Starlighter (Dragons of Starlight)

From the publisher: One of the most long-awaited young adult fantasy novels hitting bookstores everywhere this Spring, Starlighter imagines a world where humans are second-class citizens, and dragons aren’t as mythological as we think.   In the first novel of a new four-book fantasy series for young adults by bestselling author Bryan Davis, human and dragon worlds collide when Jason Masters enters the dragon planet and meets Koren, a descendant of humans who were kidnapped and are now the dragons’ slaves.

What if the Legends Are True? Jason Masters doubted the myths that told of people taken through a portal to another realm and enslaved by dragons. But when he receives a cryptic message from his missing brother, he must uncover the truth and find the portal before it’s too late. At the same time, Koren, a slave in the dragons’ realm, discovers she has a gift that could either save or help doom her people. As Jason and Koren work to rescue the enslaved humans, a mystic prophecy surrounding a black egg may make all their efforts futile. In Starlighter, bestselling author Bryan Davis masterfully weaves fantasy and inspiration into a captivating novel for young adults.

My take:  I’ve been reading a lot of young adult fiction lately and have really been enjoying the books on an adult level.  This book is the first I’ve read in the Y.A. fantasy/sci-fi genre, however, that really is targeted just towards tweens and teens, not adults as well.   There is plenty of action in this story to hold the interest of the tween/teen reader but the characters and plot aren’t developed well enough to hold my interest as an adult reader.  And the bouncing back and forth between perspectives (one chapter is Koren, the next Jason, etc.) was disconcerting to me.  I also found it interesting that after I finished the book, I found out it is book 1 of 4 planned books in a series – unlike most series, I didn’t finish this book anxious for the next one – there was no great cliffhanger so I never would have guessed it was the first in a series.  Still, it’s a fun story with good moral undertones for your tween or teen reader – perfect for these lazy summer beach days.

About the author: Bryan Davis is a bestselling teen fantasy author, with over 1,000 teen fans on Facebook. He is currently on a stunning 50-city book tour to promote his third dragon fantasy series, where two young teenagers must work together to rescue the world – before the unthinkable happens. http://www.starlighterbook.com/

The Italian Tenor

From Sony:  Sony Classical proudly announces its debut release by the highly-acclaimed tenor Vittorio Grigolo. Hailed as one of the finest tenors in recent times, Grigolo’s recording of The Italian Tenor will be available on October 5 and features famous arias and lesser known discoveries. Also, on October 16, Grigolo makes his highly anticipated debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Rodolfo in La Bohème.

Grigolo purposely waited to record his first operatic solo album until he had something unique to communicate in the repertoire. According to Grigolo, “I chose arias representing the culture I come from.”

Born in Tuscany, Grigolo began his career as a young boy performing as a soloist in the celebrated Sistine Chapel Choir. His distinctive voice attracted the praise of the great Luciano Pavarotti when, at age thirteen, he starred alongside him as the Pastorello in Tosca at the Rome Opera. He went on to be the youngest tenor ever to debut at the legendary La Scala, Milan and has conquered many of the world’s great opera houses since, appearing with the finest artists and conductors of our day. Grigolo made his Chicago debut in 2008 starring in a tribute to Pavarotti in front of thousands at Grant Park. He made his Washington, D.C. debut in 2009 sharing the stage with Renée Fleming in a lauded production of Lucrezia Borgia conducted by Plácido Domingo. Recently, he triumphed in his debut at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in Massenet’s Manon.

The Italian Tenor presents arias from three great operatic composers – Gaetano Donizetti, Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini. These include Donizetti’s “Una furtiva lagrima” (L’Elisir d’Amore) which was made famous by Enrico Caruso, whose famous performance of the aria paved the way for the opera’s return to the repertoire after years of neglect. Equally as beautiful is “Spirto gentil” (La Favorita) in which the lead character laments the loss of his love forever.
The recording also presents Grigolo as five Verdi characters. His selection begins with “Quando le sere al placido” from Luisa Miller and continues with “Ella mi fu rapita” and “Possente amore” from Rigoletto. Verdi’s early opera Il Corsaro is rarely performed on stage today, but the young tenor triumphed in the title role at the Zürich Opernhaus earlier this year and wanted to include it on the album. The arias “Tutto parea sorridere” and “Si de’ Corsari il fulmine” demonstrate his lyrical and dramatic gifts, as does the chosen aria from Un Ballo in Maschera, – “Forse le soglia attinse….ma se m’e forza perderti”. Following the cavatina “Ah si ben mio coll’essere”, Grigolo makes a rare venture into the spinto tenor repertoire with “Di quella pira” (Il Trovatore).

The Puccini selection features a seldom heard aria from the composer’s first opera, Le Villi, “Ecco la casa…torna ai felici di”. Grigolo was drawn to the unusually dark, almost Wagnerian colors of the piece. “Donna non vidi mai” (Manon Lescaut), sung at the beginning of the opera as des Grieux falls in love with the young Manon, provides a clear contrast to the despair of Cavaradossi in “E lucevan le stelle” (Tosca) as the painter awaits his execution. The aria “Firenze è come un albero fiorito” from Puccini’s only comic opera, Gianni Schicchi, foreshadows the melody of the celebrated “O mio babbino caro” in its central section. Of course, no survey of the Italian tenor repertoire would be complete without the most loved aria of them all – “Che gelida manina” (La Bohème).

The Italian Tenor was recorded in the Teatro, Regio di Parma, a venue particularly associated with Verdi. It was recorded with the resident orchestra and conductor Pier Giorgio Morandi, with whom Grigolo shares a personal musical connection and admires greatly. Grigolo makes special mention of Plácido Domingo for having offered him guidance and unwavering support throughout Grigolo’s career.

My take:As many of you know, my husband is Italian.  I love all things Italy - we were blessed to take a trip to Rome, Naples and the Isle of Capri back in 2003 and I’d do just about anything to go back.  Alas, children, money and life mean I have to get my Italian fix in my music for now.  So I was delighted when Kailani let me review this debut CD from Vittorio Grigolo.  Once again though, I find myself in the position of reviewing music while not being a “real” music reviewer.  I was reading some reviews of this CD online, as well as some other opera reviews, and to be honest, I couldn’t even follow what they were saying.  And I have a master’s degree!  I’m guessing that many of you don’t understand “real” operatic review either so let’s just talk about what we do know – what is beautiful to our ears and to our hearts.  Opera, as voiced by a young tenor such as Vittorio Grigolo, is beautiful to me.  I found the entire CD to be moving and soothing to my soul – a perfect backdrop for whatever you are doing throughout the day (though not as workout music so much!)  If you love opera, or you just want to see what all the fuss is about with that genre, The Italian Tenor would be an excellent CD to have and enjoy.  Check it out today! ♥♥♥♥

This post was written for Sony Music who provided the CD for review. I was not compensated in any way except for the complimentary CD.

Aron with One A: Something for Savvy

From the publishers/authors: Learning how to manage money is more crucial than ever: Mortgage defaults and foreclosures are at their highest levels in decades, credit card debt and delinquencies are growing with consumers having more than $1 trillion in debt and savings rates are at dismal levels. The National Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy conducts a annual survey given to high school seniors to measure their knowledge of basic financial concepts. In 2008 the average score was just over 50%. Although a handful of states offer personal finance education for high school seniors it is obvious that personal finance education needs to start as early as possible!

As soon as a child can count, they’re ready to understand the basics of money. Using “Aron with one A,” children can develop money-management skills that can help lead to financially stable lives.

“Aron with one A” is a first-of-its-kind children’s book series that begins the conversation and facilitates learning opportunities. The stories, activities and games help children become financially literate. Being financially literate means knowing how to manage money, use credit effectively, build wealth and make healthy financial decisions.

My take: From the files of the obvious, I’m a CPA.  Which means I’m supposed be one of the most financial savvy people on the planet and I’ve trained my children to be the same, right? Um, not so much.  When it comes to knowing and teaching financial wherewithal, I’m a product of my upbringing just like ya’ll are and I don’t recall any financial lessons ever being taught, at least not explicitly (though I did pick up what to do and not to do by observation, of course).  I want things to be different for my children – I don’t want them to get into the usual financial pits that seem to be rights of passage almost – remember credit cards in college?  Oy!

So where do I start?  Well, for my 5 and 7 year old, books are the perfect way to start (along with allowances, and “piggy” banks like I’ve reviewed here in the past).  And let me tell you, I absolutely LOVED this book, “Something for Savvy.”  I sat down with my kids and we read it and at the end, discussed what saving for something we wanted really meant to us.  It was probably just a day later that my daughter asked for something she saw on T.V. and we talked about how she needed to save the money for it in her bank “just like Savvy did.”  And she got it; she really got it.  I will definitely be picking up the next 19 of the planned 20 books series as they are published and I hope you will to.  Let’s help our next generation be better money managers than we were!

More information:  The series is designed for children ages 4-8, and each of the 20 books addresses different personal-finance topics, including:
•Budgeting
•Managing Household Expenses
•Borrowing Money
•Earning Income
•Methods of Payments
•Saving Money
•Comparison Shopping
•Protecting your Identity

“Aron with one A” meets national standards and guidelines in personal financial management, economics, math and English.  You can follow “Aron with One A” on Twitter and find more tips on their blog here.  Their website is here.

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder

From the publisher: For Ya-Ya fans everywhere, New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Wells returns with The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder. The creator of the literary sensations Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Little Altars Everywhere, and Ya-Yas in Bloom delivers an unforgettable new stand-alone novel about the pull of first love, the power of home, and everyday magic. No matter if you already adore the Ya-Yas or haven’t yet entered the miraculous world of Rebecca Wells, you are going to love—and never forget—Calla Lily Ponder.

Book Description: Known for her beloved Ya-Ya books (Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Little Altars Everywhere, and Ya-Yas in Bloom), Rebecca Wells has helped women name, claim, and celebrate their shared sisterhood for over a decade. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood held the top of the New York Times bestseller list for sixty-eight weeks, became a knockout feature film, sold more than 5 million copies, and inspired the creation of Ya-Ya clubs worldwide.

Now Wells debuts an entirely new cast of characters in this shining stand-alone novel about the pull of first love, the power of life, and the human heart’s vast capacity for healing.

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder is the sweet, sexy, funny journey of Calla Lily’s life set in Wells’s expanding fictional Louisiana landscape. In the small river town of La Luna, Calla bursts into being, a force of nature as luminous as the flower she is named for. Under the loving light of the Moon Lady, the feminine force that will guide and protect her throughout her life, Calla enjoys a blissful childhood—until it is cut short. Her mother, M’Dear, a woman of rapture and love, teaches Calla compassion, and passes on to her the art of healing through the humble womanly art of “fixing hair.” At her mother’s side, Calla further learns that this same touch of hands on the human body can quiet her own soul. It is also on the banks of the La Luna River that Calla encounters sweet, succulent first love, with a boy named Tuck.

But when Tuck leaves Calla with a broken heart, she transforms hurt into inspiration and heads for the wild and colorful city of New Orleans to study at L’Académie de Beauté de Crescent. In that extravagant big river city, she finds her destiny—and comes to understand fully the power of her “healing hands” to change lives and soothe pain, including her own. When Tuck reappears years later, he presents her with an offer that is colored by the memories of lost love. But who knows how Calla Lily, a “daughter of the Moon Lady,” will respond?

A tale of family and friendship, tragedy and triumph, loss and love, The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder features the warmth, humor, soul, and wonder that have made Wells one of today’s most cherished writers, and gives us an unforgettable new heroine to treasure.

My take:  1 a.m.  As in, after midnight, 1 a.m.   That is what time I finished reading The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponderafter starting it earlier that day.  Ya’ll, I could NOT put that book down!  I knew it would be a good book since I’m a huge fan of Wells’ work, but this exceeded my expectations.  Seriously.  I felt like I was under some kind of spell as Ms. Wells weaved her magic and dropped me smack in the middle of La Luna and New Orleans Louisiana, right along side Calla Lily Ponder.  I’ve not cried that hard over a character’s hardships in quite a spell.  I’ve not cheered over her triumphs in such a long time either.  Calla Lila and all the characters that surrounded her were so well fleshed out, I felt I knew and loved (or hated!) every single one of them.  And while I was sad to reach the end, the story ended quick satisfactorily….perfect for this book and perfect for these people.  If you loved “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” or you are just looking for a great summer read, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder today!

About the author: Rebecca Wells, actress, playwright, and New York Times bestselling author of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Little Altars Everywhere, Ya-Yas in Bloom, and The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder, was born in Louisiana.

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