fiction books on marketing. Her next novel THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES (Atria/S&S) will be published in March 2012.
Her fiction and non-fiction has appeared in many magazines and reviews including Oprah Magazine. She has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, USA Today and on the Today Show, and NPR radio.
Rose graduated from Syracuse University, spent the '80s in advertising, has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors - Authorbuzz.com
The television series PAST LIFE, was based on Rose's novels in the Renincarnationist series. She is one of the founding board members of International Thriller Writers and runs the blog- Buzz, Balls & Hype.
She is also the co-founder of Peroozal.com and BookTrib.com.
Rose lives in CT with her husband the musician and composer, Doug Scofield, and their very spoiled and often photographed dog, Winka.


* I received an advance copy from the publisher for purposes of review. I was in no way obligated to write a review much less a favorable one. The opinions stated herein are all my own.

18 February 2012

Yep.




I feel like this most days...Take that as you please.

16 February 2012

Gotye - Somebody That I used To Know






"Somebody That I Used To Know"
(feat. Kimbra)

[Gotye:]
Now and then I think of when we were together
Like when you said you felt so happy you could die
Told myself that you were right for me
But felt so lonely in your company
But that was love and it's an ache I still remember

You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness
Like resignation to the end, always the end
So when we found that we could not make sense
Well you said that we would still be friends
But I'll admit that I was glad it was over

But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough
No you didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records and then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Now you're just somebody that I used to know
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

[Kimbra:]
Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over
But had me believing it was always something that I'd done
But I don't wanna live that way
Reading into every word you say
You said that you could let it go
And I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know

[Gotye:]
But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough
And you didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records and then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

[x2]
Somebody
(I used to know)
Somebody
(Now you're just somebody that I used to know)

(I used to know)
(That I used to know)
(I used to know)
Somebody

07 February 2012

Havah - Tosca Lee




  • ISBN-13: 9781433668791
  • Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 8/1/2010
  • Pages: 384


***
She knew this earth when it was perfect—like her, for a time. Made by God in a manner like no other, she lived in utter peace without flaw in paradise until one fateful decision changed everything. Now, all humanity suffers for her mistake. But what did it feel like then to first sin and be exiled, to see all innocence crumble so vividly, and a strange new world take its place?
Experience the epic dawn of mankind through the eyes and heart of Eve—the woman first known as Havah.
"A passionate and riveting story of the Bible's first woman. Lee's superior storytelling will have readers weeping for all that Havah forfeited by a single damning choice

 ***


What Publisher's Weekly Had To Say About Havah:

Publishers Weekly
Starred Review.
Lee surprised the evangelical Christian literary world with her acclaimed Demon: A Memoir. Her fans will be equally pleased with her newest, a passionate and riveting story of the Bible's first woman and her remarkable journey after being cast from paradise. Havah, Adam's chosen name for Eve, recounts her life from a singular vantage point. From having known only blissful innocence, she must struggle through every post-Garden moment. Frustration compounds her plight as she repeatedly attempts to regain her former idyllic existence and repeatedly fails. Havah's life becomes a fight for survival once she and Adam are cast from the Garden, and Lee's poetic prose beautifully depicts the couple's slow surrender to a world tending to destruction. Havah gives birth, raises a brood of children, watches one son kill another, observes disease and death. Yet all the while, she waits for the fulfillment of "the One" (God) who will bring reconciliation and redemption through her seed. Lee's superior storytelling will have readers weeping for all that Havah forfeited by a single damning choice.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

***
I couldn't wait for this novel to be released.  I longed to read it for months and literally counted down the days until it was finally available for review.  I feel pretty confident that I was among the few lucky people to receive a review copy as soon as it was released.  Ahhh, advanced reader copies I do love them.  Tosca Lee is probably one of my favorite authors and she is without a doubt a talented and gifted writer.  Havah is a unique novel in so many ways.  It charts territory at once familiar and foreign.  Ms. Lee tackles this timeless tale with an authority that allows the reader to experience the story of Adam and Eve in a way that you were not taught in Sunday School...full of very human wonder, despair, tragedy and joy. 

Havah is beautifully written and will probably change you in ways quite unexpected...highly recommended.











ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Tosca Lee is the author of the critically acclaimed Demon: A Memoir, a ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year silver award winner and 2008 Christy award finalist. She earned her degree in English from Smith College, is an international consultant, and was first runner-up to Mrs. United States.

* I received an advance copy from the publisher for purposes of review. I was in no way obligated to write a review much less a favorable one. The opinions stated herein are all my own.

02 February 2012

The Lost Goddess - Tom Knox


  • Hardcover: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Viking Adult (February 2, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0670023183
  • ISBN-13: 978-0670023189

 ***

From the internationally bestselling author of The Genesis Secret-a seductive, exotic new thriller
In the silent caves beneath France, young archaeologist Julia Kerrigan unearths an ancient skull-with a hole bored through the forehead. After she reveals her discovery, her mentor is brutally murdered. Deep in the jungles of Southeast Asia, photographer Jake Thurby is offered a mysterious assignment by a beautiful Cambodian lawyer who is investigating finds at the two-thousand-year-old Plain of Jars-finds that shadowy forces want kept secret.
From the temples of Angkor Wat and the wild streets of Bangkok to the prehistoric caves in Western Europe, what links Jake's and Julia's discoveries is a strange, demonic woman whose unquenchable thirst for vengeance-and the horrors she seeks to avenge- are truly shocking.
Readers have become enthralled by Knox's vivid blend of buccaneering modern adventure, gothic horror, and grand intellectual puzzles. The Lost Goddess is his most exciting novel to date.

 ***

This review has really got me stumped.  I just don't know what I want to say...what should I tell you, dear reader, about this rather long tome?  I could tell you how I haven't read a book that actually taught me anything new since I was a rather young girl and yet this novel had me highlighting new words and names of places and googling them like mad.  I could tell you how (quite recently) I have been having an ongoing argument discussion about the evils of communism and this book managed to succinctly encapsulate my views quite nicely (and vindicating my humble opinion, I should add).  I am rather tempted to lift and quote directly for the benefit of winning contributing to our heated friendly debates.  Anyway, philosophical matters aside, Tom Knox has written a fast paced, thriller.  A real gem of a novel that kept me reading long after bed time.  

This book will take you from obscure locales in France to exotic Asian landscapes educating you with facts about the people and their history along the way.  I really can not express how much I learned from this book.  Of course I've heard of the Khmer Rouge but what did I actually know of them?  Their acts, their beliefs?  Nothing, I tell you...until now that is.  What did I know about the rise of communism in Southeast Asia?  Squat, apparently.  Now, I generally warn people about getting their history facts (or any FACTS, for that matter) from a work of fiction.  I mean, hello?  It's a work of fiction...right?  Well, as I began to read The Lost Goddess I realized pretty quick that I would need to keep my trusty laptop handy so I could look up all of the interesting bits of information.  Turns out Mr. Knox has done his research really well and he takes little creative license with it-though I have to say when the truth is this crazy you don't need a lot of embellishment to make it interesting.  Kudos to Mr. Knox for taking the time and using his talent to write a novel that not only entertains but illuminates and informs as well.  He has brought to light some pretty horrifying realities that truly need to be more well known.  I just hope his voice will be heard. 

I so much enjoyed this book and have been telling everyone to put it on their must read list.  I just want to formally thank the author right here and now....Thank you, Mr. Knox!  Love your book!  Going back to the beginning of this post...I just don't know what I want to say, well this pretty much sums it up for me:  A quote from the wonderfully talented Mr. Knox, "I want you to like the books so much you buy several copies in case you lose one."  Yup.  That's all I wanted to say.  I liked this book so much I intend on buying several copies.  Review closed.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Knox

Tom Knox is the pseudonym of the author Sean Thomas. Born in England, he has traveled the world writing for many different newspapers and magazines, including The Times, the Guardian, and the Daily Mail. His last book was a memoir, translated into eight languages; he also writes on art, politics, and ancient history. He lives in London.

You can find him and LOADS of information on his novels HERE.











 * I received an advance copy from the publisher for purposes of review. I was in no way obligated to write a review much less a favorable one. The opinions stated herein are all my own.