Heyer Month Wrap-Up: The Black Moth and Duplicate Death

I read The Black Moth this month along with Anastasia as part of her Georgette Heyer Month event. It was another of Heyer's fantastic romances, one part adventure, one part comedy of manners. There were plenty of likable characters, a dastardly duke, and a pair of shamefully bad characters that actually redeemed themselves by the end. This was a really fun read!

I also like to read a Heyer mystery or two a year, even though most of them have been somewhat awful (in a still readable way). She writes such horrid characters in her mysteries that you hope there's more than one murder to weed the patch a bit, so to speak, and there's usually a surprise romance at the end that nobody, not even the characters who fall in love, would have seen coming. But this one was a bit different in that the romance is there from page one, even if it's a bit tentative. There are still some extremely despicable characters but the return of a good Chief Inspector and a charming main character from a previous story (I said in my review of that book that I wished for a follow-up story with young Mr. Harte -- well, he's not as young anymore but Heyer must have loved him as well to bring him back!), makes for enough balance to make this one of her better mysteries.

Thank you to Anastasia for hosting this fun event and for getting two more Heyers off of my TBR shelf. Now there's room to buy a couple more!

Through love and death,
K

Wilkie in Winter: The Woman in White

I've had such a fun time rereading The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins for Wilkie in Winter. It was one of the first Victorian sensational novels that I read and since then it's become one of my favorite genres. I've been looking forward to a reread for many years but just never found the time (darn blogging!). But, with strong (and sometimes quite loathsome) characters, some crazy plot twists and even a compelling social message, this read has reminded me of why I need to make more time for classics.

Avoiding the man with the mice,
K

#DWJMarch is Coming Soon!

Put on your happy faces and dancing shoes ... it's almost time for Diana Wynne Jones March! Saturday is March 1st and the kickoff day for our third glorious year of celebrating the worlds and stories of this beloved author. Luckily (and sadly), part of the world now has her last novel to read. The rest of us will just have to make do with the wonderful books we already have.

I've decided that our main purpose this year is to simply spread the DWJ love and awareness far and wide so I've created a schedule for the month of features and prompts. I would love for everyone to participate as much as they would like on any social media site, including blogs, twitter, tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest. Just tag everything with #dwjmarch so we can find it! I've created a DWJMarch tagboard so that you can follow along with all of the hashtagged fun. There's also a new DWJ March tumblr which you can submit to and share from.

For the series/book highlights, I want to see mentions of the book, photos, summaries and thoughts. I've also designated one day a week as Fan Art Friday when you can share either your own fan art or pieces you've fallen in love with from other artists. I only ask that you link back to the original source and/or give the artist's name if it's not you.

March 19th will be Giveaway Day, when anyone who wants to can host a DWJ-related giveaway. Just come to my post on that day and leave a link or hashtag it.

I'm also hosting two read-alongs --
Enchanted Glass, with discussion on March 15 (so grab your copy now!) and
The Islands of Chaldea for those with a UK version of the book, with discussion on March 25. Hopefully my preordered copy arrives from Foyle's in time! If there's enough interest, we can have another read-along in April after the US release.

Here is the prompt/feature schedule by day:

1. Show Us Your Collection
2. Series Highlight: The Chronicles of Chrestomanci
3. Favorite Main Character
4. Book Highlight: Eight Days of Luke
5. Favorite Book Cover
6. Book Highlight: The Power of Three
7. Fan Art Friday
8. Book Highlight: The Time of the Ghost
9. Series Highlight: Howl's Moving Castle
10. Book Highlight: The Ogre Downstairs
11. Favorite Supporting Character
12. Book Highlight: Dogsbody
13. Book Highlight: A Tale of Time City
14. Fan Art Friday
15. Read-Along Discussion: Enchanted Glass
16. Series Highlight: Derk
17. Favorite World
18. Book Highlight: Archer's Goon
19. GIVEAWAY DAY!
20. Book Highlight: Fire and Hemlock
21. Fan Art Friday
22. Favorite Villain
23. Series Highlight: The Dalemark Quartet
24. Book Highlight: The Homeward Bounders
25. Early Reader Discussion: The Islands of Chaldea
26. Book Highlight: Black Maria (Aunt Maria)
27. Favorite Book/Series
28. Fan Art Friday
29. Book Highlight: The Game
30. Series Highlight: Deep Secret/The Merlin Conspiracy
31. Event Wrap-Up

Use the next few days to gather your books and get ready to read and reread, take some photos, write some posts and make some art to celebrate the brilliance of Diana Wynne Jones. I look forward to seeing what everyone does in March!

Counting down to the celebration,
K

Today at Estella Society: A Wrinkle in Time

Today on The Estella Society, I revisit Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, specifically Hope Larson's graphic novel version. Tesser over there and let me know your thoughts on this chapter book classic!

Traveling,
K

Tales of a Feather

The Emperor's Nightingale and Other Feathery Tales is a collection of avian poetry and stories, gathered and illustrated by Jane Ray. It's a gorgeously bright and (mostly) happy collection of morals and whimsy, from sources ranging from the Brothers Grimm to the Bible. While, of course, she must leave poetry as is, Ray retells the stories and fables at a clear and easy-reading elementary school level. It seems a bit strange to begin with a tragic tale (The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde) but she then moves through such a variety of emotions and time periods and experiences and locations that it demonstrates just how deeply birds are integrated into the stories and myths of all cultures, both in moments joyous and tragic. Birds can be friends, former lovers, saviors and fools. They are creatures of such variety that they lend themselves well as stand-ins for ourselves in almost every situation from the commonplace to the divine.

He was warm and comfortable, nestled among soft feathers and lulled to sleep by the hushing sound of the great creature's wings as they soared among the stars. -- The Firebird

It appears from the introduction that Ray intends to have other themed collections and I think these, starting with this one, would make beautiful library and gift books worthy of any library.

From wing to tale,
K

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.