Branching Out

I began this summer with no specific reading goals in mind except to explore some of the social networking sites for readers. However, I am amending that previous decision. Because of my joining both LibraryThing and GoodReads, plus the book blogs I follow: Reading Amidst the Chaos and  Blogging for a Good Book, I am realizing just how many books out there I want to read. So instead of re-reading some of my favorite comfort food reads, I am branching out and not going to re-read anything else this summer. (Two exceptions: Name of the Wind, so I can remind myself of the story before I move onto The Wise Man's Fear, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows because the final movie is coming out this summer!).

Here are just some of the books I want to read this summer:

Image via Wikipedia

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins -  It's a very "in" book right now and I do love me some, post-apocalyptic teen fiction. I've heard some rave reviews about it and my colleague let me borrow her copy, so I should be getting started fairly soon.

Fifth Avenue., 5 A.M. by Sam Wasson - I usually stay away from exposes, but I love Breakfast at Tiffany's the movie, though Capote's story was not my favorite.



The Riddle-Master by Patricia McKillip - My supervisor recommended the series to me and the cover blurb was intriguing. However, the GoodReads reviews are mixed, so I will proceed with caution.

Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and Flop of the Season, 1959 -2009 by Peter Filichia - It seems like such an interesting book and will get me one step closer to the bright lights I have never seen but long to.

Check out my GoodReads for future updates! (I hit the 200 book limit for LibraryThing so I have to decide how much to pay for a membership). And look for a post towards the end of the summer where I will discuss the various reading social networking sites.

Coming Out of the Closet

First of all, I am declaring this blog a no-shame zone. Having said that, I am not gay, regardless of what the title of this post may lead you to believe. To explain the title, you will notice in my profile that I describe my self as "a closet romantic." Well, I'm owning up to romantic, slightly gooey side, inspired by my Adult Popular Literature (APL) in structor who proudly owns up to reading romance and even erotica. I've made baby steps in the past with my "Vamping the Bookshelf" and my "Daughters of Jane" series, but this post is a no holds-bar exposé. Here goes nothing ... I read romance novels.

Granted I am not usually drawn to the contemporary or historical love stories. I like a back story, usually with a robust mythology, harkening back to my exclusively fantasy period. Most of the time, the straight love story is not enough to hold my attention. I want some action, usually of the political conspiracy/large objects blowing up/sword fighting and if at all possible, a kick-butt heroine. However, in an effort to broaden my reading horizons for my APL class, I decided to read outside of my box and got the first two books of Nora Roberts' The Bride Quartet as well as a true bodice-ripper.

Cover via Amazon

I just finished A Vision in White, the first book in the quartet. The plot focuses on Mackensie "Mac" Ellot, a wedding photographer, and Carter Maguire, a PhD high school English teacher (one of those prestigious academies in Connecticut). Mac is an owning partner in Vows, an almost all-inclusive wedding planning company, with her three best friends: Parker, the brains of the operation, Emma, the florist, and Laurel, the baker/pastry chef. Carter has had a crush on Mac since high school and the romantic journey ensues after a chance meeting when Carter's sister comes to Vows to plan her wedding.

Having never read Nora Roberts before, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. It follows the basic romantic tale plot: boy meets girl, boy loses girl (this time because of the girl's deep-rooted trust issues), boy gets girl back. The dialog is witty, the characters seem real, and the situation is not that implausibly fairy tale/chick flick romantic. Also, the love scenes are tasteful and there aren't too many of them. I also appreciate she had me going to the dictionary to look up some words, like "stevedore" which is a person who loads and unloads cargo from ships. The issue I had with the book is some overly sentimental metaphors and dialog, but the comes with the territory.

Having said all that, it was predictable to the point that I feel comfortable forecasting the direction of the rest of the series. There were only three single, eligible men introduced in A Vision in White: Carter, Jack Cooke, and Delaney "Del" Brown. Carter has been spoken for, but there were hints as to who the other men would fall for in the end.

Cover via Amazon

There was an interesting scene with Emma and Jack which ended with her yelling at him and storming out, so I will predict that the second book in the quartet, Bed of Roses (remember Emma is the florist), will feature them.

                  Cover via Amazon

The third book in the series, Savor the Moment, will feature Laurel, the baker (clever title Ms. Roberts), and Del based on one interaction between Mac and Laurel. Mac has just apologized for being bitchy and explains that Del helped her in a situation with her mother, Laurel's response: "In the act of getting down a glass, Laurel glanced back. 'Del was there?'" (p. 141). I will admit it isn't much to go on, but just the fact that she mentioned him is significant and besides that he's Parker's brother.

Cover of Happy Ever After (Bride Quartet)

The final book in the quartet, Happy Ever After, will feature Parker with a yet-to-be-named suitor. Parker's book has to come last because she seems to be the strongest, motherly personality and she has to see her friends settled before she can find her ... wait for it ... happily ever after.

Daughter's of Jane: P&P in Black and White

Since my spate as an undergraduate student has come to a close, I can no longer hold an undergrad position at the UGL. Besides significantly trimming down my income, not being an SA has also curtailed my browsing of the UGL's media collection, which is very impressive. You never know what goodies you'll find whilst shelving.

Image via Wikipedia

A case in point is the main subject of this post: the 1940 film version of Pride and Prejudice, starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, as well as one of my favorite character actors: Melville Cooper (best known as the Sheriff of Nottingham in The Adventures of Robin Hood).  Also, Aldous Huxley wrote the screenplay. Yes, the man who wrote Brave New World was also a prolific screen writer for TV and Hollywood.  It was a decent adaptation of the film, even for Hollywood.  As usual Austen's dialog was preserved with lines like Mr. Bennet's:

"An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. Your mother will never see you again if you don not Marry Mr. Collins. And I will never see you again if you do."

and Mr. Darcy's:

"You must allow me to tell you how much I admire and love you."

The characterization was also done very well.  Mrs. Bennet, played by Mary Boland, is exquisite in her overly conniving and blatant attempts to marry off her daughters and Edna May Oliver, as Lady Catherine de Bourgh is wonderful, though I still prefer Barbara Leigh-Hunt.  The one horrible job was Olivier as Darcy.  He was just too wishy-washy and definitely not nearly as socially awkward as he should be.

From there, the adaptation starts to deteriorate. Though the plot deviates from the original in some small ways toward the beginning of the film, the major divergences happen after Elizabeth's rejection of Mr. Collins.  Let's hit the highlights and, by the way, SPOILER ALERT!

• Mr. Collins is Lady Catherine's librarian, not a clergy man.
• The Bingley's throw a garden party instead of a ball.
• The Gardners, the visit to Pemberly, and actually seeing Georgiana were completely cut.
• Mr. Darcy tells Elizabeth about Wickham in person, not by letter.
• Lydia and Wickham elope from Meryton, not Brighton.
• Darcy doesn't just find the love birds and get Wickham a commission; instead, he finds them and gives them a fortune. (How unjust is that! I prefer the ending in which they are miserable and poor for the rest of their lives.)
• Mary and Kitty find men during the very last scene.
• And perhaps the biggest twist: Lady Catherine visits Elizabeth as Darcy's "ambassador" aka MATCHMAKER! (It was a shock to me too.)

Also, the film just comes off as very abrupt and lacks the subtlety of the Regency customs and manners.  Everything, like how ruinous Lydia's actions and how "inferior" the Bennets are to Darcy, is either explained outright or so completely over-acted that it is impossible not to see how horrible the situation actually is.

Image via Wikipedia

Besides these errors (and some would same calamitous transgressions by Mr. Huxley), I found the most distracting part was the costuming.  Even though Mrs. Bennet mentions the Battle of Waterloo at one point, the dresses seem more mid-century (see photo to the right), as in Gone With the Wind.  It's just not right.

Vamping the Bookshelf

I'm just going to admit it - my literary guilty pleasure is paranormal fiction.  I do like the, ahem, steamier moments and the epic battle scenes, but what really interests me is all the different mythologies about paranormal creatures, especially vampires.  I know it's kind of playing into the whole Twilight thing, but there are a lot of other series out there that are better written and more creative.  Here are some of the series that I have read and enjoy.

Laurell K. Hamilton -- She actually has two series, and both are high on the steamy meter. One about Anita Blake, an animator (someone who raises zombies) and a vampire executioner, who has a very complicated love life and is lives under the threat of being annihilated by various powers of evil.  The second is about Meredith (Merry) Gentry, an American Faerie princess, who also has a very complicated love life, has the threat of an evil queen's machinations, and moonlights as a private investigator.  There are other similarities between Anita and Merry, mainly physical build and the propensity to be the tough girl, but each series has me coming back for more.  I just want to find out what happens.

Kresley Cole -- Her series is called Immortals After Dark and is straight up paranormal romance.  The focus is a coven of valkyrie and a coven of witches who find their fated mates, werewolves, vampires, and a couple of demons.  I have no excuse for liking this series except that the characters are rather endearing and the mythology behind it is incredibly interesting.





Lindsay Sands -- Her Argeneau/Rogue Hunters series, more paranormal romance, is about a family of immortals (vampires) who are all finding "lifemates."  Her take on the vampire myth is one of the most original I have read: immortals are survivors from the fall of Atlantis who had "microbes" introduced into their blood stream to repair any injury and cure any disease and their fuel is blood, but the microbes work too well as the body is constantly sustaining damage (i.e. the sun).  The immortals need to ingest blood so their bodies evolved fangs; in the modern world they drink bagged blood.  Hilarity ensues as the "lifemates" are usually mortals who only know the traditional "damned, soulless creature of the night" myth.  Also the titles are great, Vampire Interrupted and A Bite to Remember are two of the better ones.

Charlaine Harris --She writes the Sookie Stackhouse series, the basis of the HBO series True Blood. My roommates began watching the first season and I got hooked, so I did the English major thing and read the books.  There are quite a few differences between the book and TV series, mainly that Tara, Eggs, Andy Bellefleur, and Lafayette are not main characters.  The books are a lot more humorous, especially Eric.

Jim Butcher -- He is the author of The Dresden Files, which feature the Chicago's only wizard in the yellow pages, Harry Dresden.  Harry looks like a bit of a ne'er-do-well, but is a great guy who fights on the side of good and makes the tough decisions. My favorite battle is when he necromances Sue the T-Rex to life and rides her into battle.  The last books, Changes, ended with a huge cliff hanger and I still cannot wait for the next book to come out in March, ironically on my birthday!  His wife Shannon is also a paranormal author, but her series is a romance.

Patricia Briggs -- Her Mercy Thompson Series is based in the Tri-Cities of Washington state and focuses on Mercy Thompson, a coyote shape-shifter who was raised by the leader of all American werewolves and falls for the local alpha.  Mercy is a smart-alec mechanic who can talk to the dead and gets in trouble with the fae. The series is well-written and and smart with a sexy alpha too boot.

Kim Harrison -- She writes the The Hollows series about Rachel Morgan, a witch turned private investigator who lives with a vampire, not yet turned soulless. I like her spin that the paranormals have always been living with us, but didn't come out of the coffin, so to speak, until a virus in tomatoes killed off the majority of the human population.  There are also so cute titles; my favorite being The Good, the Bad, and the Undead. I am quite a few books behind in th series; there was a big gap between the books coming out and I couldn't get back into the swing of the plot.

Angela Knight -- Her Mageverse series is the other incredibly original take on the vampire myth, mixing the paranormal with Arthurian legend.  Merlin was an alien that turned the round table and their ladies into vampires and witches respectively.  He also created werewolves as a check for the Magi, as the vamps and witches are properly called.  This series teeters on the line between romance and adventure, but definitely leans more toward steamy romance.




These are by no means a comprehensive list, but they are the ones I have read.  I really need to branch out; I've heard P.N. Elrod is good, and here is a list from GoodReads that I have to look into.

Related articles

• Fiction Affliction: Diagnosing November Releases in Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Romance (tor.com)
• Ghoulish pleasures (boston.com)

Tales as Old as Time

I just finished Mercedes Lackey's The Sleeping Beauty (I know, I know, it wasn't on the summer reading list, but there was a lot of flexibility in that list and I have been pretty steadily working at it as I have finished the Dresden Files). It was good, but about the same as the other books in the Five Hundred Kingdoms series, which is not up to the standard of the Valdemar universe or even her Elemental Masters series (I highly recommend both).

The basis of the Five Hundred Kingdoms is that there are all these, well, kingdoms that are guided by this omnipresent and unintelligent force, the Tradition, that seeks out people whose lives closely resemble a fairy tale, saga, or myth and force events to replay that same story over and over again.  So if you have a deceased father, a stepmother, and two stepsisters who are ugly in some way, you turn into Cinderella (the basis of The Fairy Godmother, the first book in the series).  However that is not always the case because what is the Prince Cinderella is supposed to fall in love with is two years old, or eighty-five years old? Then there is all this Traditional magic that builds up around the almost-Cinderella that could be used for good or evil.  This is where the Fairy Godmother comes in, an individual who guides (read 'manipulates') the Tradition to a non-evil ending.  Basically, the book is full of allusions to tales - Grimm's, Anderson, and the Greek and Norse myths.  It's a creative way to deal with the fact that "there is no such thing as a wholly original work of literature," (Foster 29).

If you didn't follow the last link, the book I am referring to is Thomas Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor, which is actually a really good and fairly easy read about how to pick apart some of the inner workings of books.  Anyhoo, Chapter 5: Now, Where Have I Seen That Before? examines the intertextuality of literature, whether it be from direct references, allusions, or reworking stories.  Though I don't completely agree with his "big secret" that "there's only one story" (Foster 32), because that seems a little simplistic and too broad, the the idea that stories build upon one another and are constantly referring to each other is completely wrapped up in fairy and folk tales.  I mean think about it, how many versions of Cinderella have you seen or read? I estimate at least 20, but that seems low because, in essence, most chick-flicks play on that theme.  There is just this fascination with happily-ever-after that never seems to leave us from our first introduction through the safety of the Disney-ified versions of the stories to the humorous modern interpretations to the dark and dangerous "originals."

Here are some of my favorite re-tellings, fairy tales and other wise:

• Bill Willingham's Fables series -- They're graphic novels that put all of your favorite characters in a modern setting, complete with inter-dimensional travel, epic battles, and sex.  Great storytelling and concept. Rated PG-13 for language, images, and sexuality. See my earlier rave post on this very subject.
• Mercedes Lackey's Five Hundred Kingdoms series -- Again, not up to her usual standard, but these romances have a great concept and they are entertaining.  I also like the fact that she features different traditions of tales in each of the books.  Start with The Fairy Godmother.  Rated PG to PG-13, depending on the book for mild sexuality.
• Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series -- This universe is set in Victorian era Britain for the most part and combines the basic plot of fairy tales with elemental magicians.  They are less simplistic and a little darker than 500 Kingdoms; my favorites are Pheonix and Ashes and The Serpent's Shadow.  Rated PG-13 for mild sexuality, violence, and mature themes.
• Anything by Robin McKinley --  She writes mostly for young adults and has a feminist twist (rated PG). My favorite is Beauty.  The only adult story I've read of hers is Deerskin and it was okay.  Definitely check out her original fiction as well, The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword. 
• Politically Correct Bedtime Stories and Once Upon a More Enlightened Time by James Finn Garner -- Humorous, modern re-tellings of all your favorites.  It's been awhile since I read them, but I think I would rate them PG-13 for some mature material.
• D.J. MacHale's Pendragon Series -- It's an older children to young adult series of a modern-day hero of the Arthurian legend.  Great story-telling.  Rated PG for some heavy action. I haven't finished the series, so shh! Don't tell me what happens.

Some other popular fairy tale re-fashioners include Gail Carson Levine of Ella Enchanted fame (G), Gregory Maguire of Wicked fame (definitely R) and Angela Carter (R), but really almost all writers pull on these various traditions and you can find fairy tales tailored to almost any philosophy from feminism to Marxism to Nazism (I kid you not, the Nazi party re-wrote Grimms tales to better reflect Arians and put down Jews). 

The possibilities are endless and I love seeing what has bee added to the literary tradition. I can't wait to read more fairy tales and add a little magic to my life.

Summer Reading List

The beginning of summer: a time for freedom from homework and academic pressures. But about two or three weeks in I start getting bored, even though I will be working almost 40 hours a week.  This summer I am being proactive about what to do in my free time, so I am planning out what to read.

1. Beginning the list is Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files.  My friend Emily has been hounding me to read this series, and I am intrigued.  The premise is that Harry Dresden is a modern day private investigator/wizard and he fights all sorts of bad guys.  I've read the first book Storm Front, and was not impressed.  But Emily assures me that they get better after the first three (there are 12), so I remain hopeful, plus I read his Alera Codex and was blown away. 

2. Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy.  It's a crime series and I don't know anything more about it, except for the fact that they always pop up on Amazon as suggested reading and the titles are intriguing.

3. Devil in the White City by Eric Larson. My mom has been trying to get me to read this book for a while.  It's about the architect of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago 1893 and a series of murders that occurred at the same time.

4. Kathy Reich's series about Temperance Brennan.  Ever since I found out that Bones is based on a book series, I have wanted to read it.

5. 1984 by George Orwell.  I read Animal Farm and liked it and have had tons of people tell me to read it.  So I am.

6. Possession by A.S. Byatt.  Two of the Ellens took an class on A.S. Byatt and Margaret Drabble; they couldn't stop talking about it.

7. I took a comparative world literature class and had to read Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. It was an awesome book and I want to read more by him.

8. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.  I first heard about the book when it was alluded to in The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.  Setterfield was less than impressive, but Collins sounded interesting, so the next time my friend Renae and I were at Barnes & Noble we both picked up the book and said we would both read it.  Well that didn't go as planned, but now she's started to read it and loves it so far.  Now I have to catch up. 

That's the list of what I definitely want to read.  I will of course read other books, most likely trashy romance novels and snack lit, but the above list WILL be read this summer.

Celebrate Banned Books Week! (Sept. 26 - Oct. 3)

According to the ALA (American Library Association), "Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States." Basically it is a week celebrating all of those books that push the envelope, discuss controversial subjects, or are deemed immoral in some way shape or form. This definition covers a lot of books, and many that are considered as "classics" now and even the Bible and the Qur'an. This is totally awesome!

I've tried finding a complete list of all banned, censored, or challenged books, but none fo the lists I've seen match up completely. Here are a few links: Wikipedia, banned-books.com, Alder & Robin Books. I wonder how Boston is celebrating and if Salman Rushdie is doing okay?

For my own personal celebration I am going to read a banned book. I'm not entirely sure which one, but I'm leaning toward re-reading A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.

People- Go out and celebrate your freedom of speech and thank God that you live in an open-minded society! And check out this blog post.