Friday, January 30, 2009

Poe Fridays: Annabel Lee

This week's Poe Friday is another poem, "Annabel Lee". And because it is one of my favorite Poe works, here it is in its entirety.

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea:
But we loved with a love that was more than love -
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me -
Yes! - that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud one night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we -
Of many far wiser than we -
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling -my darling -my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.


The first thing that drew me to this poem was of course the mellifluous name Annabel Lee. The repetition of the name reinforces the poet's obsession with this single person. This is a tale of pure love, begun in childhood and continued past death. It is a complete lifetime told in a few stanzas.

This poem also addresses something that I mentioned last week, which is Poe's strongly held belief that there was an outside source to all of his problems. In this case, the lovers are torn apart by heaven and earth. But though this poem is essentially a tragic one, it has some of the most beautiful verse:
"But we loved with a love that was more than love ..."
"For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams ..."

Next week, will be the first tale of Poe Fridays, The Tell-Tale Heart. While most people generally know the plot, I doubt many have read the actual story.

Loving the obsession with love,
K

Thursday, January 29, 2009

"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife."

Let me add to the community chorus my congratulations to Neil Gaiman and The Graveyard Book for winning this year's Newbery Medal -- the premier American children's fiction award. When I read the news the other day, I finished up the book I was reading and picked up this one. I had waited long enough and I needed to read it.

This is a coming of age story that just happens to have an unconventional setting -- a graveyard. Life is not always happy for young Bod Owens (short for Nobody) but the point is that he should still be glad that it is life. Though he is raised by adoptive ghost parents, taught by a werewolf and his guardian is a vampire, he must discover and embrace his humanity. Obviously, from the first sentence forward, this book trusts children with topics that are often hidden from them -- fear, loss and death. Gaiman does a fantastic job in his gentle presentation of these "scary" subjects without losing any of the bite of the narrative. This is a unique tale in that it's not essentially a happy story or a sad story, it's just a story -- a damn fine story.

Working through the ups and the bumps,
K


Buy The Graveyard Book on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

1000 More Books to Make You Feel Inadequate in Your Reading Habits

A compilation of The Guardian's 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read list is making its rounds. Rather than posting the full list of 1000 books here, I am going to simply post the ones I have read and the ones I am currently planning on reading. Head over to The Guardian and check out their well-formed lists.

Comedy

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes -- on my shelves
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens -- plan on reading
Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens -- plan on reading
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons -- plan on reading
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh -- plan on reading

I feel like a comedy category without Douglas Adams or Jasper Fforde is lacking the very silliest of funny bones. I would also want to see Good Omens on the list.


Crime

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary E Braddon
The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan -- plan on reading
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
A Rich Full Death by Michael Dibdin
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky -- plan on reading
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Crime of Father Amado by José Maria de Eça de Queiroz -- plan on reading
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett -- plan on reading
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
Kim by Rudyard Kipling -- plan on reading
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Dissolution by CJ Sansom
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey

Obviously a category that I get a lot of mileage out of. There were many authors on the list that I may read in the future but hadn't heard of the specific title they were mentioning -- which is not surprising with so many large series.


Family and Self

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Professor's House by Willa Cather -- plan on reading
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Howards End by EM Forster -- plan on reading
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Ulysses by James Joyce -- on my shelves
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence
The Shipping News by E Annie Proulx
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger -- plan on reading
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington -- plan on reading
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss -- plan on reading

I read more in this category than I would have thought. There were still many books in the category that I noticed that are on my "will never read" list.


Love

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen -- plan on reading
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen -- on my shelves
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Emma by Jane Austen -- plan on reading
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Vilette by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Possession by AS Byatt -- plan on reading
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote -- plan on reading
My Antonia by Willa Cather
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier -- on my shelves
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot -- on my shelves
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
A Room with a View by EM Forster -- plan on reading
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
The Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer -- plan on reading
Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer -- plan on reading
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James -- plan on reading
The Wings of the Dove by Henry James -- plan on reading
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Delta of Venus by Anais Nin
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak -- on my shelves
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith -- plan on reading
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy -- plan on reading

Most of the Love books I have read are classics. I wonder what that says about me.


Science Fiction and Fantasy

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon -- plan on reading
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
American Gods by Neil Gaiman -- plan on reading
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne -- plan on reading
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro -- plan on reading
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson -- plan on reading
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James -- on my shelves
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Uncle Silas by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu -- plan on reading
The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
The Monk by Matthew Lewis -- plan on reading
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
The Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett -- considering reading
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe -- plan on reading
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling
Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
The Time Machine by HG Wells

I know. I'm a nerd.


State of the Nation

Shirley by Charlotte Bronte -- considering reading
Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe -- considering reading
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens -- plan on reading
Hard Times by Charles Dickens -- plan on reading
Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens -- plan on reading
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens -- plan on reading
Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky -- plan on reading
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky -- plan on reading
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Silas Marner by George Eliot -- plan on reading
A Passage to India by EM Forster -- plan on reading
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell -- plan on reading
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell -- plan on reading
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo -- plan on reading
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry -- considering reading
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Shame by Salman Rushdie -- plan on reading
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray -- plan on reading
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton -- plan on reading

I think these are the books that I know I should read and I will slowly get to them but they aren't the ones I am choosing first.


War and Travel

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas -- plan on reading
The African Queen by CS Forester -- plan on reading
King Solomon's Mines by H Rider Haggard -- plan on reading
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolp Erich Raspe -- plan on reading
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy -- plan on reading
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne -- plan on reading
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne -- plan on reading
Candide by Voltaire
Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut

A very short category for me because I really don't read books on War so I'm only left with Travel.

If my count is correct, I've read 99 of the 1000 books so I'm ten percent there. Go check out Danielle and Sassymonkey's lists.

Possibly a 90 percent slacker,
K

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

"On a bright September morning, when most children his age were in school ..., a boy named Reynie Muldoon was walking down a dusty road."

Last October, I read the first book in the Mysterious Benedict Society series by Trenton Lee Stewart. After a long wait on the library list, I finally got the chance to read the second book, The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Perilous Journey. This book was just as fun as the first but more well-balanced.

This story picks up one year after the end of the first book. Reynie, Sticky, Kate and Constance reunite to go on a special mission that Mr. Benedict has set up for them. Unfortunately, Mr. Benedict gets kidnapped and the kids' journey turns into a rescue mission instead. Their journey includes boat, train and air travel and quite a few chases and ambushes. They get to travel and solve clues but must never let down their guard.

Just as in the first book, the kids are imperfect but willing and able to learn and improve themselves. They are very smart and talented but also have flaws. But they learn that their flaws can also be strengths. This was a great adventure and I can't wait until Z is a bit older and can read these books. He sat down for a few minutes with me this time and read a couple of pages. He especially loved the name "Sticky".

Waiting impatiently for the next Society meeting,
K


Buy The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Book v. Movie: By the Pricking of My Thumbs

Agatha Christie's shortest series is the five book Tommy and Tuppence series. The fourth book is By the Pricking of My Thumbs, when Tommy and Tuppence are nearing retirement age. I had this book sitting on my TBR shelf and then I happened to see a tv movie version was showing on CBC. I recorded the movie and read the book first. I wish I had stopped there.

In the book, Tommy and Tuppence go to visit Tommy's elderly aunt in a rest home and Tuppence ends up talking to a batty old woman who talks about a dead child in the fireplace. They leave without a second thought but when Tommy's aunt dies a few weeks later and they have to return to the rest home, Tuppence decides to follow up with a nagging feeling about the old woman. When they find out the woman has been moved out of the home, Tuppence becomes suspicious and sets off on an adventure to locate the missing woman. This book was enjoyable, especially as Christie does a great job of writing bright and capable older characters.

Then I turned on the movie. The first obvious difference was the fact that they had somehow turned the story into a Marple script. I wondered how they would accomplish this. Apparently the only way they could manage it was to turn Tuppence from a strong, bright and adventurous woman into a simpering, alcoholic nag. Instead of showcasing Tommy and Tuppence's loving and fresh relationship, the movie version decided that they should be all but estranged. This was such a ridiculously bad mangling of this story.

Book versus Movie Verdict: Read the book, skip the movie.

Hoping to be the brilliant sort of retiree,
K


Buy By The Pricking Of My Thumbs on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Eric Carle's Fables

Another of Z's Christmas gifts was the very attractive The Rabbit and the Turtle by Eric Carle. This book retells eleven of Aesop's fables with a single page of story and an accompanying page of illustration. At the end of each story is the moral.

This is an easily accessible version of Aesop's Fables for preschoolers and older children. My favorite fable is "The Fox and The Crow". The crow is eating and not sharing and Mrs. Fox and her son use the crow's vanity to get him to drop the food. The moral -- Common sense is greater than beauty. Z's favorite fable is "The Lion and the Mouse". The lion spares the mouse's life and later is able to repay the favor when the lion is robbed and tied to a tree. The moral of this fable -- Friends come in all sizes and shapes.

Eric Carle will turn 80 on June 25th of this year.

Sharing tales of friendship and cunning,
K and Z


Buy The Rabbit And The Turtle on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Poe Fridays: A Dream Within A Dream

Since the inaugural Poe Friday begins with a short poem, "A Dream Within A Dream", here's the entire text:

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow --
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream:
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand --
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep -- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?


One of my favorite aspects of Poe's writing is the melodrama. He is apparently the most forlorn man ever to have lived! "O God! can I not save One from the pitiless wave?" Poe's life was troubled but much of it was of his own doing. Yet he always blamed outside forces for his problems -- a vindictive editor, an unfriendly creditor, his cold-hearted step-father. I think if he had not died young, he would have been sorely disappointed!

For next week, I'll keep it simple with another poem -- "Annabel Lee".

Until next Poe Friday ... if the dream that is our lives hasn't ended by then,
K

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Early Review: Drood

When I was offered the chance to read a novel starring two of my favorite authors as the main characters, Wilkie Collins (as narrator) and Charles Dickens, I jumped at the chance. Drood, written by Dan Simmons, is a psychological thriller based in Victorian London. Charles Dickens is in a life-changing train accident -- perhaps too life-changing. Has he become part of a dark underworld of drug addicts, murderers and mind-controlled minions? His friend Wilkie Collins follows him to the lowest depths to find the answers.

Simmons obviously did copious amounts of research and he has possibly included every biographical fact about Dickens and Collins that is available. He has written a very tangible portrait of London, especially its seamy underbelly, in the late 19th century. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book as I thought I would. Many of the highly positive reviews I have read of the novel mention that the reader hasn't read much or any of Dickens or Collins books. I, on the other hand, have read many of their stories and I just didn't find the writing convincing as the work of a 19th century novelist, especially Collins, whose style I am very familiar with. The writing isn't bad, it just isn't this particular novelist's voice.

I also disliked the way that Dickens and Collins were portrayed. I have read books where some of my literary heroes, both fictional (Sherlock Holmes) and non-fictional (Edgar Allan Poe), have been turned into villains but they were still always written as true to character. This book takes liberties with the character and habits of these men to a degree that I was uncomfortable with. I worry that this book could give people false impressions of these men and their works.

I did enjoy the way that Simmons incorporated novels such as Bleak House and The Moonstone into the book. There were some interesting insights into the books and the process of writing a serialized novel. I also appreciated the emphasis on some of the social issues of the time -- the same issues that Dickens himself wrote about -- especially poverty.

This was a unique story but I think that some parts were just a bit too far-fetched and violent and the ending seemed rushed. After over 750 pages, I would have appreciated a bit more closure. If you haven't read any books by Charles Dickens or Wilkie Collins and are interested in them, go pick up a nice Oxford edition and read the biographical information at the beginning. If you want a Victorian thriller and don't mind if the characters are true-to-life, this book is for the most part entertaining. Drood is available on February 9th.

Avoiding the seamy side of town,
K


Buy Drood: A Novel on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Beedle-mania

I wasn't going to buy J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard for myself. I am a fan of the Harry Potter books but I didn't think I needed to read this one. I bought it for my mom for Christmas and what did I get from her in return -- the same present! Now, after I have had a chance to read these five tales, I'm glad that I have a copy of this book.

The fifth tale, "The Tale of the Three Brothers", is featured in the seventh Harry Potter book so I was familiar with that one but the other four were enjoyable as well. We read about a selfish wizard who finds a reason to help others, a trio of witches and a knight who are able to help each other in ways that they can't help themselves, a warlock who gives up his heart and sadly finds he is too late to ever retrieve it, a crafty witch who saves her kind and three brothers who deal with the Devil and find him a formidable foe. The stories are all short but packed with meaning. The commentary after each tale by Albus Dumbledore is quite amusing and informative and it makes me want to go back and read the books again because I realized that I miss Dumbledore!

And if you need another reason to purchase this book, all profits go to the Children's High Level Group charity which seeks to disband large institutions for orphans and invalid children in poor nations and to get them into more loving group, foster and adoptive homes.

Chasing the tales,
K


Buy The Tales of Beedle the Bard on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

New Weekly Post: Poe Fridays


I'm sure that everyone has heard of "Poetry Fridays" but have you heard of "Poe Fridays"? No? Well, welcome to Poe Fridays! In honor of Edgar Allan Poe's 200th birthday on January 19, I decided to set up a goal to read Poe weekly for at least the next year. Poe has 73 tales and a couple dozen poems so there is plenty of material to choose from. This isn't a challenge but more of an opportunity. Each Friday I will discuss a Poe short story or poem and post the title for the following week. You can either stop by to learn more about Poe's genius or you can read along and post your comments and/or links on each week's post. I think this year is a great time to turn more readers into Poe fans.

I've made a tacky little icon so feel free to grab it if you are totally into Poe Fridays!


We'll start short and easy and the poem for this week (January 23) is "A Dream Within A Dream". If you don't have your own copy of Poe's complete tales and poems (and why don't you!?!), you can read the entire works online at The Literature Network.

See you next Poe Friday,
K


Buy Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Read the Dream


In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, I am reading the August 1963 "I have a dream ..." speech today. Here is a link with the full transcribed text. We often hear and read clips from the speech but it is well worth reading the entire script.

"In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children."

Rejoicing in the "sunlit path",
K

Sunday, January 18, 2009

The Elephant Chronicles

One of Z's favorite books that he received at Christmas is Bonjour, Babar. This book contains the six original Babar books written by Jean de Brunhoff between 1933 and 1940 before his tragically young death at age thirty-seven (tuberculosis). They are The Story of Babar, The Travels of Babar, Babar the King, Babar and Zephir (which we enjoyed last year from the library), Babar and His Children and Babar and Father Christmas. This is a reproduction of the six books so they begin with the full title page and have the same layout of text and illustrations as the original books.

This edition also has an introduction by Kevin Henkes, who some of you know from Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and our recently reviewed Old Bear. He writes about his connection to Babar and how it influenced his journey into becoming a picture book author. This is a wonderful collection and a perfect gift for a growing child's library. Babar teaches responsibility, exploration and love.

Paying homage to the King of the Elephants,
K and Z


Buy Bonjour, Babar!: The Six Unabridged Classics by the Creator of Babar on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Books on Books

After finishing my post about People of the Book, I realized that I read quite a few books that are about books, booksellers and libraries. Here are a few of the ones worth checking out (pun intended) ...

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly -- An evil fairy tale world which houses a powerful book.
The Meaning of Night: A Confession by Michael Cox -- A childhood friendship goes bad with the theft of a book and turns even worse with the theft of a legacy.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde -- Thursday Next has the ability to travel into books and must save Rochester and Jane Eyre from a real world villain ... luckily this one is the first in a whole series of book travel novels.
The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte -- A fast-paced mystery about the ruthless worlds of book collecting and Satanism.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling -- A diary that writes back when you write in it and brainwashes Ginny Weasley into doing very bad things.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon -- A young man follows a trail of ashes and tears as he tries to discover who is burning all of Julian Carax's books.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield -- An older author invites a young author to her home and reveals her long held secrets to her in hopes of finding a sympathetic mind before the end of her life.
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester -- A non-fiction book about one of the main contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary, an asylum inmate.

Do you have any recommendations for books about books?

Obsessed with books,
K

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

"I might as well say, right from the jump: it wasn't my usual kind of job."

As I have mentioned before, I avoid reading books about topics that are blatantly sad or overly depressing. At the top of that list would obviously have to be the Holocaust. I have never had any desire to read about that period in time -- not because I am insensitive or uninterested but the opposite. I am too sensitive, I am too interested. My heart breaks and tears come to my eyes even to think of the smallest atrocity that happened during that terrible event. But since I inadvertently agreed to read a novel that not only included scenes during the Holocaust but also the Spanish Inquisition, I feel a new and strange sensation -- one of hope and triumph. I celebrate with this novel the simple fact that a group of people and this small book, so maligned and persecuted, survived.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks is a story that moves through time, beginning in 1996, shortly after the end of the Bosnian war, with a woman asked to restore the Sarajevo Haggadah -- a Jewish prayer book unique in that it contains illustrations and that it survived since the 1400s when it was created. As Hanna, the art specialist, discovers various clues to the history of the book, we are transported back in time to hear the imagined stories behind those clues. We also learn of the plight of the Jews in various times in history. Though we read about significant abuse and loss, we also read of the kindness of strangers, the strength of faith and a belief in a better future.

This book is based on the real life tale of this Haggadah -- a book rescued from certain destruction many times, presumably by Jews, Muslims and Christians. While Brooks has imagined the history of the book, the sense of exodus portrayed is very real. The book begins its journey in Spain, goes through Italy and on to Sarajevo -- with a stint in Vienna for restoration. I leave you with an illustration from this book and highly recommend that you read this amazing tale.

In awe of history,
K


Buy People of the Book: A Novel on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The Return of a Classic Kid Series

One of the things that both T and I remember fondly from our childhood days are the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Recently, when we were at Barnes & Noble, I noticed a brand-spanking new set of CYOA books on the shelves. Much to my surprise, I found that they have been re-released! There are the classic ones like The Abominable Snowman and Space and Beyond and new ones as well. The new spin on them is that they include not only the written ending choices but also have "secret" web content with additional endings.

If you aren't familiar with Choose Your Own Adventure, you start a story and get to a certain page and the narrative splits -- if you want A to happen, turn to page 7, or if you want B to happen, turn to page 22. This continues for a few steps before you reach an ending. These books add a lot of excitement for a kid who has trouble with standard books and also make for some pretty short stories for kids with short attention spans. They are also great as lessons in choice and consequence. But most of all, they are just fun -- after all, they have "adventure" in the series title.

Rejoicing in the choice,
K


Buy Choose Your Own Adventure books on CYOA.com or find them at your local library.

Monday, January 12, 2009

"'Skulls,' said Lady Lamorna."

When I first saw Presenting Lenore's review of The Robe of Skulls (I also read Creepers based on that same review), I immediately added it to my library list. I mean, do you see the cover? On the actual book jacket, the skulls are all silver. Neat! So, the libraries in our system just barely received their copies and I finally got to read this book. Vivian French is the author and, from the inside jacket sleeve, this is apparently the first in the "Tales from the Five Kingdoms" series. This book, though not a picture book, has a few illustrations by Ross Collins that are nothing short of fantastic.

Robe of Skulls is the simple story of girl hates step-father and step-sister, girl runs away with bat (the animal, not the wooden stick), step-sister takes chase but ends up teaming with sorceress, they kidnap princes and turn them into frogs, girl gets help from another prince to save the day. Pretty standard, right? This is a very interesting new world with magical creatures, talking animals, werewolves and witches, and lots of royalty. It started off a bit shakily but found its stride and was great little story. I would definitely pick up the next in the series when it comes out.

Also in search of piles of gold,
K


Buy The Robe of Skulls on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

"The intense interest aroused in the public by what was known at the time as 'The Styles Case' has now somewhat subsided."

Agatha Christie's first Hercule Poirot mystery was The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written in 1920. Not only are we introduced to Poirot but also to his friend and sometimes companion, Hastings, who acts as narrator of this story, and Inspector Japp, his Scotland Yard contact. This is a locked-room and poison murder mystery with a simple motive of inheritance. However, there is a large cast of characters each with their own secrets and missing alibis. I enjoyed the characters and didn't quite discover the solution although I saw past some of the dead ends that came up during the course of the story.

In reading this book, I was somewhat surprised to find how young Hastings actually was. In this first story he is only thirty. I always thought he was just slightly younger than Poirot himself based on how he is portrayed on television. Anyway, the best thing about Poirot stories is that you can read them in any order so go ahead and pick one up if you haven't before. Even though Agatha herself found Poirot insufferable, you will hopefully enjoy his wit and intelligence.

Avoiding all greedy hangers-on,
K


Buy The Mysterious Affair at Styles on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Friday, January 9, 2009

"It was dusk when the London to Little Hampton stage-coach lurched into the village ..."

The most recent Georgette Heyer book that I finished is the most exciting one by far. The Reluctant Widow is the story of Elinor Rochdale, a formerly wealthy young woman who has been reduced in circumstances and has to seek work as a governess. Thinking she is getting into the carriage of her new employer, she instead is accidentally taken by Lord Carlyon's carriage to the home of his cousin, Eustace Cheviot. Carlyon is looking for a woman to marry his repulsive cousin in order to prove that he has no designs on Cheviot's property. When Carlyon's youngest brother arrives at the house with the news that he has accidentally stabbed Cheviot and that their cousin is now on his deathbed, Carlyon convinces Elinor to be the token bride. Unfortunately, Cheviot was into more trouble than just the financial issues they knew of. He appears to have been consorting with French spies and now those spies have come to Elinor's new home, bringing trouble with them.

This is a fast-paced narrative with plenty of exciting dialogue. Carlyon's younger brother Nicky had me laughing out loud a few times. Carlyon's cool sarcasm brought to mind the line delivery perfected by Cary Grant in many of his roles. It was apparently made into a movie in 1950 but in the credits there are character names that don't exist in the book (including changing Elinor's name to Helena for some reason) so it was obviously not a faithful re-creation.

A review of that movie also mentions "quite a number of passionate love scenes" which most definitely do not exist in the book. In fact, its classification as a "romance" perplexes me as the only romantic part of the book is in the last four pages and solely consists of a proposal and a kiss (which you will know is coming pretty much from the start of the book). I fear that many readers would choose not to read this book if, like me, they have a prejudice against the romance category due to some lesser quality works in that genre.

Each Heyer book that I have read so far (False Colours, Simon the Coldheart and this one) is quite different from the others. She has an amazing imagination and a very wide array of characters. I'm sure she has written a book for almost any type of reader.

Wondering how I can inherit an estate,
K


Buy The Reluctant Widow on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

A Call for School Library Preservation

I'm sure everyone can agree that a love of reading most often begins when one is young. And this love of reading cannot be nurtured without the availability of books to all children. Not all parents can afford to keep a wide variety of books in the home so the most important resource to children are libraries. And the most important libraries for children are those that they can access five days a week -- those at school.

Lucy Coats of An Awfully Big Blog Adventure wrote today about the shocking loss of school libraries in England. I encourage you to go read her author's-view post and then to find out what the situation is in your own neighborhood schools. I know that our district has reduced staff in the libraries to just one librarian in the past couple years. As they reassigned school nurses to two schools instead of one this year, I can only imagine what they will do with librarians. I know that I will be active in trying to save this important educational resource for my kid and yours.

Acknowledging the worth of libraries,
K

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Lurker Alert!


Since it is National De-lurker Week in the blog world, I'm inviting anyone who reads this blog but hasn't ever commented to do so on this or any post. Let me know you're out there! You can even tell me if there's something I should read because I'm totally missing out.

Now I have to go and delurk myself on a few sites ...

Watching, always watching,
K

"London. Michaelmas Term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln's Inn Hall."

If any book title seemed designed to detract readers from approaching a book, I believe it would have to be Bleak House. Charles Dickens' first sentence doesn't offer much hope for an interesting book either. However, it turns out that Bleak House has some amazing characters, a mysterious plot and relatively little of Dickens' legendary long and tedious descriptions.

The main narrator of the story is Esther Summerson, an orphan who knows nothing of the circumstances of her birth or life before being placed with her current guardian. She is only told that her birth was a disgrace to her mother and herself. When this guardian dies, she gains the much more sympathetic and kind guardian, John Jarndyce, who also does not know anything of Esther's history. He also becomes guardian to two of his young cousins who are wards of the court -- Richard and Ada. Bleak House is the story of Esther's discovery of her true circumstances, Richard and Ada's love story, and many friendships and deeds, both good and bad.

The first two chapters of this book are difficult to get through but you become completely engaged in the story in the third chapter when Esther begins her narration. The most difficult (but rather essential) plot element of the story is a long-standing lawsuit over an inheritance called "Jarndyce and Jarndyce". It is this suit that holds up the futures of Richard and Ada as they wait in vain for an end to the litigation that has lasted generations. It is also this suit that causes John Jarndyce to take in his cousins and to try and break the suffocating hold that the suit has had over his family. Bleak House, the appellation of the Jarndyce home, is in fact a name that was established by a former Jarndyce who tried to resolve the court case but instead lost his hope and eventually took his own life over the futility of progressing anything through the courts of England.

As in all other Dickens stories, we receive his social commentary, discover kindness and dignity among the lower classes and shamefully bad behaviour by some who could afford to act better. I'm glad that I finally read this novel and would suggest it to anyone who enjoys Dickens and has a couple of weeks of free reading time.

Pondering the little kindnesses,
K


Buy Bleak House on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

A Quick Update

My new laptop power cable is showing up on Tuesday (UPS willing) so I will be back writing on Tuesday night. I'm on page 611 of 914 in Bleak House. You can expect a review this week! It's getting quite good despite Dickens' prolific prose.

Since I don't have new content, I suggest checking out these gals:

MotherReader has posted the final list of picture books nominated for Cybil awards.

Presenting Lenore is keeping track of her Waiting on Wednesday picks. I'm also waiting for The Angel Maker and Shades of Grey and will take a look at some of the other books on her list.

Thanks for sticking with us during this slow time,
K and Z