Fforde-a-Thon Book 6 and Wrap-Up: One of Our Thursdays is Missing

And that's it for my Fforde-a-Thon (which turned into Fforde August). It took about two weeks longer than I thought it would but it led up to a wonderful ending. One of Our Thursdays is Missing is interesting and funny and smart and absolutely one of the best of the series, even considering the real Thursday Next is only in it for a couple of sentences at the end. If you're a fan of this series, you've got to get to this sixth book. Once you're done, I don't think you'll ever read a book the same way again.

Thanks to everyone who commented throughout the month on your own love of this series (especially Tracy and Karen) and the many strange thoughts it spawns and thanks to Tif for finally giving The Eyre Affair a read. I can't wait to see your thoughts on it! And, of course, a million thanks to Jasper Fforde and his endless imagination. To write books that stand up to as many re-reads as I've given some of the books in this series and to have them still offer up something new each time is quite astounding.

Totally stuck on what to read next that isn't Thursday Next,
K

Heyer in the Summer: Detection Unlimited

Visit Stiletto Storytime today to read our review of Georgette Heyer's Detection Unlimited as part of Courtney's "Georgette Heyer Gems of August" series!

Shooting first, asking later,
K

Fforde-a-Thon Book 5: Thursday Next in First Among Sequels

Thursday Next in First Among Sequels is easily my least favorite in the series. It feels "phoned in" in a way. There's a lot of recapping and repeating that becomes even more evident while reading the books all in a row. The plot doesn't even pick up until the middle of the novel. Luckily, the start of the sixth book is quite good so far so it seems that Fforde will redeem himself in One of Our Thursdays is Missing.

First Among Sequels focuses on Thursday's interactions with two of her fictional selves -- one that was "unauthorized" and is super violent and slutty and then the one she has written to correct that but who turns out to be a bit too new agey and meek.


If someone wrote a fictional account of your life, what traits would they exaggerate to draw in readers? I'm not sure I want to answer this question myself! I hope the author would decide to take me from average honors student to super genius. Maybe my time cleaning fish tanks at the Seattle Aquarium could be turned into an awesome, death-defying animal rescue plot line. I just wouldn't want my introvertedness magnified into full-blown agoraphobia or something!

Off to find a missing Thursday,
K

Fforde-a-Thon Book 4: Something Rotten

In the next book in the Thursday Next series, Something Rotten, Thursday returns to the real world after spending almost three years in the BookWorld. One of the things she has to do when she gets back is track down a Shakespeare clone (which she didn't previously know existed) who can help reverse the merging of Hamlet and The Merry Wives of Windsor into The Merry Wives of Elsinore before the plays become irretrievably intertwined.

If cloning of historical figures were possible, who would you hope would be copied? Or is cloning humans something that should never happen? Would the world be better off with a couple hundred Mother Teresas back on the job? Should we clone a few John Adamses to straighten out politics again? Could we ever have too many Cary Grants?

Considering the options (just in case),
K

Fforde-a-Thon Book 3: The Well of Lost Plots

In the third Thursday Next book, The Well of Lost Plots, Thursday has to move into a novel to hide from the nefarious Goliath Corporation. She ends up in Caversham Heights, a novel that was abandoned. She gets to live on an old converted house-plane. Her bedroom is in the nose of the plane and she falls asleep each night to the gentle rocking of the house.

Thursday was put into this novel because it wouldn't ever be read so it didn't matter so much if she did things out of the normal narrative flow. But wouldn't it be much more fun to get to choose a published novel to live in? Which novel would you choose to settle down in for a year or two? You might be filling in for an established character while they go on vacation (you would have to deliver their lines and live in their home) or you might just be hiding out in the backstory. I would consider choosing to be Martha, the maid in The Secret Garden who invites her brother Dickon to play with the unfortunate Mary. Or I might spend some time as Trillian (a.k.a. Tricia McMillan) in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, traveling the stars in a unique ship. Or maybe I would just settle in as Madame Rosmerta, spending my time serving butterbeers in The Three Broomsticks to the youngsters from Hogwarts.

Daydreaming about impossible travel,
K

Fforde-a-Thon Book 2: Lost in a Good Book

Lost in a Good Book steps up the word play and silliness of this series but there's one idea that gets me thinking every time.

It was time to go and visit the closest thing to the Delphic Oracle I would ever know: Granny Next.
...
"Do you want to know a secret, young Thursday?" she asked ... "I am cursed to eternal life!"
...
"I got mixed up with some oddness in my youth, and the long and short of it is that I can't shuffle off this mortal coil until I have read the ten most boring classics."
I looked into her bright eyes. She wasn't kidding.
"How far have you got?" I replied ...
"Well, that's the trouble, isn't it?" she replied ... "I read what I think is the dullest book on God's own earth, finish the last page, go to sleep with a smile on my face and wake up the following morning feeling better than ever!"
"Have you tried Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene?" I asked "Six volumes of boring Spenserian stanza, the only saving grace of which is that he didn't write the twelve volumes he had planned."
"Read them all," replied Gran. "And his other poems, too, just in case." (page 134-135)

..."can you think of any books that might be included in the 'ten most boring classics'? I'm about ready to go."
"Gran!"
"Indulge me, young Thursday!"
I sighed.
"How about Paradise Lost?"
Gran let out a groan.
"Awful! I could hardly walk for a week afterwards--it's enough to put anyone off religion for good!"
"Ivanhoe?"
"Pretty dull but redeemable in places. It isn't in the top ten, I think."
"Moby Dick?"
"Excitement and action interspersed with mind-numbing dullness. Read it twice."
"A la recherche du temps perdu?"
"English or French, its sheer tediousness is undiminished."
"Pamela?"
Ah! Now you're talking. Struggled through that when a teenager. It might have had resonance in 1741, but today the only resonance it possesses is the snores that emanate from those deluded enough to attempt it."
"How about A Pilgrim's Progress?"
But Gran's attention had wandered. (page 234-235)

So, what books would you try if you were trying to identify the "ten most boring classics"? Or have you read one already that you're sure should be on the list? I know many of you would choose Dickens but I have yet to read one of his novels that I would put on the list. Maybe I've just avoided the boring ones so far! I think I probably would try Don Quixote -- I wasn't able to get through that one when I tried it last. The Grapes of Wrath would be on my list as well. 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas is redeemed by a few interesting scenes but the majority of that one gets the big BORING stamp on it. And oh, to have my lifespan determined by which books I chose to read ...

Falling into The Well of Lost Plots,
K

Heyer in the Summer: Sylvester or The Wicked Uncle

Visit Stiletto Storytime today to read our review of Georgette Heyer's Sylvester or the Wicked Uncle as part of Courtney's "Georgette Heyer Gems of August" series!

Believing the best,

K

I'm Starting a Book Club! (But Not For You)

For the last couple of years, I've volunteered at the library at Z's school. It's a great way for me to spend time with the kids, help the incredibly overworked librarian and to hopefully steer a few students toward books they might love. It's even helping me decide whether to head back to school to get my MLIS or not. But this year, I have decided to step up and do more to promote reading at the school -- I'm reviving the PTA-sponsored Book Club!

My first decision was to make it available to students of all grades so, instead of choosing single books to read together, I've decided that we will read on a topic each time. I will publicize the topic and post a list of book suggestions and kids can choose their books on- or off-list. The younger kids can also be read to if they aren't ready for chapter books yet.

I've decided to start slowly and see how things go with just three meetings throughout the year. So, the next thing for me to do is something I'm hoping you want to help me with. I have decided the three topics -TIME -TRAVEL, ANIMALS and FOREIGN LANDS (anything with a mostly non-U.S. setting, real or imaginary)-- and need to start some book lists! I'm looking for books that span a range of genres and will appeal to both boys and girls (obviously). This will be a K-6 group but we also have an Elementary Advanced program at the school so the lists could include anything through younger-level YA books.

Can you help me out? Please leave a comment with a couple of book suggestions that fit under any of the three topics. I'll start the lists here with some of my favorites and update them with your suggestions. I would also appreciate any input if you have run an elementary school book club before.

Sharing the list making fun,
K


TIME TRAVEL
The Time Quake Trilogy by Linda Buckley-Archer (The Time Travelers, The Time Thief, The Time Quake)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Time at the Top by Edward Ormondroyd

ANIMALS
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
Bunnicula by James Howe
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell
The Giraffe and The Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl
Flight of the Phoenix (Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist, Book 1) by R.L. LaFevers

FOREIGN LANDS
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
The BFG by Roald Dahl
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Bloomability by Sharon Creech

Fforde-a-Thon Book 1: The Eyre Affair

Ten Things I Love About The Eyre Affair

1. The breeding of extinct animals as pets.

"I ... took Pickwick for a waddle in the park. I let him off the leash and he chased a few pigeons before fraternizing with some feral dodos who were cooling their feet in the pond. They splashed excitedly and made quiet  plock plock noises to one another until it was time to go home."

2. A world where there are still airships.

"I took a small twenty-seater airship to Swindon. It was only half-full and a brisk tailwind allowed us to make good time. The train would have been cheaper, but like many people I love to fly by gasbag."

3. Officer Spike Stoker

"--SpecOps-17: Vampire and Werewolf Disposal Operations. Suckers and biters, they call us. ... By way of explanation he tapped a mallet and stake that were clipped to the mesh partition."

4. The Global Standard Deity

"'Does the GSD encourage such blatant personal attacks?' I asked.
Joffy shrugged.
'Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't,' he answered. 'That's the beauty of the Global Standard Deity--it's whatever you want it to be. And besides, you're family so it doesn't count.'"

5. Landen Parke-Laine

"His voice sounded the same. The warmth and sensitivity I had once known were still there. ... He had gone slightly gray but he wore his hair in much the same manner. There were slight wrinkles around his eyes, but they might just as easily have been from laughing as from age."

6.Translating carbon paper

"'We'll start with a plain piece of paper, then put in a Spanish carbon, a second slip of paper ... then a Polish carbon, more paper, German and another sheet and then finally French and the last sheet ... there.' ...
'Write something on the first sheet. Anything you want.'
'Anything?'
Mycroft nodded so I wrote: Have you seen my dodo?
'Now what?'
Mycroft looked triumphant.
'Have a look, dear girl.'
I lifted off the top carbon and there, written in my own handwriting, were the words: ¿Ha visto mi dodo? 'But that's amazing!'"

7. SO-27 Operative Bowden Cable

"He led me around one of the desks to where Bowden was sitting bolt upright, his jacket carefully folded across the back of his chair and his desk so neat as to be positively obscene."

8. Mycroft Next

"It certainly looked impressive, but not all Mycroft's devices had a usefulness mutually compatible with their looks. In the early seventies he had developed an extraordinarily beautiful machine that did nothing more exciting than predict with staggering accuracy the number of pips in an unopened orange."

9. Mr. Edward Fairfax Rochester!

"He silenced the dog with a shout and then stopped to feel his leg; it was obvious that he had hurt it quite badly. I felt sure that a man of such dour demeanor must surely be very angry with me, yet when he espied me again, he smiled kindly and gave me a broad wink, placing a finger to his lips to ensure my silence. I smiled back, and the rider turned to face the young woman, his brow furrowing once more into a grimace as he fell back into character."

 10. Thursday Next (of course)

"I opened the drawer of my desk and pulled out a small mirror. A woman with somewhat ordinary features stared back at me. Her hair was a plain mousy color and of medium length, tied up rather hastily in a ponytail at the back. She had no cheekbones to speak of and her face, I noticed, had just started to show some rather obvious lines."

What is your favorite thing about The Eyre Affair? Have I convinced you yet to give this book a try? (If you've read it recently, leave a link to your post about the book!)

Taking refuge in a Good Book,
K


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