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 First things first: I have been remiss in announcing the winner of Tea and Other Ayama Na Tales. The lucky winner is Claire, lucky commenter number 5 (but lucky entrant number 4), thanks to random.org. Claire, I will be emailing you shortly, but if you happen to see this post before I do, please send me an email. Thanks!
I just spent a somewhat interesting day in Leeds, a bigger city which is only a 20 minute train ride away. My initial purpose was to copy a couple of articles from a journal to which that university subscribes, but since I was paying train fare, I also decided to stop by the Royal Armouries Museum. I was disappointed that they weren’t holding a joust today since it’s “Wild West Week”, but otherwise I thought it was awesome. Keith preferred the modern guns, but I was all about the medieval armour. Who would have guessed?
Here’s a picture from the museum, full body 15th century armour:
 They also had a clever display where you could stick your head into a helmet and try to see what was going on in a virtual battle. It was nearly impossible; I can’t say I’d want to face someone with nearly all of my vision blocked!
As for reading, I’m about halfway into Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. For all that it isn’t as good as Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, I’m loving it. These days I feel that I love fewer and fewer books, although I like almost all that I read; maybe I just read too many of them these days and I’m learning to separate the wheat from the chaff a little better. With this book, however, I would have preferred knowing a bit less about the plot. I’m at the middle of the book and the last event that the back cover promised has just happened, albeit with a surprise in between. I try to give away as little as possible in my reviews and this is why; I dislike feeling impatient to get to a part I don’t expect. I’m now excited to see what happens next and hope to finish the book either later today or early tomorrow. Next up is Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler, a library book which is due back on Thursday, and then I’ve got to get to The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe.
I’m quite pleased with my reading since last Sunday. I completed:
- Atlas of Unknowns by Tania James
- The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
- Undead and Unwelcome by MaryJanice Davidson
- Starfinder by John Marco
- The Bridge of the Golden Horn by Emine Sevgi Ozdamar
- Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
- Warrior Daughter by Janet Paisley
As a result, my TBR mountain has dropped below 350. I’m very pleased with myself, although I’m going to a library sale on Friday and will probably undo all the good work I’ve done. Oh well. It’s worth it for a bag of books for £3.50.
This week, I reviewed:
All in all, a very good week! How is everyone else doing? Anything exciting planned for the week?
 Ever since she was nine years old and her father died, Josey Cirrini has been trying to make up for her awful childhood by essentially waiting on her mother hand and foot. Josey does not have a life outside of the house; she doesn’t have any friends and everyone remembers her for the devious deeds she performed as a small girl, like kicking shins and stealing chocolate cake, even though her family should be the foremost in the community. Her life changes when Della Lee appears in her closet, on the run from a destructive relationship and looking for a place to hide. Not only does Della Lee encourage Josey out of her shell, but she guides her to Chloe, who becomes Josey’s friend and who desperately needs a friend herself to help her through the discovery that her long-time boyfriend has cheated on her, and closer to Adam, the mailman on whom Josey has had a crush for the past three years.
There is almost too much sugar in this book for words. I liked it, but it’s very, very sweet and cute and it’s a book you really need to be in the mood for. Everyone gets what they want even when they don’t know they want it, except for the characters who are just bad and you know it. The best part was easily watching Josey come into her own and watching Adam fall for her (it’s obvious that he’s going to – just couldn’t happen any other way in this kind of book) since she’s been so stifled for so many years.
I enjoyed the little magic edge in this book, just like in Allen’s other book, Garden Spells. In this one, books follow Chloe around, and whenever she and her boyfriend kiss, water boils in the coffeepot, which I thought was cute. There are a couple of other magical happenings, but they are spoilery. There is also an appreciation for books in this. At one point, Chloe is viewing a house and discovers that there is a closet full of books. The owner tells her the realtor had him put them away because books are clutter, and both characters agree (as do I of course) that books could never be clutter.
This isn’t really a new story. It doesn’t do anything original. It’s just a cute, quick read, and if you’re in the mood for something sweet, The Sugar Queen may be the book for you.
 The Earl of Rule is a great catch. When he proposes marriage to Miss Elizabeth Winwood, she should be delighted, but she isn’t. She’s in love with someone else. Elizabeth’s younger sister Horatia has the perfect solution; she’ll offer herself to Rule instead, since he really only wants a Winwood, not any specific one of them. Despite Horry’s pronounced stammer, Rule is enchanted with her and agrees to marry her instead. Determined to be the perfect wife, Horry leaves Rule alone and engages in her own sometimes scandalous relations with the ton. A series of clever, humorous mishaps and slow realizations lead the married Rule and Horatia to come to terms with the fact that they are perfectly suited for each other.
I’m realizing that I love Georgette Heyer. This book is laugh out loud funny at times. It’s a literary caper that just continues on and on with a sweet underlying romance that left me with a smile on my face. There is so much fun going on in this book. There is Horry being rebellious by befriending Rule’s enemy, then hitting him on the head with a poker when he tries to kiss her. That had to be the funniest scene in the book, not to mention the scenes that ensued from complications of the failed seduction!
I also just love the way Heyer writes. She takes us straight back to Regency England and I can feel it in the prose as well as in the historical details. The romance is clean and relatively free of sexual passions, but that doesn’t make it any less real. The development of the fondness between the very young Horatia and her older, more experienced husband is endearing and engaging. I wanted them to discover the happiness that lay just beyond their current reach.
Overall, this book is exactly what I look for in a historical romance. It’s funny, it’s sweet, and it’s believable. I wouldn’t ask for more! I’m so excited to read more by Georgette Heyer. Thanks so much to Danielle and Sourcebooks for reprinting this wonderful author and sending me this review copy.
The Convenient Marriage is available from Amazon and Amazon UK.
If you’ve been sticking around this blog for a while, you’ll note that author Christopher Meeks is a favorite of mine. He writes wonderful short stories and has such talent that it carried over beautifully into his first novel. His second short story collection, Months and Seasons, has been nominated for the Frank O’Connor Short Story Award, which is based in Ireland. Last year, Jhumpa Lahiri won, to give you a taste of the quality of these nominees. Christopher is in good company! The award carries with it €35,000!
I hope you’ll join me in congratulating Christopher on his accomplishment and crossing your fingers for him!
For a preview of this wonderful collection, please click here.
 What book would you love to be able to read again for the first time?
This is actually a bit of a tough question. I love re-reading so I don’t mind if I know what happens in a book. I have a bad memory anyway, so I forget little details and sometimes big ones if it’s been a few years. I would say, probably, that I’d like to read one of my ultimate favorites again for the first time, Jane Eyre or The Age of Innocence, just because I’ve read them so many times I don’t remember what it was like the first time I read them.
I think I’d also like to start over with two big fantasy series that I love. The first would be George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. Ideally this is because he’s ruthless with his characters and I’d like to forget who dies, who lives, and who comes back from dead, so I can be surprised again. I’d also probably wait several years until he’d finished. I’ve forgotten enough of the story that I’m going to have to reread all 4 chunksters in preparation for each new books. While I love them, it’s going to be time consuming and my TBR pile will not thank me.
The second fantasy series I’d choose would be the Kushiel’s Legacy series by Jacqueline Carey. I love this series to little tiny bits. It’s one of the few fantasy series I have made time to reread. It was very interesting to see what caught me the second time through as opposed to the first and I was glad that I knew what to expect from the third book, but I would love to experience them without preconceptions once again. I remembered quite a bit once I’d started reading. I’m glad that I have Naamah’s Kiss waiting so that I can happily experience a new story in the world I love so much, though!
What book would you like to read for the first time again?
 Sookie Stackhouse is a waitress in a small bar in Louisiana. She keeps to herself because of her disability. That is, she can read thoughts, and being close to people makes her uncomfortable, especially men. One night, a vampire named Bill walks into her bar, and she realizes that she can’t hear him. Not only that, but he’s good-looking and interested in her. Unfortunately, a string of murders has plagued her small town lately, and it looks like a vampire did it. Bill’s under suspicion and Sookie’s life is in danger; can they figure out who did it before their lives are torn apart?
This was a fantastic, fun little book. Sookie is already an interesting character, and having a vampire named Bill who fought in the Civil War just adds potential for a lot of great background. It seems fairly natural when they get together and stay together, although some of Bill’s vampire habits creep me out. They clearly don’t creep Sookie out as much as me, though. I like that even though she’s a blond, busty barmaid (as she says) she’s still intelligent.
This is a mystery, but I think setting the background for the series was more important. We meet a number of vampires and get a feel for their world, both good and bad, like how they got to be recognized, how apparently they have a “virus”, and even whether or not they can procreate. We get acquainted with Sookie and her supporting cast. As it turns out, the murderer was actually someone who bugged me throughout the book; I hadn’t guessed, but I was pleased, and glad that person will probably not be turning up again. The mystery and the murders were important, but it didn’t frustrate me as mysteries have in the past. I didn’t feel like I was supposed to guess, I could just enjoy the story and wonder who did it.
I also enjoyed the southern feel that this book has. In particular, I appreciated that the dialogue wasn’t written in an atrocious approximation of regional accent but gave me the impression that the characters had particular accents through word choice and behavior. It feels like how I think Louisiana should feel but without irritating me in any way. I liked that a lot.
I would definitely recommend this book to someone looking for a fun read with supernatural elements. I’m very much looking forward to the next in the series and once again glad that I “discovered” urban fantasy. I’ve been missing out on a lot of fun!
Buy Dead Until Dark on Amazon.
 Miraflores always assumed that her Panaman father was a callous man who had an affair with her married mother and cared little about the child that resulted. He has never called her, written to her, or made an effort to get involved in her life. When her mother falls ill, Mira goes through her papers and discovers letters from her father, expressing his vibrant love for her mother and for Mira herself, even though he has never met her. Torn by her realization, Mira lies to her mother and her mother’s new caregiver and flies to Panama City, determined to find the man who loved her mother so and fill in the missing pieces of her life.
This is a lovely, lovely book. It’s carefully written in measured, beautiful prose, allowing the impact of the emotions that the characters are feeling to sweep the reader away more than telling us that it should. The setting is gorgeous. I could feel the warm breeze in Panama and the chill in Chicago’s winter. I could see the Panama Canal for myself for the first time.
As Mira starts to peel away the secrets of her life, the book becomes more and more absorbing. Meanwhile, she makes a very special friend in Panama who adds a bit of tension to the book. We’re never sure what his intentions are or even what Mira’s intentions are. They are united in a quest to find her father, but beyond that is a mystery and helps to propel the story along when the clues aren’t fast in coming. It also sets up an interesting parallel between Mira and her mother once the truth is exposed. History can only repeat itself if we let it happen.
Interspersed with the novel’s story are bits of scientific information about geography. These are carefully chosen to reflect the emotions of the characters. For example, the beginning of the novel has a description about the hardening of the earth’s core and its fiery heart; later we learn that one of the characters has become exactly like that over the course of her life. We get a description of volcanoes when Mira nearly has a breakdown and can no longer control how she’s feeling. I thought this was a really nice touch since Mira is an aspiring geologist herself. It ties together Mira’s voice with science and with the story in a deeper way.
The questions this book asks, mostly through the relationship of Mira and Danilo, are similarly inspiring and relevant. Mira struggles with questions of belonging in Panama; her father lived there and she wants to belong, even speaking Spanish, but she vascillates between feeling welcome and feeling different. More than looking for her father, Mira is looking for herself and the half of her that she never had a chance to know. With Danilo, she has cause to question how well they fit together and how any relationship, even a friendship, between them can work. Their lives are different, but does that mean their future must also be different?
The World in Half is a wonderful, thoughtful book. I loved Mira and I wanted her to find her father and the happiness that she deserves. The ending is left open, but I liked it better that way. Life is unpredictable and we already know the path Mira would choose if she had a choice. I very strongly recommend this book.
This book is available from Amazon and Amazon UK .
 Again, this is not really a review, more my thoughts on this installment of the series!
Edward’s back in her life and Bella couldn’t be happier, but she still cares for Jacob Black, the werewolf who has become her best friend. The animosity between Edward and Jacob means that Bella struggles to keep her two worlds apart. Even worse, someone is committing murder after murder in Seattle, and Bella, the Cullens, and the Quileutes have reason to think that they’re after Bella. In the midst of trying to stay safe and protect all those she cares about, Bella realizes that she may have to make a choice with which she isn’t at all comfortable.
I do actually think this installment of the series may be the best so far. (It’s later ruined by Breaking Dawn, but we’ll leave that review for next week.) Edward has developed something of a personality, which makes me pleased that he’s not just a God-like perfect creature, although we still hear about his beauty nearly every page he’s on. He’s still very controlling, though, and that I didn’t appreciate. Bella doesn’t seem to care, but he regularly thwarts her will and convinces her to do what he likes, like when he forbids her to see Jacob and has Alice actually kidnap her to prevent that from happening. I can’t even tell you what I’d do if Keith tried to stop me from seeing someone who wasn’t harmful to me at all. The scene where he forces Bella to visit her mother on a particular weekend and worse, completely overrides her father’s objection springs to mind. What Stephenie Meyer shows us and tells us are two entirely different things.
My favorite is still Jacob. I can’t help it. If I was an obsessed teenager, I’d be wearing a “Team Jacob” t-shirt. He’s so much more interesting than Edward. He seems to actually care for Bella rather than spout endless platitudes about eternal love; we don’t need to hear his feelings so often because he shows them. What a novelty! He’s also more fun, and Bella is more fun around him. She’s better when she’s not passing out from kisses or thinking about how unworthy she is, although she does get annoying by constantly worrying at the hurt she’s causing Jacob. I wanted to kick her. If she felt so bad, she should have cut off the friendship and let him recover.
This is still the best book in the series, though. It felt smoother, and though the characters annoyed me, I felt that they were gaining more dimensions, even if they weren’t dimensions I liked. The vampire past was interesting, too, because I like world-building even if the author likes to break conventions. I’m still not sure I’ll go around recommending this series – not because anyone needs me to anyway – but I am enjoying them in a superficial sort of way, at least when I don’t want to smack Bella.
Buy Eclipse on Amazon.
As many of you who follow me on twitter know, I had a fabulous week last week. I did very well on my second essay, I got notified that I have a job interview at a library (a job which I would LOVE), my dissertation is progressing very well, and I was contacted by new publishers here in the UK for reviews. I’ve been quite pleased with myself and thrilled that things are going at least a little bit in the direction that I would like. A few roadblocks have presented themselves in the past couple of days, but I’m hoping to surmount them anyway.
Not much time for this post today as my lovely fiance is currently making us lunch! I’m very lucky.  I’m reading Atlas of Unknowns by Tania James, an absolutely fabulous book about an Indian girl who uses her sister’s talent to get a visa for the USA, only to get caught in a huge web of her own lies and struggle with who she is and what she wants to get out of her life. I anticipate finishing it a little later today, and then I plan on starting The Bridge of the Golden Horn by Emile Sevgi Ozdamar. That one appears to be a memoir about a sixteen-year-old girl who flees Istanbul to work on an assembly line in a factory in Germany. I think it sounds interesting, and I know I need to read more books set outside the USA and the UK, so I’m looking forward to it.
I’m also looking forward to watching more of Season 2 of LOST, courtesy of Amy, who is certainly an amazing friend! We are loving this show. Tomorrow morning I’ll be heading back to York to work on my dissertation; I’m digging deep into the primary sources for the next two weeks in search of useful mentions of Anthony Woodville.
What’s ahead for you this week? Anything exciting?
 Bella Swan is still deliriously happy to be with Edward Cullen, the love of her life who just happens to be a vampire. It’s Bella’s eighteenth birthday, but it reminds her that she is growing older while Edward remains a teenager. Regardless, he wants to celebrate and whisks her off to the Cullen household for a party. At the party, Bella falls and tears her arm open, bleeding everywhere and exposing her vulnerability to the world as the vampires can hardly keep themselves away. Convinced he’s doing the right thing, the family, including Edward, leave Bella behind. This devastating separation drives Bella closer to Jacob, who has a secret of his own, and results in misunderstandings and drama as the strength of Bella, Edward, and their relationship is pushed to the limit.
This doesn’t really need a review, as there are reviews scattered across the entire internet, so this is more a collection of thoughts than a proper review.
Various other bloggers told me I would and in fact I did like this book better because of Edward’s absence. Bella whined, but at least I didn’t have to hear about how perfect he was for pages on end. I like Jacob much better than Edward. He seems more like a real person. He is, of course, in love with Bella and he’s gorgeous, but I prefer his earnest, cheerful personality. I know how the series ends, but I’d have firmly declared myself for “Team Jacob” if I was 10 years younger and paid attention to the fuss surrounding the release of Breaking Dawn. In fact, I liked this book all around better than Twilight. Yeah, their relationship is more or the less full of the same problems that bugged me the first time, but I think I’m beginning to “get” why teenage girls are so enthralled with Edward. He really will do anything for Bella and it probably is his devotion that teenagers want. I don’t think I’d want a boyfriend who would kill himself if I died, but at 13, I’m sure I would have thought it terribly romantic.
I’m a little annoyed with Bella’s self-deprecating attitude though; it seems worse here. She values herself based on the attention that others give her. She only recovers from her depression when she has a new admirer in Jacob. I think this series would have been stronger had Bella come into her own and not just followed the whims of her vampire boyfriend or werewolf best friend. That said, I haven’t finished the series, so maybe she does, at least a little. I’ll find out as I plan on continuing. I know what happens, but these books are fun, even with their irritating edges. I still think I’d have to talk to any children of mine about the messages this series is conveying, but I don’t have to worry about that and can focus more on the enjoyable factor.
Buy New Moon on Amazon.
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