Was my high school reading list really this exciting?

Posted in Pop Culture by

Have you seen the trailers for the new version of The Great Gatsby?

I know it’s been a lot of years, but I really don’t remember the book version of The Great Gatsby being nearly this eye-popping-ly exciting. The music, the cars, the mansions, the parties — this looks big and glamorous, candy-coated and full of adrenaline. I’m pretty much dying to see this now, and I can’t get the music out of my head.

On the other hand, I barely remember the plot details from the book, so I can’t tell at all if this is a faithful adaptation.

So, should I re-read the book? Or just wait and enjoy the glitz of the movie?

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Settings I’d Like To See More Of

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by

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 Settings I’d Like To See More Of

Grammar aside, I love this week’s topic! It really got my wheels spinning. What book settings have I particularly enjoyed? If I could read more books about any place on earth (or beyond??), where would I choose?

These aren’t in any particular order, but here are ten places going on my give-me-a-novel-set-in-these-locations wishlist:

1) Alaska. Not just because my darling daughter is spending a year there, but because I love reading about the beauty and wildness of the place in books as diverse as The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, Alaska by James Michener, and If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name by Heather Lende.

2) San Francisco. My adopted hometown! Is there anything more fun that reading a novel and recognizing the coffee shops, the street names, the neighborhood parks, the bus lines? I love books that make the city feel lived in, such as Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins, versus ones that just use it as a familiar backdrop — the literary equivalent of sending a postcard from the Golden Gate Bridge and then bragging that you’ve been to “Frisco”.

3) Scotland. I admit that I have a wee bit of a hang-up about Scotland, ever since discovering — and then becoming obsessed by — the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. Other than the Outlander books, however, I haven’t read much set in Scotland, and what I have read has been historical fiction. I’d love to try more contemporary fiction set in Scotland. Any recommendations?

4) Hawaii. James Michener for the win! I read Michener’s Hawaii before traveling to the Hawaiian Islands for the first time, which gave me a snapshot of history without having to veer off the fiction path into reading, you know, actual history. I have Moloka’i by Alan Brennert on my shelf and a few others as well. Now I just have to find time to read them.

5) Australia and New Zealand. I realize these are two separate places, but since my ideal vacation would include both, my ideal reading list will as well. I’ve read A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute and several books, most notably The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCollough, but I’m always eager for more books set in Australia. As for New Zealand, although I’ve actually been there, I’ve never read a book that had NZ as its setting. I’ve been told that I should read The Bone People by Keri Hulme, and I just picked up a copy of In the Land of the Long White Cloud by Sarah Lark. Other suggestions?

6) England. Perhaps I should have lumped this one together with Scotland, but they fit into separate compartments of my brain, I find. And really, I think there’s an endless supply of novels set in the UK, both historical and contemporary. I’ve certainly read my share, but I do so enjoy all those period dramas with their kings and queens, the modern-day tales of charming village life, and the comedies of manners à la Jane Austen. This is one setting that is absolutely not hard to find in fiction!

7) Paris. An obvious choice, right? City of love, city of light. I’ve read bunches of books set in Paris — everything from A Tale of Two Cities to The Da Vinci Code, Anna and the French Kiss to Sacré Bleu — and I never get tired of it! Give me crepes to snack on and a walk by the Seine and I’m happy.

8) New York. Who doesn’t love a good New York book? As in my #2 selection above, I really appreciate a book that gets into the nooks and crannies of New York, exploring its neighborhoods, flavors, sights and sounds, rather than just parading a character by the Empire State Building to prove that “hey, we’re in New York now!” Two of the best New York books that I’ve read lately are The Diviners by Libba Bray and Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. More, please!

9) Italy. No brainer. Not just a pretty face — it’s got history too! I love books set in any of the beautiful towns and cities of Italy, and whether historical or contemporary, a book that makes me feel like I’m there is a win for me.

10) My final choice, and I had to debate whether to stay local or go more exotic — but in the end, I’ll pick my own California as a preferred setting for fiction. In addition to books set in my #2 choice, San Francisco, I love reading novels that capture the physical beauty, the frontier ambitions, and the cultural see-saws of the great State of California. Excellent California fiction abounds, from older works by John Steinbeck and Wallace Stegner to more recent novels such as The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and Golden Days by Carolyn See or historical fiction such as Snow Mountain Passage by James D. Houston or the quirky Wit’s End by Karen Joy Fowler.

If only I could visit as many of these places in real life as I do in fiction! But that’s one of the joys of reading, right? Take me away… in the pages of a book.

Borrowing from the kiddo: 3 graphic novels by Doug TenNapel

Posted in Book Reviews by

Sometimes, you just have to take a break from reading “grown-up” novels and indulge in a bit of what the kid is reading. And that’s what I did last night. I raided my 10-year-old’s bookshelves and had a terrifically enjoyable time reading three graphic novels by the very talented author and illustrator Doug TenNapel.

First off, how great are these titles?

Ghostopolis
Bad Island
Cardboard

Herewith, my mini-reviews:

In Ghostopolis, a boy with a terminal illness is accidentally sent off into the spirit world a bit ahead of schedule by an over-eager ghost wrangler. Once there, Garth befriends a skeleton horse, fights off all sorts of creepy bad guys, meets up with some surprisingly familiar ghosts, and has real insights along the way. There’s plenty of action, some dark and semi-scary dudes to contend with, but also a sense of humor and unexpected rays of hope. My son read this one a few months ago, and has been after me to read it ever since.

Next up, I read Bad Island, in which a family sets out on a boating trip, much to the annoyance of their teen-age son and younger daughter. It’s clear that this is a family that doesn’t spend much time together, and the prospect of being out on the water without all the modern conveniences to distract them does not appeal to the kids at all. When a freak storm destroys their boat, the family is stranded on a mysterious island, where nothing seems exactly normal. Adventure ensues; is this island “bad”, or is there some other explanation for all the weird creatures, hidden passageways, and indecipherable markings? Naturally, in order to survive, the family has to work together, and the kids find themselves saving not only themselves but also their parents as they unravel the secrets of the island.

Finally, the glorious Cardboard! In Cardboard, a down-on-his-luck widowed father who can’t find work comes home with the only birthday present he can afford for his son: a cardboard box. But when Cam and his dad build a cardboard man out of the box, it comes to life, and soon so do all sorts of other creatures. Wrapped up in the wonder of this magical cardboard man, they forget the two rules that came with the box: Return all unused scraps, and don’t ask for any more. When the neighborhood bully catches sight of Cam’s new friend, a cardboard war is on — and gets so out of control that the world may actually come to a cardboard end, unless Cam can figure out a way to save them all.

As you can probably tell, I loved all three of these — probably Cardboard most of all. What’s not to love? In each, the adults are well-intentioned but fallible. The kids and adults end up saving each other and saving the day. Love triumphs, not in a gooey way, but by bringing out the characters’ inner toughness and giving them reason to fight for one another. Even a kid who might not think of himself as brave can end up being a hero. And when things get weird, creativity and a willingness to embrace the weirdness just might be enough to get out of a truly tight spot.

The illustrations are glorious — occasionally dark, always inventive, with grotesque creepy-crawlies, truly funny bad guys, and some lovely images of the different shapes and looks of families.

My son, the ever-reluctant reader, is actually willing to read these books without poking, prodding, or being threatened with the loss of TV/computer/video game access. And if that’s not success, what is? I’d recommend these books for middle grade readers, probably in the 4th – 7th grade range… and for adults who enjoy a good adventure with heart as well.

The Monday agenda 1/21/2013

Posted in The Monday Check-In by

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! It may be a holiday, but that’s no reason to skimp on the agenda.

From last week:

Three reviews and two books completed:

Mariana by Susanna Kearsley: I finished this lovely book the previous week, but didn’t have time to get the review done until I came home from a trip.

The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey: Done! My review is here.

Mrs. Queen Takes The Train by William Kuhn: Done! My review is here.

I also enjoyed reading a few of my son’s graphic novels over the weekend, and will try to write a mini-review/round-up about these books in the next day or so.

Online book group: I’m behind. The Outlander Book Club is doing a re-read of The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon, and I am not keeping up. I love the series — can’t wait for the newest book to come out (fingers crossed) in the fall — but I don’t think I can devote time to re-reading a huge novel right now.

And this week’s new agenda:

Where to begin? I look at my shelves, and I want to read everything. Now.

I’m just getting started with the YA novel Just One Day by Gayle Forman. After that, I’m thinking that it’s time to start The Round House by Louise Erdrich, which I expect will take some time and a lot of attention. I doubt there will be room for anything more this week, but if there is, I’d guess that I’ll be wanting something a bit lighter to round out my reading.

My son and I are enjoying Here Be Monsters! by Alan Snow, which is quite good fun — although we seem to have less and less time to read before bed these days.

Updated to add: How could I forget? Fables, volume 18 is due out this week! And the second my copy arrives, I’ll be dropping everything else to read it.

So many book, so little time…

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

Book Review: Mrs. Queen Takes The Train by William Kuhn

Posted in Book Reviews by

Book Review: Mrs. Queen Takes The Train by William Kuhn

In this terrific, warm-hearted novel, life at the palace just isn’t what it used to be, and The Queen seems to have come down with a case of the blahs. Relegated to a role that is mostly ornamental, and still heart-broken over the family disasters of the last decade or so, The Queen goes through her days doing as she ought. She was raised to always follow directions and live up to expectations, and that she does, day in and day out. But what about happiness? What about feeling useful? Mostly, The Queen feels like too much has passed her by, and as she struggles to keep up with her new acquaintances Mr. Google and Miss Twitter, the poor dear mostly winds up out of sorts and at loose ends. When, by chance, The Queen finds herself outside the palace walls, unaccompanied and cleverly (although accidentally) disguised in a borrowed hoodie, she gets an unexpected taste of freedom and makes a mad dash toward a day of adventure.

A cast of supporting characters, all rather isolated in varied ways and yet united in service to The Queen, round out the story nicely. There’s Shirley, long-tenured dresser to the Queen who harbors a lingering resentment toward the upper-class ladies who treat servants of her status with scorn; Lady Anne, hanging onto the title despite having lost all fortune and family, living off her meager allowance as The Queen’s chief lady-in-waiting; Luke, a young military officer who ably serves The Queen but is tormented by lingering traumas from his time in Iraq; William, senior butler, devoted to a life of service but hungry for love as well; Rebecca, the lonely, insecure, but beautiful caretaker of The Queen’s horses; and Rajiv, would-be poet and current shopboy, who just happens to sell The Queen’s very favorite cheddar.

As The Queen sets off on a jaunt toward Scotland to visit a place of happy memories, she encounters the men and women of her kingdom and, for the first time in her life, has conversations with ordinary people, unhindered by social protocol and formalities. As The Queen takes taxis, buses, and trains, she is in her element as her years of official socializing pay off. She meets people, she engages them in conversation, she draws them out, she makes them feel interesting. This is something she is good at! By the end, The Queen has regained a new spring in her step, and though she returns to her regular life without much fuss, it’s clear that she’s going to shaking things up a bit in the days to come.

I loved the writing in Mrs. Queen Takes The Train. Early on, this sentence gave me a good sense of the fun yet to come:

She stalked toward the computer on the other side of the room as if it were game and she meant to shoot it.

An ongoing theme throughout the book is The Queen’s yoga practice — which of course made me wonder, does the real Queen do yoga too? It certainly seems beneficial to the fictional Queen, and I was highly amused picturing her in plank or warrior pose.

I should make clear that this is by no means a silly book, although there’s certainly much warmth and humor here. Yes, it’s kind of funny to think about the Queen of England taking public transportation, running around in borrowed hoodies, and having to dig through her ubiquitous handbag for train fare. But within Mrs. Queen Takes The Train is a deeper thread of inner life. All of the characters, in their own ways, are lonely people, devoted in one way or another to their roles and positions, but missing out on meaningful human connection. The pains and sorrows of growing older, the isolation of never finding love, the ache that can arise from loss that’s kept hidden inside — all are dealt with sensitively and realistically. The characters in this book may live in a castle, but all — even The Queen herself — come across as real people with real crises, and you can’t help but love them all quite a bit by the time the book is through.

As an American reading Mrs. Queen Takes The Train, I was unfamiliar with many of the titles and idioms related to palace life and the monarchy in general. Thank goodness for the internet — I now know what an equerry is! (Do you?)  I know that for many in the US, the British monarchy is viewed as an amusing old token of days gone by, not good for much more than celebrity photo shoots, mildly interesting gossip and scandal, and the occasional big hoopla of a royal wedding. Mrs. Queen Takes The Train does a wonderful job of showing how the royal family influences and is influenced by English modern society, and the role they serve in maintaining tradition and a link to living history.

I enjoyed Mrs. Queen Takes The Train very much, for its gently amusing story line, its warm and lovely characters, and its peek behind the castle walls. We can only wonder whether The Queen’s inner life, as portrayed so richly and movingly here, relates in any way to the experiences of the real Queen of England. Still, I walked away from reading this book with a renewed fondness for Her Majesty — long live The Queen!

I take pictures in bookstores. Is that wrong?

Posted in Bookish Thoughts by

I don’t think I’m doing anything wrong… and yet I find myself feeling like I need to either hide or defend my actions, which would seem to indicate a disturbance in my good-conscience field.

I guess I didn’t realize just how often I end up taking pictures of books in bookstores until I was doing some clean-up of the photos on my IPhone, and found just a staggering number of these:

 

paris wife invention frankenstein expeditioners dovekeepers buncle bday boys bananasscurvysylviahouse on fire

All photos taken by me, in various bookstores, over the course of a couple of weeks. Some for me, some for my grown-up daughter, some for my 10-year-old son.

So what’s the deal? Well, look, let’s accept the premise that we can’t all buy everything we want. Limited dollars, limited space, limited amounts of time in which to actually, you know, read books. So I go, I peruse, I browse, I skim. I rarely walk out of a bookstore empty-handed. But chances are, for every single book I buy, I can probably find at least ten more that I want.

In ancient days of yore (i.e., before I had a smart phone), I used to actually take notes. Like with a pen and piece of paper. Which often was a deposit slip torn out of the back of my checkbook. Which is the thing I used to carry around in my purse before electronic bill pay. Oooh, I am so going down a rabbit hole here.

Back to the here and now. Can I help it if it’s quicker and easier to take a pic instead of pawing through my bag for a real-live (well, inanimate, to be honest) writing implement?

Look, I go into a bookstore, I see stuff I want. And if I see stuff I want, I want to remember said stuff. And chances are I won’t, because there’s too much other stuff clogging up my brain’s hard-drive at the moment.

So I take pictures of the books I want to remember. Maybe I just want to look them up later on and get a better sense of whether they’re for me. Maybe I’ve never heard of the book, but hey! it’s blurbed by an author I like! Maybe it’s something that sounds like something I’ll want to read eventually… but I might not get to it this year – or next – or quite possibly the one after that.

So I take pictures. And maybe when I get home I’ll check to see if any of the books that caught my eye are available at the library. Or possibly, next time I’m in my local used bookstore, I’ll look at the pictures to see if I can find them on the shelves. Or perhaps I’ll just add the books to my Goodreads to-read shelf, and maybe not think about them again for a few months. And yes, there might be one or two that down the road, I end up ordering from Amazon.

I think the fact that I’m writing all this is a pretty strong indicator that I have mixed feelings about the matter. After all, I want brick-and-mortar bookstores to survive and thrive. I love being able to pop in, browse, see what’s out now, see what pretty or unusual covers catch my eye. But honestly, I’m just not going to spend a ton on any given bookstore visit… but I will (oh, 9 times out of 10) buy something.

I solemnly swear that I am not using the absolutely evil scan function on my Amazon app, which I believe only exists in order to tempt us to pick up a book in the bookstore, scan it, see how much cheaper it is on Amazon, and then walk out of the store and order it online. That’s just wrong.

For the record, most of the above photos were taken over the course of a single weekend spent on a little getaway with my daughter, who loves hanging out in bookstores just as much as I do. Some of the photos are for her, some for me. We visited about five bookstores during our weekend, during which I bought her one brand-new copy of The Hobbit, ten used books (everything from Isabel Allende to good old Tolstoy), and one used book for myself (Daphne du Maurier’s My Cousin Rachel). After the weekend, I sent two of the books pictured above to my daughter (via used bookstores), found used copies of a couple more for myself, and put in a request at the library for one more. As for the rest? I’d like to remember to come back to them at some point, but don’t need to read them right now.

So am I hurting bookstores by browsing a lot, buying a little, and taking lots of photos for future reference? Is this any different than my old habit of writing down zillions of book titles every time I’d enter a bookstore? I don’t think I’m causing any harm… but then why do I feel guilty?

Flashback Friday: East Wind: West Wind by Pearl S. Buck

Posted in Flashback Friday by

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:

  1. Has to be something you’ve read yourself
  2. Has to still be available, preferably still in print
  3. 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:

East Wind: West Wind by Pearl S. Buck

(published 1929)

Pearl S. Buck, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, is perhaps best known for her masterpiece The Good Earth. But how many people have read her first novel, East Wind: West Wind?

From Amazon:

East Wind: West Wind is told from the eyes of a traditional Chinese girl, Kwei-lan, married to a Chinese medical doctor, educated abroad. The story follows Kwei-lan as she begins to accept different points of view from the western world, and re-discovers her sense of self through this coming-of-age narrative.

In East Wind: West Wind, the main character is an obedient and devoted daughter of a traditional Chinese family, raised to be a good wife according to the dictates of her society. She is taught to obey her husband, follow his opinion in all matters, and to serve him as he sees fit. However, her husband has been influenced by his exposure to more modern ways of life and wants a wife who is a partner and who can think for herself.

It is fascinating to see the culture clash that results from this marriage of tradition and modernity. Ultimately, a woman raised to obey her husband finds herself in a position where the only way she can obey him is by disobeying, in order to meet his desire for a wife who is more than a servant to him.

My copy of East Wind: West Wind disappeared years ago, and I’ve always wanted to pick up a new copy and revisit this wonderful novel. If you’ve enjoyed other works by Pearl S. Buck or more contemporary novels set in China (such as Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See), I highly recommend reading East Wind: West Wind.

And if you’re the person who borrowed my copy about ten years ago… I want it back!

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!

Book Review: The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey

Posted in Book Reviews by

Book Review: The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey

Reading a book about ballet dancers is a bit like studying anthropology or reading fiction set in an exotic land. Ballet is a world and a culture unto itself, with its own customs, morals, standards, language, costumes, and rituals. Those at the peak of the profession form an insular little society, truly an alien species in the eyes of the non-ballet world — and even more so, the “normal” world, to the ballet elite, is foreign, slightly unpleasant, and unrelentingly ordinary.

So it would seem, in any case, from reading The Cranes Dance, an excellent but disturbing peek into the world of a top New York City ballet company, as told by main character Kate Crane — whose perspective may not be all that reliable. Kate is in her late-ish 20s, and has been with the Company since she was a rising teen ballet student. Kate is a lovely and talented dancer, but her younger sister Gwen is a star. Gwen joins the Company a year after Kate, but is made a principal (a prima ballerina, if you will) at the same time that Kate, with more years of experience, is raised from the corps to soloist (a featured dancer, performing good roles, but definitely not the star of the show). But it’s all okay, because Kate is devoted to Gwen, and from day one sees her as someone to be nurtured and cherished, whose gift must be protected and encouraged above all else.

As The Cranes Dance opens, Kate is on her own in New York for the first time in a decade, after having called her parents in Michigan to report that Gwen has had a nervous breakdown. Gwen has been scooped up and taken away by the parents, and Kate is left to deal with her grief, her guilt, and deep down, her relief at being free for once in her life. Unfortunately, Kate has perfected the skill of not dealing. She’s made a career of keeping everyone at arm’s length, never admitting that she has needs or wants, and finds herself adrift.

Unceremoniously dumped by her boyfriend (she never let him be there for her, apparently), Kate moves into Gwen’s now empty apartment, and more or less into Gwen’s life. She lives amongst Gwen’s things, she wears Gwen’s clothes and uses Gwen’s hair products, and before long, she’s dancing roles meant for Gwen as well. Friends and colleagues tell Kate that she’s never danced better, and the company director comments that it’s been hard “to watch you diminish yourself” — implying, perhaps, that Kate’s devotion to Gwen has kept her from letting herself shine on her own.

But has Kate also taken over Gwen’s mental deterioration? Warning signs abound. After a neck injury, Kate turns to Vicodin to numb the pain — and soon, to numb everything else. Like Gwen, Kate is unable to sleep and loses weight due to lack of appetite. Kate narrates her life for the audience she imagines constantly watching her, as if being on stage is a shield against the dangers and disappointments of actual living. Inhabiting Gwen’s home, all alone, Kate is left to stare at the mysterious and disturbing tape marks and secret notes and symbols that Gwen used as talismans against fear, her secret obsessive-compulsive safety nets. Can Kate be strong where Gwen could not? Can Kate numb the pain indefinitely, or will her world come crashing down as well?

I enjoyed The Cranes Dance a great deal. According to her website, “Meg Howrey is a classically trained dancer who has performed with the Joffrey, Los Angeles Opera, and City Ballet of Los Angeles.” Clearly, this is a writer who knows the world she so keenly describes. The first-person narration gives us a front-row view of the workings of Kate’s mind, and she can be hilariously funny at times, despite the physical and emotional pain that accompany her throughout her days.

Crisp, delicious writing abounds, such as this passage in which Kate must suffer through drinks with a smile:

“Oh, but I love The Nutcracker,” began the [woman], and then launched into the familiar non-dancer girl talking to dancer girl conversation. “Do your toes bleed?” “I had a friend/cousin/neighbor who danced who was really serious about her dancing until she got too tall/hurt her knee/went to college.” “You must not be able to eat anything.” “It must take a lot of discipline, I can’t even imagine doing what you do.” “All the men are gay, right?”

The book opens with Kate describing the plot of Swan Lake, which is the headlining production in the company’s performance season. It’s much too much to quote in full, but this little snippet gives a good sense of the tone as well as Kate’s unique perspective on dance and life in general:

Act I opens in the village green of an unspecified, vaguely German realm. We’re a little hazy on the time period too. It’s Days of Yore, I guess, in the yore when everyone in pseudo Germany wandered around their village green in nearly identical outfits… Anyway A Village Green Scene is standard issue for classical ballet, and if you’ve seen one circlet of peasant-dancing hoo-ha, you’ve seen them all. There’s a garland dance and a Maypole and a lot of people standing around fake clapping or pointing out to each other that other people are dancing in the middle of the stage… So everyone just wanders around greeting each other with head nods if you’re a girl and shoulder thumping if you’re a guy, and then one person will indicate Center Stage like “Hey, did you see? There are people dancing! Isn’t that neat!” And the other person will make a gesture like “Yes! Dancing. It is happening there!”

And so on. It’s fun, it’s funny, it often terribly sad, and it’s frequently disturbing. At the same time, Kate’s voice is engaging — even when she’s being obnoxious — and you can’t help but want to shake her a bit and get her to just, you know, snap out of it! You’re a ballerina! Enjoy yourself!

Go ahead, hum a few bars. Pirouettes are allowed too.

The glimpse into the backstage life of a ballet company is deliciously exotic. The endless classes and rehearsals, the jockeying for positions and good partners, the little slips that can spell disaster, the triumphs of a perfect gesture — all these are brought to life so vividly that you can hear the toe shoes landing after a jump. I dare you to read this book and not spend the next few days humming Swan Lake as you  move, oh so gracefully, down the busy streets, perhaps with visions of tutus dancing in your head.

Whether you read The Cranes Dance as a story of sisters, a narrative of mental illness, a profile of a person shut off from the world, or just for the joy of the behind-the-scenes glamour and excitement, I do believe you’ll be as entranced by the book as I was. You don’t have to be a ballet fan to enjoy The Cranes Dance — but you’ll probably want to dig out those old The Turning Point or White Nights videos by the time you’re done.

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by

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.
  • Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
  • Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
  • Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
  • 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 Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

From Amazon:

The Chaperone is a captivating novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922 and the summer that would change them both.

Only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star and an icon of her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas, to study with the prestigious Denishawn School of Dancing in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone, who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle, a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip, has no idea what she’s in for. Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous black bob with blunt bangs, is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will transform their lives forever.

For Cora, the city holds the promise of discovery that might answer the question at the core of her being, and even as she does her best to watch over Louise in this strange and bustling place she embarks on a mission of her own. And while what she finds isn’t what she anticipated, she is liberated in a way she could not have imagined. Over the course of Cora’s relationship with Louise, her eyes are opened to the promise of the twentieth century and a new understanding of the possibilities for being fully alive.

Drawing on the rich history of the 1920s,’30s, and beyond—from the orphan trains to Prohibition, flappers,  and the onset of the Great Depression to the burgeoning movement for equal rights and new opportunities for women—Laura Moriarty’s The Chaperone illustrates how rapidly everything, from fashion and hemlines to values and attitudes, was changing at this time and what a vast difference it all made for Louise Brooks, Cora Carlisle, and others like them.

Why do I want to read this?

I seem to be drawn to historical fiction lately, and I do love the 1920s/New York setting. I adored The Diviners by Libba Bray, which was a supernatural-tinged YA novel set in the same era. The Chaperone, with its hint of glamour and promise of empowerment for the lead female characters, sounds like both a great story about personal change and an exciting trip back to the roaring ’20s.

Have you read The Chaperone? What did you think? And what are you wishing for this week?

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!

Teaser Tuesdays – 1/15/2013

Posted in Bookish Thoughts by

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: •Grab your current read  •Open to a random page  •Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page — but watch out for spoilers!  •Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers! 

My teaser for this week is from The Cranes Dance by Meg Howrey:

Page 258:

I looked at the topography of Mara’s bent-over back. Stone footpaths of vertebrae. Cresting ribs like sand dunes. Shoulder-blade cliffs. When she pulled at the tape around her big toe, the muscles of her back volcanoed new islands into the valley.

Do you have a teaser to share? Add your link or your teaser in the comments below. Happy reading!