Altar of Eden: A Novel

I’ve seen the teasers for Alter of Eden here at onlinebooktips.com for quite some time before it became available, and suddenly, out of the blue, the amazon vine program offered me (for the first time) a copy of a Rollins book before it was released. Being the slow reader that I am, I didn’t finish it until it actually came out, but I had a good head-start, which I am very grateful for. Being a James Rollins fan now sure makes waiting for the NEXT novel sometimes difficult, but 2009 has been quite a busy year for him. By my count, he’s given us ‘The Doomsday Key’, the first ‘Jake Ransom’ and now ‘Alter of Eden’ in an 11th hour final pitch. Fine with me. All things considered, I’d rather wait for a great novel than be semi-satisfied by churning out one sub-par novel after another like some factory Read more »

Open: An Autobiography

So you’re thinking this might be one of those recently retired famous people books aren’t you? One where a celebrity, or a Politician, or a sports star cranks out hundreds of pages of self-serving, history-correcting drivel in order to cash the big advance check. A book you can’t even bring yourself to finish; better than a tranquilizer at bedtime.

Well, this is certainly not that book. “Open” is a journey that I predict will stay with you for a very long time. It’s a completely unexpected trip to places you’ve never been. I’m not one of those quasi-professional reviewers you see on Amazon. But this book practically made me write about it.

Interestingly, Open starts not at the beginning and not quite at the end. Second round, US Open, 2006. Read more »

Keys to Drawing

I loved to draw as a little girl until my grade 5 art teacher held one of my “creations” up in front of my sister’s class (she was very talented) and said, “can you believe they’re sisters?”. I was crushed and other than in art class, I never picked up a pencil again.

Fast forward 20 years where I see Bert Dodson’s book “Keys to Drawing”. I remembered how I used to love to draw and bought it on impulse. I started at page 1 and progressed through the book. The day my sister (the artist) walked into my house and seeing the drawing I was working on said, “nice drawing of Louis Armstrong” was one of the best moments of my life. By the way that was a drawing of Satchmo I was working on. Read more »