Tag Archives: books

Flashback Friday: Sunshine by Robin McKinley

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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:

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

(published 2003)

Robin McKinley is perhaps best known for her fairy tale retellings (such as Beauty, Rose Daughter, and Spindle’s End) and her heroic adventures (such as The Blue Sword and the Newbery winner The Hero and the Crown), all geared toward young adult readers. I’ve read and loved all of these, but my two favorite Robin McKinley books happen to be her two books written for adults, Deerskin and Sunshine. It’s actually hard to decide which of these to focus on — and I’ll probably come back to Deerskin in the near future for another Flashback Friday pick — but for this week, let me tell you about Sunshine and why it’s such a phenomenal piece of fiction.

From the author’s website:

Rae, nicknamed Sunshine by her stepfather, is the baker at her family’s coffeehouse. She’s happy getting up at 4 am to make cinnamon rolls for the breakfast rush, and dealing with people and food all day. But one evening she needed somewhere she could be alone for a little while, and there hadn’t been any trouble out at the lake for years.

She never thought of vampires.

Until they found her.

Yes, it’s a vampire book. No, it’s not like Twilight or any other vampire book you’ve read. Rae is a strong lead character with a mind — and powers — of her own, who must call upon her inherited magic to save herself and the imprisoned, starving vampire Constantine from a deadly trap. Constantine is not the romantic, angst-ridden, broody vampire of today’s pop culture. Dynamic and entrancing, yes, but also clearly dangerous, inhuman, disturbing, and deadly. Definitely not boyfriend material.

Robin McKinley’s website is nice enough to treat us to a quote from Neil Gaiman regarding Sunshine, and if you need any convincing to give this mesmerizing book a try, this should do it:

I woke up too early, so started reading Robin McKinley’s forthcoming novel Sunshine, in the bath. It’s an astonishing piece of work. A gripping, funny, page-turning pretty much perfect work of magical literature that exists more or less at the unlikely crossroads of Chocolat, Interview With a Vampire, Misery and the tale of Beauty and the Beast. It’s not quite SF, and it’s not really horror, and only kind of a love story, and it’s all three while still being solidly Fantastique. It also does that nice thing where the author assumes the readers are smart, and she treats us like we’re smart, and we purr and get smarter and work harder for all that. It’ll be nominated for awards, and win them; in the meantime I really hope it finds its audience, which is, potentially, huge. — Neil Gaiman

The initial set-piece of the book involves heroine Rae chained up in an abandoned mansion next to (and within reach of) a vampire who’s also been chained up and forced into starvation. This section of the book is so suspenseful and chilling that I was immediately hooked, and from there the book just swept me up into its spell and didn’t let go until the end. In Sunshine, Robin McKinley has created an entire world in which ordinary bakers and other regular people live side by side with supernatural beings, both of the extremely dangerous and the neighborly variety, and where courage and devotion count as much as magical powers and superhuman strength. The plot is fantastic, the writing entrancing, and the characters unforgettable.

The more I write about Sunshine, the more I realize that this one belongs on my must-reread-as-soon-as-I-can pile. It’s that good. Give it a try! And if you’ve read Sunshine, please leave a comment and share your thoughts.

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!



Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Most Anticipated Books For 2013

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Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. I just happened to stumble across this weekly event for book lovers, featuring a different topic for a top 10 list each week. So… here I go, jumping in!

Top 10 Tuesday newThis week’s theme:

Top Ten Most Anticipated Books For 2013

More or less in order of how badly I want to read them, here are my top 10 can’t-wait-for books of 2013:

MOBYdiscovery

1) Written In My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon: It may be a bit of a cheat to include this book, but this is the one I’m most looking forward to. Book #8 in the Outlander series will have fans in a swoon, I’m sure. The author has mentioned fall of 2013 as the likely publication date, and while I haven’t seen anything more specific than that, I’m putting it on my list and keeping my fingers crossed.

2) All Souls’ Trilogy, #3 by Deborah Harkness: Another one that’s not a sure bet, but boy, would I like it to be. According to the author’s website, this book has neither a title nor a release date, but count me in as one of the devoted fans of the series with fingers crossed hoping for a summer 2013 release.

3) Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger: Book 1 in Gail Carriger’s new Finishing School series, due out in February. I adored Ms. Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series, and will absolutely read anything and everything she writes.

4) Tempest Reborn by Nicole Peeler: The sixth and final book in the Jane True series, due out in May.

5) Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs. The next installment in Briggs’s fantastic Mercy Thompson series, starring a shape-shifting auto mechanic and the werewolves and vampires of her acquaintance. Due March.

Tale for the Time Being

6) Fables, Volume 18: Cubs in Toyland by Bill Willingham: I got hooked, big-time, on this amazing series of graphic novels. Literary, smart, funny, and engrossing, Fables has it all. I’m counting the days until I can get my hands on the newest volume, due in January.

7) The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman: Neil Gaiman falls into the category of “must read whatever he writes”, and I’ll be sure to read this new book when it’s released in June.

8) A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki: The new novel by the author of My Year of Meats, one of my all-time favorites. I don’t know what it’s about, but I have no doubt it’ll be weird and wonderful. Due March.

9) Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris: I’m kind of over the whole Sookie Stackhouse series, but I’ll still read this final book to see how the author wraps it all up. Due May.

10) NOS4A2 by Joe Hill: Joe Hill writes creepy, scary, excellent fiction. I’m looking forward to sleepless nights when this one is released in April.

Of course, that’s not counting the paperback releases I’ve been waiting for, or all the books already on my shelves that I hope to read in 2013.

Looks like we’re in for a very happy new year! Happy reading, all!

The Monday agenda

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.

What do you mean it’s Monday? Already? These long holiday weekends make it so hard to return to reality.  Although, when your reality centers around reading, I suppose any day of the week is a good one.

Onward! What’s on the agenda this week?

From last week:

Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead: Done! My review is here.

Dare Me by Megan Abbott: Just finished this one over the weekend. See my thoughts here.

My son and I are enjoying Magic By The Lake by Edward Eager, although based on the first few chapters, it’s not quite as captivating as Half Magic.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (group re-read): No chapters this week — the group took time off from the re-read to focus on family time and Thanksgiving celebrations. No, not for shopping (although I’m sure a bit of that happened too).

And this week’s new agenda:

Last week I swore that I’d start reading Doc by Mary Doria Russell by the end of Thanksgiving weekend, and I made it in under the wire! Doc will be my focus all week — it’s a finely detailed, meticulously researched piece of historical fiction, with a huge cast of characters. I think this one will take a lot of concentration, but seeing as it’s written by one of my very favorite authors, I’m sure it’ll be well worth the time and effort.

And if, by some chance, I finish Doc this week, then I’ll resubmerge myself in the big pile of YA novels borrowed from the library. I have a mix of sequels and stand-alones waiting to be read, so I should be able to find something that strikes my fancy. Most likely, I’ll start with Because It Is My Blood by Gabrielle Zevin and then see which way the winds blow. Very unlikely that I’ll read much besides Doc this week, however.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon: Diving back in with chapters 66 and 67 this week.

So many book, so little time…

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

Flashback Friday: Golden Days by Carolyn See

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:

Golden Days by Carolyn See

(published 1986)

I discovered this odd gem only a few years ago, and felt equal parts befuddled and entranced by Golden Days. This novel paints a portrait of a particular time in California, specifically 1980s LA, and then veers off into an apocalyptic final section that is both moving, shocking, and hopeful, in a very odd way.

From Publishers Weekly:

See, who is the author of three previous, rather quiet, sensitive novels, a partner in the authorship of blockbuster pop sagas (Lotus Land, 110 Shanghai Road and an admired Los Angeles Times book reviewer, has found an entirely new voice for her most current novel, a breakout if ever there was one. Her publisher mentions Joan Didion, Anne Tyler and Nora Ephron, but none quite evokes the wry yet deeply felt and devastatingly feminine tone she has caught in Golden Days, rather as if John Cheever had changed gender and moved to California. There is Cheever’s intense sense of place (Los Angeles instead of exurban Connecticut), of the passage of time and of the enormities that gape just below the surface of life in this tale of a breezy middle-aged woman coming to terms with life, men and, ultimately, nuclear war. Some of the material sounds familiar: marriage in the early 1960s to dreadfully wrong men, the depth and power of female friendship over the years, the California self-realization movement (for once, not satirized but quirkily affirmed) and, finally, the darkening into the 1980s and the coping with unimaginable nuclear horrors. But it has all been felt and thought afresh, and with startling sudden insights on nearly every page: on the way childhood memories linger, why men make war, how favorite restaurants somehow attain symbolic stature. A chapter that inhabits the mind of a philandering husband is uncanny in its accuracy and sadness. And the closing pages offer a vision of nuclear apotheosis and human survival utterly unlike anything in contemporary literature. Golden Days offers the excitement of discovering what seems like a brand-new talent, but enriched by a sureness of tragicomic touch that could only be the work of an experienced writer striking into bold new territory.

I struggled early on with this book, as the depiction of Los Angeles life felt so foreign to me, particularly with the main character’s side journey into self-improvement seminars and her odd devotion to the charismatic leader she encounters. At the same time, the author depicts the busy clamor of LA with an overarching sense of impending doom, as characters refer to the threat of war in a way that becomes more and more real, albeit unseen, as the novel progresses. And then, oddly, the final portion of the book deals with the same characters after the bombs drop — and it’s this part that has stuck in my mind ever since. I don’t quite buy the science of how the author depicts survival in a post-nuclear world, but the imagery is startling and, in this context, persuasive.

Golden Days is weird and definitely tried my patience at times, and yet it is a shocking and original depiction of an imagined nuclear holocaust and its aftermath. The powerful ending, with its strangely optimistic tone, would make great fodder for a book group discussion. Overall, I’d say give this book a try and see if it works for you.

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!



The Monday agenda

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.

The head cold that had been bouncing around my house earlier this week finally caught up with me and did serious damage to my scheduled reading time. Mostly better now, so it’s time to dive back in. What’s on the agenda for this week?

From last week:

Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt: Such a lovely book. My review is here.

The Red House by Mark Haddon: I just couldn’t finish it, despite giving it my best college try. Find out why here.

A Trail of Fire by Diana Gabaldon: Joy! Bliss! A new Diana Gabaldon book! My reaction is here.

The kiddo and I finished Half Magic by Edward Eager, always a delight. Somehow I missed out on this one during my own childhood, but have now had the pleasure of enjoying it with two of my children.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (group re-read): Going strong, getting close to the end.

And this week’s new agenda:

I’m about half-way through with Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead, which is quite a fun read.

Next up: I must make some serious headway on the stack of new YA novels I’ve borrowed from the library. I’m planning to start with a sequel: Because It Is My Blood by Gabrielle Zevin, book two in the Birthright series. I’ve enjoyed a few of her books previously, including the first Birthright book, All These Things I’ve Done. I’m looking forward to this one. If I have time for one more book, then I’ll start Dare Me by Megan Abbott, which was one of my recent Wishlist Wednesday picks.

I am absolutely committing myself to starting Doc by Mary Doria Russell by the end of Thanksgiving weekend, so I’ll have enough time to read, digest (the book, not my Thanksgiving meal — although perhaps that too), and come up with some thoughtful observations before my book group meets to discuss it in early December.

My son and I have just started Magic By The Lake by Edward Eager, a follow-up to Half Magic. So much fun!

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon: Chapters 66 and 67 this week, I think. I’d better check the group reading calendar — for all I know, we may be on hiatus for Thanksgiving.

Let’s give thanks for all the wonderful books out there just waiting to be read!

So many book, so little time…

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

Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by

And now, for this week’s 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 (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
  • Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

great & terrible beauty

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

From the Random House website:

Gemma Doyle, sixteen and proud, must leave the warmth of her childhood home in India for the rigid Spence Academy, a cold finishing school outside of London, followed by a stranger who bears puzzling warnings. Using her sharp tongue and agile mind, she navigates the stormy seas of friendship with high-born daughters and her roommate, a plain scholarship case. As Gemma discovers that her mother’s death may have an otherworldly cause, and that she herself may have innate powers, Gemma is forced to face her own frightening, yet exciting destiny . . . if only she can believe in it.

Why do I want to read this?

I’ve become quite a fan of Libba Bray over the past few years. I adored her newest novel, The Diviners, and really enjoyed Beauty Queens and Going Bovine as well. Somehow, I missed out on reading her first novel, A Great and Terrible Beauty, and its two follow-up books, Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing.

To be honest, were this not written by Libba Bray, I’m not sure I’d be drawn to it. Victorian era boarding school novels don’t necessarily call to me… but I’m willing to give it a whirl.

Have you read the Gemma Doyle trilogy? And if so, what did you think?

Happy Wednesday!

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!

Book Review: Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

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Book Review: Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

Tell The Wolves I’m Home, a first novel by Carol Rifka Brunt, defeated my best efforts to remain stoically dry-eyed while reading. What I expected to be a not-so-extraordinary family drama surprised me with its honest, emotional look at love and loss… and yes, there were tears.

Set in Manhattan and Westchester, New York in the mid-1980s, Tell The Wolves I’m Home is a look at one eventful spring in the life of 14-year-old June Elbus. As the book opens, June’s beloved uncle Finn has just died, an early casualty of the AIDS epidemic. Finn was not just June’s uncle, however; he was her godfather, her inspiration, and her first true love. Finn, a gifted artist, introduced June to everything she considers beautiful in her life — Mozart’s Requiem, visits to the Cloisters, an appreciation for the fine details all around her. June believes that the bonds between her and Finn are all-encompassing, but in the weeks following Finn’s death, June begins to realize that Finn had an entire life that she knew nothing about, and is forced to reexamine her relationship with Finn and its central role in her life.

As June reels through previously unimagined depths of loss, she is contacted by a stranger, Toby, who reveals himself to have had a key role in Finn’s life. Finn, before his death, left secret messages asking June to take care of Toby and Toby to take care of June, and as they try to honor Finn’s wishes, they find themselves connecting through shared bonds of loss, love and jealousy. June is shattered to realize how much she didn’t know about her uncle, as Toby struggles to let her in and to give dignity to June’s adolescent broken heart. As June mourns Finn and all she thinks she has lost, her older sister Greta acts out in her own brand of grief and loneliness in a desperate attempt to be understood and to reforge a connection before it’s too late.

The author does a wonderful job of capturing a particular time and place: New York, in the first throes of fear and ignorance about AIDS. Glancing references are made to Finn’s “special friend”, whom June’s parents consider a murderer — blaming him for Finn’s illness and death — and who is ostracized and banned from the funeral. June worries about catching AIDS from a kiss under the mistletoe; June’s sister is yelled at by their mother for using Finn’s chapstick. Other small details of life in the 80s bring the time to life: June wears her Gunne Sax dress in a desperate effort to isolate herself from the real world, as she hides out alone in the woods behind the school and pretends to live in the Middle Ages she so adores. Finn gives June cassette tapes of favorite music; June’s parents listen only to Greatest Hits albums (“it was like the thought of getting even one bum track was too much for them to handle”), and June has a fondness for “99 Luftballons” (the German version — much cooler sounding). June wears Bonne Belle lip gloss, and Greta has half of a “best friends” necklace, the other half of which some erstwhile best friend has long since discarded. It’s these small details and more which lend this book such a sense of nostalgic poignancy. At the same time, this coming-of-age story feels like it could be the story of any girl — or rather, every girl — growing up, seeing the human flaws in her parents, realizing that long-held truths may be illusions, finding and losing love, and coming to terms with a picture of one’s inner self which isn’t always so pretty.

Tell The Wolves I’m Home is a quiet, lovely book, a look backward that feels current and relevant, and a sad, sweet story of love and friendship. I’m so glad to have read it, and recommend it highly.

The Monday agenda

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.

So what’s on the agenda for this week?

From last week:

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater: I finished this one early in the week. Sadly, not all that impressed. (You can find out why here.)

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple: Done! Loved it. My review is here.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (group re-read): Two more engaging chapters. Almost done.

And this week’s new agenda:

I’m about 2/3 of the way through Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt. What a lovely, poignant story. I’ll finish and have a review up in the next few days.

Next, from my library pile, I plan to start either The Red House by Mark Haddon or Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead.

Tiny aside: One of the benefits of having a school-aged child is learning all sorts of useful acronyms. At my son’s school (and probably lots of others), they have DEAR time — Drop Everything And Read — in which everyone stops all other work, picks a book, and reads without interruption for 15 – 20 minutes. When my older kids were that age, it was called Silent Sustained Reading (very cute to hear a 1st-grader say this, by the way).

How is this relevant to the Monday agenda? I expect to have a DEAR moment myself in the next day or two. In my case, this means that I’ll be dropping whatever else I’m reading or planning to read as soon as my copy of A Trail of Fire by Diana Gabaldon arrives. I’ll write more about this book, and why it’s a big deal, when my copy finally gets here… which should be tomorrow (fingers crossed).

My son and I are about half-way (!) through Half Magic by Edward Eager. I was pleasantly surprised when I offered him a stack of eight or nine books and he picked out this children’s classic. It’s been many years since I last read it, but it’s still thoroughly delightful.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon: Chapters 64 and 65 this week. Emotional high points. The end is in sight.

So many book, so little time…

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

Flashback Friday: Snow Mountain Passage by James D. Houston

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.

My rules — since I’m making this up:

  1. Has to be something I’ve (you’ve) read myself (yourself) — oh, you know what I mean!
  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:

Snow Mountain Passage by James D. Houston

(published 2002)

This week’s pick for Flashback Friday was published in 2002, but as historical fiction, tells a tale that goes back to 1846. Snow Mountain Passage is a fictional retelling of one of the most infamous chapters in American history, the story of the Donner Party.

When you hear the words “The Donner Party”, if you’re like most people, you immediately think of cannibalism. For many, that’s where their knowledge of the Donner Party starts and ends. But what really happened during that awful winter? Who were these people, stranded in the mountains and struggling to survive? How did they end up in this terrible predicament?

From Goodreads:

Snow Mountain Passage is a powerful retelling of our most dramatic pioneer story–the ordeal of the Donner Party. Through the eyes of James Frazier Reed, one of the group’s leaders, and the imagined “Trail Notes” of his daughter Patty, we journey along with the ill-fated group determined, at all costs, to make it to the California territory.

James Reed is a proud, headstrong, yet devoted husband and father. As he and his family travel in the “Palace Car,” a huge, specially built–and ultimately cumbersome–covered wagon, they thrill to new sights and cope with conflict and constant danger. Yet when a fight between Reed and another driver ends in death, Reed is exiled from the group and heads over the mountains alone. The fate of the other families, including Reed’s wife and four children, is sealed when they set out across a new, untested route through the Sierra–their final mountain pass. Arriving at the foothills just as the snows start to fall, they are left stranded for months–starving, freezing, and battling to survive–while Reed journeys across northern California, trying desperately to find means and men for a rescue party.

An extraordinary tale of pride and redemption, Snow Mountain Passage is a brilliantly imagined and grippingly told story straight from American history.

I was fascinated by the story and the characters, and amazed by how much I didn’t know about the Donner Party. The author invests the historical figures with life and personality, and does a thorough yet never boring job of laying out, step by step, all the choices and mistakes that led inevitably to tragedy.

If you enjoy historical fiction, or if you think you already know all there is to know about the Donner Party, check out Snow Mountain Passage. You may be surprised by how moving the story is. I certainly enjoyed this glimpse into California’s past… and now every time I drive over Donner Pass in the Sierras, I can’t help thinking about this book — and shivering, just a bit.

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!



Wishlist Wednesday

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by

And now, for this week’s 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 (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
  • Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

Small Damages by Beth Kephart

From Amazon:

It’s senior year, and while Kenzie should be looking forward to prom and starting college in the fall, she discovers she’s pregnant. Her determination to keep her baby is something her boyfriend and mother do not understand. So she is sent to Spain, where she will live out her pregnancy, and her baby will be adopted by a Spanish couple. No one will ever know.

Alone and resentful in a foreign country, Kenzie is at first sullen and difficult. But as she gets to know Estela, the stubborn old cook, and Esteban, the mysterious young man who cares for the horses, she begins to open her eyes, and her heart, to the beauty that is all around her, and inside her. Kenzie realizes she has some serious choices to make–choices about life, love, and home.

Lyrically told in a way that makes the heat, the colors, and the smells of Spain feel alive, Small Damages is a feast for the heart and the soul, and a coming-of-age novel not easily forgotten.

Why do I want to read this?

I remember reading about this book when it was released this past summer. The reviews were overwhelmingly positive, praising both the lovely writing and the quality of the story. I’m always fond of young adult fiction, and it’s nice to see a good YA novel released that’s set in the here and now — no supernatural forces, no unearthly creatures, no natural disasters, no dystopian governments. Just the story of a girl faced with tough decisions, having to figure out who she is, what matters, and what she wants.

Confession: This is one Wishlist Wednesday book that I actually own already. I picked this up a couple of months ago (thank you, Ebay!), but somehow I managed to lose track of it until this week. So, I solemnly swear, once I make my way through my huge tower of library books, that this will be next on my to-read list.

Happy Wednesday!

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!