Flashback Friday: The House of the Spirits

Posted in Flashback Friday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Flashback Friday is my own little weekly tradition, in which I pick a book from my reading past to highlight. If you’d like to join in, here are the Flashback Friday book selection guidelines:

Has to be something you’ve read yourself
Has to still be available, preferably still in print
Must have been originally published 5 or more years ago

Other than that, the sky’s the limit! Join me, please, and let us all know: what are the books you’ve read that you always rave about? What books from your past do you wish EVERYONE would read? Pick something from five years ago, or go all the way back to the Canterbury Tales if you want. It’s Flashback Friday time!

My pick for this week’s Flashback Friday:

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

(published 1982)

From Goodreads:

In one of the most important and beloved Latin American works of the twentieth century, Isabel Allende weaves a luminous tapestry of three generations of the Trueba family, revealing both triumphs and tragedies. Here is patriarch Esteban, whose wild desires and political machinations are tempered only by his love for his ethereal wife, Clara, a woman touched by an otherworldly hand. Their daughter, Blanca, whose forbidden love for a man Esteban has deemed unworthy infuriates her father, yet will produce his greatest joy: his granddaughter Alba, a beautiful, ambitious girl who will lead the family and their country into a revolutionary future.

The House of the Spirits is an enthralling saga that spans decades and lives, twining the personal and the political into an epic novel of love, magic, and fate.

It’s hard to believe that The House of the Spirits is Isabel Allende’s first novel. Beautifully written and structured, this generation-spanning book is both a detailed look at the life of a family and its eccentric members and a look at the political upheaval that forms such a critical piece of Chile’s history. I’ve read and enjoyed many of Isabel Allende’s novels since, but The House of the Spirits is truly unforgettable.

… and yet another example of a wonderful book that was only a so-so movie. Skip the DVD — read the book instead.

So, what’s your favorite blast from the past? Leave a tip for your fellow booklovers!

Note from your friendly Bookshelf Fantasies host: To join the Flashback Friday fun, write a blog post about a book you love and share your link below. Don’t have a blog post to share? Then share your favorite oldie-but-goodie in the comments section. Jump in!

12Feb2013

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Wishlist Wednesday!

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Do a post about one book from your wishlist and why you want to read it.
Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
Put a link back to Pen to Paper somewhere in your post.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

Miss New India by Bharati Mukherjee

From Amazon:

Anjali Bose’s prospects don’t look great. Born into a traditional lower-middle‑class family, she lives in a backwater town with only an arranged marriage on the horizon. But her ambition, charm, and fluency in language do not go unnoticed by her charismatic and influential expat teacher, Peter Champion. And champion her he does, both to powerful people who can help her along the way and to Anjali herself, stirring in her a desire to take charge of her own destiny. So she sets off to Bangalore, India’s fastest‑growing metropolis, and soon falls in with an audacious and ambitious crowd of young people, who have learned how to sound American by watching shows like Seinfeld in order to get jobs in call centers, where they quickly out‑earn their parents. And it is in this high‑tech city where Anjali — suddenly free of the confines of class, caste, and gender — is able to confront her past and reinvent herself. Of course, the seductive pull of life in the New India does not come without a dark side . . .

Why do I want to read this?

I’ve had this book on my wish list since I first heard about it last year. Americans tend to make fun of the concept of US companies that outsource call centers to India — but what is the experience like for the people who actually work for one of these call centers? I really liked the sound of this book, with its focus on a girl from a traditional upbringing finding freedom in the big city, plus I always enjoy reading about new places and cultures, and I haven’t read much fiction set in modern-day India. I’m really looking forward to reading this one… and luckily, I won’t have to wait long! I snatched up a copy of Miss New India at a book swap I attended last week, and as soon as my reading pile shrinks a bit, I’ll be diving in.

Quick note to Wishlist Wednesday bloggers: Come on back to Bookshelf Fantasies for Flashback Friday! Join me in celebrating the older gems hidden away on our bookshelves. See the introductory post for more details, and come back this Friday to add your flashback favorites!

11Feb2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Favorite Romances

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is:

Top Ten Favorite Romances

At first, I was a tad confused by the topic. Should this be my favorite romance novels? (I don’t think I could name ten, to be honest.) Or top ten romantic books in general? But no, what makes the most sense is the top ten romantic pairings — the “supercouples” of fiction, with love stories that are remarkable, unsurpassed, unforgettable… or at least, different enough to be noteworthy! My list of romantic couples in fiction:

1) Jamie and Claire Fraser (Outlander): Speaking as an unabashed fan of the Outlander series, I just don’t think I could name a more romantic couple than Jamie and Claire. Put a tall, red-headed 18th century Highlander (in a kilt, please!) together with an outspoken 20th century medical woman, and sparks fly! A love story that crosses centuries, filled with humor and passion — what’s not to love?

2) Severus Snape and Lily Evans (Harry Potter series): Just because the love is unrequited doesn’t make it any less romantic. Poor Severus, doomed to spend his life paying for his part in the death of the one and only woman he ever loved. His patronus is a doe! This scene gives me chills every time I read it:

Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.
“After all this time?”
“Always,” said Snape.

3) Henry and Clare (The Time Traveler’s Wife): This book just knocked me out when I first read it, which may explain why it’s one of the few books I’ve read twice in a row (and a couple more times since). Henry always finds his way back to Clare; Clare is his rock and his constant. I just love these two together.

4) Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont (A Discovery of Witches): The witch and the vampire who find a forbidden, prophecied love. Total hotness… plus a couple who meet in a library? How awesome is that? Academics need love too!

5) Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley (One Day). Best friends who finally – FINALLY – realize that they’re perfect for one another. This book made me laugh, yell, and cry. Dexter and Emma’s paths, alone and together, felt so true to me, and perhaps it’s this real-life element that makes their relationship feel so special and so romantic.

6) Mercy Thompson and Adam Hauptman (Mercedes Thompson series): I already included a witch and a vampire on my list; now here’s a shapeshifter and werewolf combination that’s just hot as can be and incredibly full of love and romance. I love this urban fantasy series, especially how it shows the evolution of Mercy and Adam’s relationship from wary acceptance to full-throttle love and devotion.

7) Jane True and Anyan Barghast (Jane True series): Long live the supernatural power couples! Jane’s a half-selkie, Anyan is a Barghast in the funny, crazy, high-powered world of Nicole Peeler’s Jane True series. It takes several books before these two finally wise up (and hook up), and it remains to be seen whether the author will grant them a HEA when the final book comes out in May.

8) David and Debra (Eagle in the Sky): This is going way back, but I read this Wilbur Smith novel when I was a young, starry-eyed teen and it just blew me away. Debra and David find a love that is tested over and over again by tragedy, and they always manage to find a way back to one another. I must have read this book half a dozen times in the couple of years after I first discovered it. I wonder whether it would stand the test of time if I reread it now?

9) Buttercup and Wesley (The Princess Bride): Does this one even need an explanation? Are there better words for pledging undying love than “as you wish”? Twu wuv.

10) Snow White and Bigby Wolf (Fables): From my absolute favorite graphic novel series – I just adore the romance between these two strong-minded Fables. They have a marriage with more stress than most mundies could ever imagine, and yet they manage to maintain their love, respect, affection, and passion. Is it wrong to have a crush on a comic book character? Because that Bigby Wolf is just so… big and bad.

Honorable Mention: All the rest that I don’t want to overlook: Really? Narrow it down to just ten? It all comes down to my mood, not to mention the fact that what I’ve read more recently is fresher in my mind… so here’s a bunch of other great romantic couples that just shouldn’t be forgotten:

Ron & Hermione, Harry & Ginny, Molly & Arthur, Remus & Tonks (sniff…) (Harry Potter)
Lyra & Will (His Dark Materials trilogy)
Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice)
Emma and Mr. Knightley (Emma)
Alexia Tarabotti and Conall Maccon (The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger)
Harper Connelly and Tolliver Lang (Grave Sight et al by Charlaine Harris)
Mariana and Richard (Mariana by Susanna Kearsley)
Heather and Brandon (The Flame and the Flower — the very first romance novel I ever read!)

Love is in the air. Happy Valentine’s Day! May you find romance, either in your real life or in the pages of a book!

11Feb2013

The Monday agenda 2/11/2013

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Not a lofty, ambitious to-be-read list consisting of 100+ book titles. Just a simple plan for the upcoming week — what I’m reading now, what I plan to read next, and what I’m hoping to squeeze in among the nooks and crannies.

Happy Monday! Looking back and looking forward…

How did I do with last week’s agenda?

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan: Done! My review is here.

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger: Done! My review is here.

I finally cracked open my copy of Fairy Tales From The Brother Grimm by Philip Pullman. I’ve only read the introduction thus far, but hey, it’s a start!

Lastly, I re-read volume one and started volume two of the graphic novel series Y: The Last Man. I’m planning a Last Man read-a-thon for the coming week.

What’s on my reading agenda for the coming week?

First on my agenda will be getting through the entire Y: The Last Man series. The first volume is amazing — can’t wait to see what happens next!

One of my reading resolutions for 2013 was “Attack the Fairies!”, meaning, I need to force myself to actually read the book of fairy tales that I was so excited to receive back in November. I’m a terrible short story reader, and usually get impatient and walk away, no matter how good the individual stories are or how much I like the author. But in the case of Fairy Tales From The Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman, I’m determined to actually read the entire collection. My strategy, at least for starters, is to read one story a night, rather than trying to read the whole book straight through. We’ll see how it works, and if I can overcome my deeply ingrained aversion toward all short stories.

Finally, a coworker lent me her copy of Wild by Cheryl Strayed, a book that’s been on my “must read eventually” list. I have tickets to hear the author speak in April, so now is the time to read it. Plus, this will be my first non-fiction read of 2013, and I did vow to break out of my fiction world once in a while during the current year.

So many book, so little time…

That’s my agenda. What’s yours? Add your comments to share your bookish agenda for the week.

9Feb2013

Book Review: Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Book Review: Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

Steampunk authoress extraordinaire Gail Carriger, who made the reading world a better place by introducing us to the wonderful world of The Parasol Protectorate, now steams ahead with a new young adult series, The Finishing School.

“Book The First” in the new series is Etiquette & Espionage, in which we meet 14-year-old Sophronia Timminnick, the somewhat unruly and definitely unfinished daughter of a large country-dwelling family. Sophronia is prone to mischief and misadventure, largely due to an unbridled curiosity and an unwillingness to let fashion and manners dictate her every move. Within the first chapter, Sophronia is recruited into Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality, which takes a very select few girls for “finishing”.

And what a finishing school it is! Housed in a huge dirigible which floats over the moors, Mademoiselle Geraldine’s teaches girls not only how to curtsy and flutter eyelashes, but the finer points of misdirection, covert operations, knife and poison skills, and all the other necessary knowledge of a first-rate intelligencer.

There’s action galore amidst the comedy of manners, as well as an array of mechanical wonders including clockwork maids and butlers that run on tracks and a rather adorable little dachshund-like mechanical dog (a “mechanimal”) named Bumbersnoot. Much of the plot revolves around Sophronia chasing around after a secret prototype that’s drawn the attention of a variety of baddies out to steal it, in between which Sophronia explores the out-of-bounds areas of the school, makes unlikely friends, and learns to appreciate the finer nuances of appropriate dress and accessories.

It’s all quite clever and tongue-in-cheek, with much the same spirit as the Parasol Protectorate books. The Finishing School series is set in the same world as The Parasol Protectorate — a steampunk-ish version of England, in which vampires and werewolves are a part of society and the pursuit of scientific knowledge is often cause for nefarious crimes and plots. The Finishing School takes place about 25 years before the events in The Parasol Protectorate, but still, a nice variety of familiar faces pop up in Etiquette & Espionage, and I’m hoping that a certain burly, ill-tempered werewolf will make an appearance in one of the future volumes.

Gail Carriger shows her usual flair with character names, which in this book include Mrs. Barnaclegoose, Dimity Ann Plumleigh-Teignmott, Agatha Woosmoss, and the roguish Lord Dingleproops.

Overall, while cute and entertaining, I wasn’t enthralled by Etiquette & Espionage, which disappoints me as I’d had this one on preorder for months, based on loving Soulless and the rest of the Parasol Protectorate books so very much. The tone of E&E struck me as a bit juvenile, more middle grade than young adult. The opening chapter’s set piece is Sophronia’s misadventure in a dumbwaiter, ending badly with a trifle flying through the air and landing on an indignant woman’s hat. From there, the book continues with a great number of adventures and mischief, but I never felt that there was much at stake, despite what are intended to be a few menacing sorts trying to cause trouble.

While The Finishing School is marketed as a young adult series, Sophronia, at age 14, seems a big young and green to anchor a series whose intended audience is teens. I’m assuming that Sophronia will grow up during the ensuing volumes of the series (perhaps à la Harry Potter and his seven years at Hogwarts). I’m hoping that as Sophronia ages during the remaining three books in The Finishing School, the maturity level of the storyline will age with her.

That said, I’m sure Etiquette & Espionage will be a big hit with Gail Carriger’s goggle-and-top-hat-wearing fans. I’ll be curious to see how it fares with the young adult audience, who most likely are not familiar with the quirky delights of the world featured in the adult Parasol Protectorate books. Etiquette & Espionage is a promising beginning, but to hold my attention, I’d like to see the next book take on a little more depth and move beyond E&E‘s flavor of madcap adventure into something with a bit more substance.

8Feb2013

1998: A very good year

Posted in The Reading Life by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Today just happens to be my 15th wedding anniversary, so…

Happy Anniversary To Us!

Yes, we got married in 1998, but other things happened that year too, such as this:

and this:

and even this: (*cough* not that this had anything to do with my marriage *cough*)

Of course, being who I am, what’s of greatest interest to me is the world of books in 1998. A quick visit to the New York Times bestseller list for February 1998 shows some really terrific books, among them:

Fiction:

#1: Paradise by Toni Morrison

#2: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

#7: Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

#9: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Non-Fiction:

#2: Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

#5: Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

That’s just a smattering of the books on the list, but these are the ones that I’ve read and enjoyed. I suppose if I were looking for signs and portents, I’d say that of the six books mentioned above, I’d feel just as comfortable recommending any of these today as I did fifteen years ago.

So… 1998: Books with staying power. Marriage with staying power. It’s all good.

8Feb2013

Flashback Friday: Bloodsucking Fiends

Posted in Flashback Friday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

It’s time, once again, for Flashback Friday…

Flashback Friday is a chance to dig deep in the darkest nooks of our bookshelves and pull out the good stuff from way back. As a reader, a blogger, and a consumer, I tend to focus on new, new, new… but what about the old favorites, the hidden gems? On Flashback Fridays, I want to hit the pause button for a moment and concentrate on older books that are deserving of attention.

If you’d like to join in, here are the Flashback Friday book selection guidelines:

Has to be something you’ve read yourself
Has to still be available, preferably still in print
Must have been originally published 5 or more years ago

My pick for this week’s Flashback Friday:

Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore

(published 1995)

From Goodreads:

Jody never asked to become a vampire. But when she wakes up under an alley Dumpster with a badly burned arm, an aching neck, superhuman strength, and a distinctly Nosferatuan thirst, she realizes the decision has been made for her. Making the transition from the nine-to-five grind to an eternity of nocturnal prowlings is going to take some doing, however, and that’s where C. Thomas Flood fits in. A would-be Kerouac from Incontinence, Indiana, Tommy (to his friends) is biding his time night-clerking and frozen-turkey bowling in a San Francisco Safeway. But all that changes when a beautiful undead redhead walks through the door … and proceeds to rock Tommy’s life — and afterlife — in ways he never imagined possible.

OK, I’ll just say right up front that I love absolutely everything by Christopher Moore. I’ve yet to read a book of his that didn’t make me choke on my coffee from laughing too hard.

This is not your average vampire book. No sparkles, no teen angst, no brooding. It’s laugh-out-loud funny (spit-out-your-coffee funny), and deserves a gold star for best use of San Francisco settings and lore in a way that’s totally off the wall. And if you like Bloodsucking Fiends, check out the sequels, You Suck and Bite Me.

So, what’s your favorite blast from the past? Leave a tip for your fellow booklovers, and share the wealth. It’s time to dust off our old favorites and get them back into circulation!

Note from your friendly Bookshelf Fantasies host: To join in the Flashback Friday bloghop, post about a book you love on your blog, and share your link below. Don’t have a blog post to share? Then share your favorite oldie-but-goodie in the comments section. Jump in!

5Feb2013

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Wishlist Wednesday!

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Do a post about one book from your wishlist and why you want to read it.
Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
Put a link back to Pen to Paper somewhere in your post.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

The House Girl by Tara Conklin

From Amazon:

Two remarkable women, separated by more than a century, whose lives unexpectedly intertwine . . .

2004: Lina Sparrow is an ambitious young lawyer working on a historic class-action lawsuit seeking reparations for the descendants of American slaves.

1852: Josephine is a seventeen-year-old house slave who tends to the mistress of a Virginia tobacco farm—an aspiring artist named Lu Anne Bell.

It is through her father, renowned artist Oscar Sparrow, that Lina discovers a controversy rocking the art world: art historians now suspect that the revered paintings of Lu Anne Bell, an antebellum artist known for her humanizing portraits of the slaves who worked her Virginia tobacco farm, were actually the work of her house slave, Josephine.

A descendant of Josephine’s would be the perfect face for the lawsuit—if Lina can find one. But nothing is known about Josephine’s fate following Lu Anne Bell’s death in 1852. In piecing together Josephine’s story, Lina embarks on a journey that will lead her to question her own life, including the full story of her mother’s mysterious death twenty years before.

Alternating between antebellum Virginia and modern-day New York, this searing tale of art and history, love and secrets explores what it means to repair a wrong, and asks whether truth can be more important than justice.

Why do I want to read this?

I seem to be drawn to novels with historical settings lately, and I love these type of stories-within-stories, in which the past is brought to life by someone in the present. I’m really looking forward to reading this one, and hope to get my hands on a copy soon!

5Feb2013

Book Review: Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by David Levithan & Rachel Cohn

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Book Review: Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

I love being proved wrong about a book, and Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist is a good example of a happy surprise for me.

It’s possible that I just picked the wrong time of day to start this book. Perhaps I was simply too tired to give it a chance. I read about 50 pages and jotted down some quick notes before heading off to bed. My notes included phrases such as “no point of entry”, “exclusionary feel”, “impenetrable”, and “can’t relate”. Not a very auspicious beginning, to say the least.

And yet… when I continued the next day, I found my attitude toward this book completely turned around. So how and why did that happen?

For starters, a brief synopsis:

Nick is the 18-year-old bass player in a teen “queercore” punk band, who feels music — and life — deeply and passionately. Nick has been dumped recently by his girlfriend, and when she shows up at his gig, he impulsively asks the flannel-wearing girl at the bar to be his fake girlfriend for five minutes. The flannel-clad girl is Norah, who has just turned down Brown University in order to follow her on-again, off-again boyfriend to a “kibbutz” in South Africa for a year, and who is starting to realize that everything in her life may be a big mistake. Nick and Norah fake-kiss… but boy, it feels good, and thus starts a night of music, clubs, city streets, drunken friends, cab rides, Oreos, and dancing in the rain.

The book is written in alternating chapters, switching between Nick’s narration (written by David Levithan) and Norah’s (written by Rachel Cohn). The pace is quick and sharp, with dialogue that is witty, vulgar, and in-your-face. Nick and Norah are a couple of angst-ridden, deeply introspective teens, who think deeply about life, love, music, friendship, and finding meaning in the world. The beauty of this book is in the inner workings of Nick and Norah’s minds and in seeing the interplay from one chapter to the next, as Nick and Norah reinterpret each other’s actions and words, and we see the chasms of misunderstanding that must be bridged over the course of one night.

I’m always fascinated by the single-night story — they meet, they share an intense moment… but will they part forever when the sun comes up? Of course, the best example, in my mind, is Before Sunrise, a movie I could watch again and again. Nick & Norah ends up fitting nicely into this mode, showing how a chance encounter blossoms into an unexpectedly delicious and slightly dangerous, extremely intense connection. The rising sun feels like a deadline, and the only question is whether to say good-bye or face a new day together. I won’t say which happens here; in Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, it’s the journey that matters.

So why the about-face for me regarding this book? Again, perhaps it was just a matter of starting the book at the wrong time, but I found the early chapters somewhat off-putting due to their setting in the Lower Manhattan punk-rock scene. The club, the people, and the musicians — all seemed to be flashing the words “not for you” at me in big neon letters. I read a lot of young adult fiction. I am definitely not a young adult myself. But as I’ve said many times, the best YA fiction is just good fiction, period. You shouldn’t need to be a teen or twenty-something to read a book about people in that demographic, so long as it’s a good book with well-drawn characters. At the beginning of Nick & Norah, I felt that age would be a barrier to my enjoyment. As the story progressed, however, I began to really enjoy Nick and Norah’s explorations not just of each other but of their own fears and hopes. The more deeply the characters journeyed, the more I came to appreciate the passion and emotion expressed by the gorgeous, full-frontal, no-holds-barred writing.

I was originally drawn to this book after having read the authors’ two other collaborative efforts, Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares and Naomi & Ely’s No Kiss List. Both were lovely, and both featured the pattern of alternating voices that work so well in Nick & Norah. As an added attraction, all three books read as love letters to New York, and it’s great fun to revel in this glorified, gritty version of the city, its people, and its hidden treasures.

A note: I have not seen the movie version of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and I’m not sure that I’d want to. For me, the glory of the book is in getting inside the characters’ heads, and I can’t imagine that translating well to the big screen. Plus, from the movie stills I’ve seen, the casting does not at all match the pictures in my head, and I don’t want to replace “my” Nick and Norah with the Hollywood version. (But if you’ve read the book and seen the movie, please do share your thoughts! How do they compare?)

All in all, I’m very glad that I stuck with this book long enough to get past my initial turned-off phase, as I ended up enjoying it very much. This is a short, quick, intense read, but one which really held my interest and touched my emotions as well.

4Feb2013

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Best Bookish Memories

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is:

Top Ten Best Bookish Memories

So what are my favorite memories of book-related experiences? Other than just reading lots of them, you mean?

I can break them down into a few different categories. First, encounters with authors:

1) Meeting Mary Doria Russell. Mary Doria Russell is the author of one of my very favorite books, The Sparrow, as well as four other excellent novels. I’ve been a fan for years, and when I saw on her website that she’d be speaking at a local high school, I emailed to ask whether the event was open to the public. The answer? No, but she’d arranged for me to attend as her guest. The event itself was terrific — the entire student body of the all-girls Catholic school had read The Sparrow as their summer reading, and I was both amazed and touched by the maturity of the students and their thoughtful approach to a book with difficult subject matter. Mary Doria Russell was charming, funny, and extremely intelligent, and I was delighted to have some time before the event to chat with her one-on-one. As a follow-up, my book group chose her most recent novel, Doc, for our December book, and we were able to spend an hour on the phone with Mary. Simply delightful.

2) Christopher Moore’s Fool – On Stage! (2010) Author Christopher Moore narrated this stage reading of excerpts from his novel Fool (a retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear). Actors from San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater took on various roles from the novels, and each scene was played out first as Shakespeare wrote it, then as reimagined in the crazy, uproarious world of Christopher Moore’s mind. Simply one of the best events I’ve ever attended.

3) Gail Carriger at Borderlands Books in San Francisco. Gail Carriger has to be one of the most gracious authors I’ve encountered. I’ve been to several of her author appearances, but last year’s event at Borderlands celebrating the release of Timeless was really memorable. The crowd wasn’t huge, but it was certainly enthusiastic, and Gail answered questions for as long as people kept asking them, then signed lots of books, answered individual questions, posed for pictures, and was just an all-around lovely (and stylish!) person. Sadly, I’ll be missing Gail Carriger’s appearance in SF tomorrow for her launch of Etiquette & Espionage, although I do plan to read the book as soon as it lands in my hot little hands.

3) Getting an email from Diana Gabaldon. I love, love, love Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. But after reading the first book, I was a bit confused by certain logistics: Wait, was so-and-so in the room when this happened? And where was X? How did Y finally escape? That sort of thing. Well, after getting as far as I could on my own, I used the “contact” function on the author’s website to submit my questions, and got a really friendly and informative email in reply, which not only answered my questions but did so without making me feel like a total dummy.

4) Amber Benson’s book signing. Tara from Buffy, you guys! Did you know she’s an author?? She did a reading a few years ago at a local bookstore. I arrived a little early to browse… and met Amber browsing as well! She was friendly and funny, perfectly willing to pose for pictures, and then did a really cute talk and reading. I didn’t end up loving the book itself, but it was definitely one of the most fun book events I’ve attended.

Next, big book releases:

5) Attending a midnight release party for Breaking Dawn. Okay, I’m not a huge Twilight fan, but I did read and enjoy the books at the time. In fact, I first came across the books while on vacation, having never heard of them previously, and it wasn’t until I got home that I realized that I’d stumbled into a huge phenomenon. Luckily for me, Breaking Dawn was released about a month later, and I went to a crazy, big release party at the now defunct Borders. It was chaos, but pure, happy chaos, with manic fans milling about and squawking with excitement until the actual book sale at midnight. There was a fun, welcoming vibe, a sense of “we’re all in this together”… and it was a good excuse to spend a couple of hours wandering around a bookstore.

6) Reading the final Harry Potter book. The intensity of reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was just indescribable. Waiting for the book delivery, shutting myself away from the world (and my family), shunning all newspapers, TV, and internet until I’d finished the book. I scrupulously avoided anything that could be a source of spoilers and was, I’m sure, terribly nasty to anyone who tried to interrupt my reading. Reading along as the books were published was a true joy, and the anticipation while waiting for book 7 was excruciating… but I loved it all.

Book-related goings-on:

7) Attending the annual Big Book Sale sponsored by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. A four-day book sale, with something like 500,000 used books to choose from, all $5 or less! I look forward to this event every year, and always come home with armloads and bagfuls of books. Interesting and weird finds, lovely editions, a chance to mingle with fellow book-lovers — fun, fun, fun!

And in the personal life/nostalgia category:

8) Stealing from my older sister. My sister is four years older than I am, and at any given stage of our lives, I always wanted to read her books instead of mine. Sometimes she’d lend them to me willingly, sometimes I’d have to sneak a bit. So perhaps I can credit sibling rivalry with my childhood-long habit of reading “up” instead of sticking with my own grade-level reading materials. Strongest memory? Borrowing (with permission!) my sister’s copy of Little Women — and then having her snatch it back after a nasty argument about something or other. Being one to hold a grudge, she never did let me have the book again, and it was a couple of years before I finally picked up my own copy from the library and finished the damn book.

9) Learning about sex and puberty from Judy Blume. I attended a sleepaway camp for many summers of my youth, and Judy Blume’s books got passed around from hand to hand until the covers were falling off, especially Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and Forever. In the more rambunctious teen years, we moved on to racier material (Fear of Flying by Erica Jong was one such title), but there was a certain lovely cameraderie that grew out of our shared reading experiences each summer. (I wrote a little tribute to Judy Blume a few months ago; you can read it here.)

10) My bookish romance. I’ve written about this before (here, if you’re interested), but one of the things that made me fall in love with my husband was the day that he told me about a book he’d loved years earlier and I realized that perhaps I’d found a kindred spirit. Finding the book itself was one of the most exciting discoveries for me at a Big Book Sale.

And that’s my list! I’m sure there are so many more I could come up with — but this is a top 10 list, not a top 100 list! What are your most memorable book-related experiences? Do tell!