In 2009 I read 100 books. I was trying to make it to one hundred,and I scrounged to get there. Because of homeschooling, crafting and cooking there are tons of odd books on my list. That is just the way life is right now, and I make no excuses because I wouldn't want it any other way. Sometimes (many times) after a long day of "working" around the house it has been hard for me to want to pick up a deep book or thought provoking one. What you see is what I read, for better or for worse. I wish I had some more intelligent books there-but I haven't wanted to ready them so I don't. Yep, that is that. Still I have some great favourites from what I read this year. I'll have to think about which are the top of the top, there are many that I loved this year.

For now, some cover art.

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One very lucky entrant will win one of the above bookcases, so that you can cuddle all your books into a new and beautiful home, an organized home, a place to rest from being under the bed or stacked up in piles, go on, you know you need a bookshelf and this is how you will be entered:

• Comment here telling me which bookcase you'd love to have in your home.

• Tweet about the giveaway with a link back to this post.

(leave a separate comment here telling me you did)

• Blog about the giveaway with a link back to this post.

(leave a separate comment here telling me you did)

Sorry, open only to US residents, and no P.O boxes please. All entries must be in by the 30th of August, the winner will be chosen 31st of August. Check back then to see if you got lucky!!

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I suppose it depends on what types of books you read, but since I read novels, mostly I read to live a life other than my own for a while. I read to get away, to dream of somewhere far away, or to understand where someone is coming from better. I love international fiction because I can travel somewhere I have never been, or walk the streets in a well known village 8,000 miles away. I am teleported through reading to a dream or a nightmare, depending on the book. I can live an exciting night, even though I don't have a million dollars for travel fees and a babysitter that night!!

I guess movies could be the same thing, but they really aren't, for me at least. Because they don't allow me to take my time, I am on their schedule and just working on keeping up most of the time with what is being said and the images that flash on screen. In reading, I live longer in the places I want to and skip-run-jump through those that freak me out. I like reading.

I have recently been transported to China while reading The Kitchen God's Wife (Amy Tan), to a Russian threatened Afghanistan in The Photographer (graphic novel), and through racial and spacial bounds in Zimbabwe in Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight. Where have you been lately? Have your travels taken you pleasant places or nightmareish-ones? Do you read for the same reasons as me or different reasons?

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The Islands of Divine Music
by John Addiego
256 pages
Unbridled Books
Fiction

A generational story of a little girl, Rosari, who has to flee with her family from Italy because of her collaboration in a crime. She wrote a kidnap note for some coins, a choice that would change her life forever. The Islands of Divine Music contains the history in her family from that day forward. Filled with deep character development, as each member of the family is a story by him/herself. The chapters are set up to narrate one individuals life, to share the choices they made, their thoughts and hopes. It is character development at its best! The Islands of Divine Music was truly a unique book. There are some minor twists and turns, but mostly it just isn't predictable enough to really even need them in order to keep the reader going.

John Addiego wrote a book in which the plot carries itself so well that it might as well be a non-fiction read. The story seams real, not made up. There is a family tree in the beginning, and as the chapters move through the reader can understand where each individual is being added in. I had no idea how much I was going to enjoy this John Addiego's novel. Each subject comes up out of the type and you think of them for days after the book is finished. John Addiego is an excellent writer. I highly recommend this read to people who like a good storyline, a great plot, with good detailing and history to back up the family and to those who enjoy superb character development, this is your read!

Have you read The Islands of Divine Music? What were your thoughts? Did you like how he did the chapters, having the reader get to know one family member at a time?

Some of my other recommendations for good books filled with character development and beautiful details, so make sure you check these out if you enjoyed The Islands of Divine Music:

The Vanishing Moon by Joseph Coulson
My Antonia by Willa Cather
The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

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