Tag Archives: books

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.

Hurray for a sun-filled weekend, perfect for sitting on the back porch with a book firmly in hand. So what’s on the agenda for this week?

From last week:

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: Done! Wow, what a wild ride that was. My review is here.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater: Just started this one yesterday… reserving judgement for now.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (group re-read): Great chapters, with summaries written by yours truly. It’s a nice bit of validation when one’s chapter summaries provoke a good discussion. Yet another reason why I love my online book group.

And this week’s new agenda:

I should be done with The Raven Boys in the next day or two.

I managed to come home with a fresh stack of library books again this weekend. Why do I always feel like I’m playing catch-up? Or maybe it’s more like Beat the Clock — can I read all of these books before time runs out?

Next up will be either Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple or Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt.

My son and I have made great progress on the book we started last week, and should be ready for something new in the next couple of days. I’m thinking Ella Enchanted or From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler — but he may have a different opinion entirely.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon: Chapters 62 and 63 this week. We’re within 100 pages of the end!

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: The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

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:

The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

(published 1972)

Last week, my Flashback Friday pick was one of the first feminist novels I’d ever read. So is it weird that this week’s pick is my very first romance novel? I first read The Flame and the Flower in my early-ish teens, and never realized how revolutionary this book was until I took a women’s studies course in college that focused on women as readers… and The Flame and the Flower was on the syllabus! My professor had published a book entitled Reading the Romance, and her field of expertise was studying what the books women read reveal about their lives. Fascinating stuff.

Of course, some part of me never got past the dreamy-eyed teen stage with this book; even knowing that it was perpetuating all the awful gender roles typical in a romance novel — dashing sea captain, innocent girl swept up in a grand romance after being coerced into the relationship, a vengeful ex-lover to complicate matters, and utimately, the heroine taming the untameable captain’s heart — I always did have a soft spot for this sweeping, romantic tale.

So what’s it all about?

From Amazon:

The Flower:

Doomed to a life of unending toil, Heather Simmons fears for her innocence—until a shocking, desperate act forces her to flee. . . and to seek refuge in the arms of a virile and dangerous stranger.

The Flame:

A lusty adventurer married to the sea, Captain Brandon Birmingham courts scorn and peril when he abducts the beautiful fugitive from the tumultuous London dockside. But no power on Earth can compel him to relinquish his exquisite prize. For he is determined to make the sapphire-eyed lovely his woman. . .and to carry her off to far, uncharted realms of sensuous, passionate love.

Until today, I hadn’t realized that The Flame and the Flower was considered a major turning point in publishing history. According to Wikipedia:

The first romance novel to detail physical intimacy between the protagonists, the book revolutionized the historical romance genre. It was also the first full-length romance novel to be published first in paperback rather than hardback.

And again from Amazon:

The success of this novel prompted a new style of writing romance, concentrating primarily on historical fiction tracking the monogamous relationship between a helpless heroine and the hero who rescued her, even if he had been the one to place her in danger. The romance novels which followed in her example featured longer plots, more controversial situations and characters, and more intimate and steamy sex scenes.

Listen, I’m sure if I re-read The Flame and the Flower today, I’d spend about half the time rolling my eyes, and I would never, ever swoon over Brandon Birmingham… now that I’m a full-grown adult. Still, this book was my first encounter with passionate adult relationships in fiction — even if the relationship in this book is highly idealized, unrealistic, and not at all PC. No, I never wanted to run off with a dashing sea captain… but I have retained a fondness for brave, strong heroes in my historical fiction reading, and perhaps I have Kathleen Woodiwiss to thank for the early introduction.

So, yeah, if you want to see where today’s massively successful romance novel industry has its roots, The Flame and the Flower is not a bad place to start. Bring your smelling salts. Swoons happen.

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: This is my baby-steps attempt at a blog hop! Join in, post a Friday Flashback 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. Let’s get this party started!



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:

Dare Me by Megan Abbott

From Goodreads:

Addy Hanlon has always been Beth Cassidy’s best friend and trusted lieutenant. Beth calls the shots and Addy carries them out, a long-established order of things that has brought them to the pinnacle of their high-school careers. Now they’re seniors who rule the intensely competitive cheer squad, feared and followed by the other girls — until the young new coach arrives.

Cool and commanding, an emissary from the adult world just beyond their reach, Coach Colette French draws Addy and the other cheerleaders into her life. Only Beth, unsettled by the new regime, remains outside Coach’s golden circle, waging a subtle but vicious campaign to regain her position as “top girl” — both with the team and with Addy herself.

Then a suicide focuses a police investigation on Coach and her squad. After the first wave of shock and grief, Addy tries to uncover the truth behind the death — and learns that the boundary between loyalty and love can be dangerous terrain.

The raw passions of girlhood are brought to life in this taut, unflinching exploration of friendship, ambition, and power. Award-winning novelist Megan Abbott, writing with what Tom Perrotta has hailed as “total authority and an almost desperate intensity,” provides a harrowing glimpse into the dark heart of the all-American girl.

Why do I want to read this?

Cheer squads and high school power trips are not normally my thing. However, Dare Me has gotten exceptionally positive reviews. As the New York Times reviewer wrote:

Sounds terrible, right? But don’t let Abbott fool you. “Dare Me,” her sixth novel, is subversive stuff. It’s “Heathers” meets “Fight Club” good. Abbott pulls it all off with a fresh, nervy voice, and a plot brimming with the jealousy and betrayal you’d expect from a bunch of teenage girls.

And from Entertainment Weekly:

Dare Me is billed by its publisher as a Fight Club for girls, but calling them ”girls” might be underestimating the binge-drinking, lunch-vomiting, social-climbing queen bees in this dark high school thriller. Megan Abbott’s young heroines are cheerleaders, but they’re really more like teenage gladiators.

I’m intrigued. Cheerleaders as gladiators, with a dash of Heathers? Excuse the cliché, but… bring it on.

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!

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.

Nothing like the home team playing in (AND SWEEPING) the World Series to seriously interfere with one’s reading agenda! (and I’m not normally a baseball fan at all… but ya gotta go with the flow). Back to the books! What’s on the agenda for this week?

From last week:

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell: I finished my re-read of this beautiful book. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of it.

I finally got a chance to attack my pile of library books. First up: Breed by Chase Novak. A great choice for pre-Halloween reading — boy, is this a disturbing book!

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (group re-read): Another couple of very good chapters.

And this week’s new agenda:

I should be done with Breed either today or tomorrow, assuming I can stomach it.

Next up: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Finally! I’m hoping to get this one read before it’s due back at the library next weekend.

And after that? One of two young adult novels waiting for my attention: Either The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater or Because It Is My Blood by Gabrielle Zevin.

My son and I have started a new kids’ book by Eva Ibbotson. So far, so good! He does tend to bail on books after a few chapters, so the fact that we’ve gotten about a third of the way through it already is a good sign.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon: Chapters 60 and 61 this week, and it’s my turn to write chapter summaries for our group re-read. Must put on my thinking cap!

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: Braided Lives by Marge Piercy

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:

Braided Lives by Marge Piercy

(published 1982)

From Amazon:

Growing up in Detroit in the 1950s, and going to college when the first seeds of sexual freedom are being sown, Jill and Donna are coming of age in an exciting, turbulent time. Wry, independent Jill thrives in the new free-spirited world, while her beautiful cousin Donna desperately searches for a man to make her life whole. As each cousin is driven by different demons and desires, they eventually realize that they cannot overcome fundamental differences in each others’ lives. Still, as their futures assume contrary paths, Jill and Donna realize that they may be separated, but they’ll never be truly divided from one another.

It’s not too much of an exaggeration to call Braided Lives a life-changing book. I read it, way back when, when I was still a college student. (Yes, that’s a picture of my very own copy, which definitely looks its age.) I happened upon this book in a used-book store, at a time when I was first exploring issues around empowerment and feminism. Marge Piercy’s books were eye-opening, teaching me so much about female friendship, societal pressure in regard to gender roles, and the ongoing struggle for independence and equality. Braided Lives is a book with a message, but at the same time, it is a lovely, moving, at times heart-breaking portrait of love and friendship, and is a powerfully written piece of fiction.

I’d always wondered whether this book would hold up and still be relevant so many years later. My daughter, a recent college graduate, just read Braided Lives this past year, and was blown away by this tale of two young women’s friendship, the hard choices they have to make, and the different paths ahead of them. So that would be a resounding YES — Braided Lives is a book that still has a message for young women today, as well as anyone else who enjoys a good, sensitive, and touching story.

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: This is my baby-steps attempt at a blog hop! Join in, post a Friday Flashback 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. Let’s get this party started!



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:

Tempest Reborn by Nicole Peeler
(to be published May 2013)

Tempest Reborn is the sixth and final book in Nicole Peeler’s Jane True series… and if you’ve never encountered Jane True, you’re missing out on some sassy, sexy, supernatural fun. Because I’m a big believer in not spoiling anything if I can help it, rather than quote the blurb for Tempest Reborn, I’m quoting instead from the blurb about the first book in the series, Tempest Rising:

From the author’s website:

In the tiny village of Rockabill, Maine, Jane True—26-year-old bookstore clerk and secret night swimmer—has no idea that her absent mother’s legacy is entry into a world populated by the origins of human myths and legends.  It is a world where nothing can be taken for granted: vampires are not quite what we think; dogs sometimes surprise us; and whatever you do, never—ever—rub the genie’s lamp.   For Jane, everything kicks off when she comes across a murder victim during her nightly clandestine swim in the freezing winter ocean.  This grisly discovery leads to the revelation of why she has such freakish abilities in the water: her mother was a Selkie and Jane is only half human. With this knowledge, Jane soon finds herself mingling with supernatural creatures alternately terrifying, beautiful, and deadly—all adjectives that quite handily describe her new friend Ryu.  When Ryu is sent to Rockabill to investigate the murder, he and Jane fall hard for each other even as they plummet into a world of intrigue threatening to engulf both supernatural and human societies.  For someone is killing half-humans like Jane.   The question is, are the murders the work of one rogue individual or part of a greater plot to purge the world of Halflings?

I just love this series. Jane True is a bookworm (hurray!), who at the start of the series is somewhat of a town outcast and who has a past that she can’t quite make sense of. Over the course of the series, we see her come into her own as she learns about her magical heritage, develops her seriously strong powers, is welcomed into a society of supernatural beings that were there all along, and finds both love and purpose in her life.

But it’s not all action and adventure. The Jane True books are hysterically funny, while at the same time include elements touching, scary, and downright tragic. Bad things can and do happen to Jane and her friends. And yet, I find myself laughing out loud when I read these books. Nicole Peeler drops pop culture references galore, has a ready supply of snappy one-liners, and doesn’t skimp on the sexy times. Another reason to love Jane? This is a heroine who appreciates good food as much as she appreciates good sex — and believe me, both are very important to her! Jane is smart and funny, and it’s easy to root for her throughout these engaging, entertaining books.

The only negative about wishing for Tempest Reborn? Once I read it, I’ll be done with the series… and the Jane True books are just too much fun to come to an end.

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!

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.

Busy week ahead, so let’s dive right in. What’s on the agenda for this week?

From last week:

Quality over quantity, for sure! Real life (and by that, I mean the portion of my life that does not revolve around books) got in the way, big time, and it seemed that reading was relegated to the back burner — a most painful and frustrating situation for me. Here’s hoping that the coming week is a little less crazy. So, last week’s progress:

The Diviners by Libba Bray: Done! Loved it. My review is here.

And that’s really it. I caught up on a few weeks’ worth of the New York Times book review sections, but made no progress on any other books.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (group re-read): Moving forward, getting closer to the end.

And this week’s new agenda:

Due to a weird confluence of coincidences (did I just make that up? sounds weird), The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell has been on my mind. My daughter just finished reading The Sparrow this past week, and was blown away. My husband, who relies on me for his book recommendations, is ready for something new, and I’m pushing The Sparrow on him. In addition, I’m going to hear Mary Doria Russell speak this week about The Sparrow! As a consequence of all this, I’ve decided to ignore my library stack and re-read The Sparrow myself. This is one of my very favorite books, which I’ve read once on my own and once as part of a book group. It’s been about five years, and I believe it’s time to treat myself to a re-read. I can’t say it enough times — if you’ve never read this book, what are you waiting for?

Assuming I finish up by mid-week, next on the agenda will be Breed by Chase Novak and then Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Sadly, I’ll be returning some books unread to the library this week, as there simply isn’t enough time for me to read them all before their due dates. Back on the request list they go!

My son and I finished up the book we were reading together (his review is here; my review is here) — looking forward to picking out some new bedtime reading material.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon: Our online re-read is up to chapters 58 and 59 this week, and they’re good ones. My turn to write chapter summaries is next week. Gulp.

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: The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler

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:

The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler

(published 1998)

From Amazon:

Flannery Culp is 19, precocious, pretentious and incarcerated. Accused of Satanism and convicted of murder, she and her seven friends (the “Basic Eight”) have been reviled and misunderstood on the Winnie Moprah Show and similar tabloid venues. So Flannery has typed up and annotated the journals of her high school years in order to tell her real story: “Perhaps they’ll look at my name under the introduction with disdain, expecting apologies or pleas for pity. I have none here.” Handler’s sharply observed, mischievous first novel consists of Flannery’s diaries from the beginning of her senior year to the Halloween murder of Adam State and its aftermath. The journals detail Flan’s life in her clique of upper-middle-class San Francisco school friends, who desperately emulate adulthood by throwing dinner parties and carrying liquor flasks. Kate (“the Queen Bee”), Natasha (“less like a high school student and more like an actress playing a high school student on TV”), Gabriel (“the kindest boy in the world” and in love with Flan) and the rest begin experimenting with the hallucinogen absinthe. Squabbles once easily resolved grow deeper and darker when Natasha poisons the biology teacher who has been tormenting Flan. Should the Basic Eight turn on, and turn in, one of their own? Handler deftly keeps the mood light even as the plot careens forward, and as Flan, never a reliable narrator, becomes increasingly unhinged. The links between teen social life, tabloid culture and serious violence have been explored and exploited before, but Handler, and Flannery, know that. If they’re not the first to use such material, they may well be the coolest. Handler’s confident satire is not only cheeky but packed with downright lovable characters whose youthful misadventures keep the novel neatly balanced between absurdity and poignancy. (Publishers Weekly)

The Basic Eight, Daniel Handler’s first novel, is a wicked, funny, snarky story of high school, friendship, cliques, media, and murder. Before he became famous for his hugely successful Lemony Snicket book series, Handler wrote this novel, set in a fictional San Francisco high school not so very different from the real San Francisco high school that he attended.

To call The Basic Eight irreverent is putting it mildly. (Rumor has it that Handler was banned from the high school’s alumni wall of fame based on this book and its absolute skewering of the school’s faculty).

The plot moves in all sorts of weird and wonderful directions. Interspersed throughout are vocabulary lists and essay questions:

1. In this chapter, Flannery writes: “I lead a ridiculous life.” Do you agree with her assessment? Why or why not? Do you lead a ridiculous life? Why or why not?

I’m always surprised that more people haven’t heard of this book. The Basic Eight is dark and twisted, and at the same time, manages to be uproariously funny. Flipping back through the book as I write this and remembering how much fun I had with it, I’m quite tempted to read it all over again. Be warned: this is one of those books that springs so many surprises on you, you’ll want to go back to the beginning as soon as you’re done and see what clues you missed the first time around.

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: This is my baby-steps attempt at a blog hop! Join in, post a Friday Flashback 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. Let’s get this party started!



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:

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger
(to be published February 2013)

From Amazon:

It’s one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It’s quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.
Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners–and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine’s, young ladies learn to finish…everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but the also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage–in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year’s education.

Set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, this YA series debut is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail’s legions of fans have come to adore.

Why do I want to read this?

I am a huge fan of The Parasol Protectorate, Gail Carriger’s brilliant steampunk series in which supernatural beings are a mainstay of Victorian society, proper manners matter, and having the appropriate attire for dirigible travel is but one of many considerations a respectable young lady must keep in mind.

Etiquette & Espionage, book one in Ms. Carriger’s new Finishing School series, is set in the same world as The Parasol Protectorate, although several decades earlier. It is also the author’s first foray into young adult fiction, and I’ll be very curious to see what she does in this genre. (I suppose that means she’ll be toning down the sexy, steamy quotient, alas).

Gail Carriger’s writing is a delight, no matter the subject, and never fails to entertain and move (and give me lots of deliciously quotable lines). As a final note, I’d just add that Ms. Carriger is truly lovely in person. I’ve attended a few of her book signings, and she is consistently warm, funny, friendly, open to questions, and impeccably dressed.

Etiquette & Espionage is one Wishlist Wednesday pick that I know I’ll be reading the second it lands in my hands. My pre-order has been placed. Now I just have to wait for February.

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!

Bookshelf fanatics, unite!

Posted in Bookish Thoughts by

I’ve been torturing myself lately over systems of shelving books, now that I have brand spanking new bookcases in my house. How to organize? What goes where? I’ve been forced into an arrangement that’s pretty much no method at all — the bookcases with shelves placed closely together are now housing all sorts of mass market paperbacks, and the bookcases with more widely spaced shelves get my hardcovers and trade paperbacks.

Within those sections, all hell breaks loose. I have science fiction cozied up to urban fantasy. Horror is co-mingling with mysteries. One bookcase is pretty much devoted to young adult and children’s fiction, but even there, chaos abounds. Some books are shelved by author, some by theme, some just because that’s where there was a space. Then there’s my favorites bookcase, where Harry Potter books pretty much have a shelf to themselves, Outlander and all of Diana Gabaldon’s other books get their own shelf too, and everything else is just a big mish-mosh. Christopher Moore’s oeuvre sits shoulder-to-shoulder with Stephen King’s recent tomes, Under The Dome and 11/22/63. Mary Doria Russell’s books sit alongside George R. R. Martin. Every time I look at my shelves and think, “There’s got to be a better way,” I get a little scared and overwhelmed and find other things to do. (Organizing sweaters? Sweeping up dust bunnies? Sorting paper clips? Sounds swell!)

So I was heartened to read this piece by Geraldine Brooks, author of some books on my aforementioned favorites shelves. Now instead of just organizing by title, author, genre, color, or size, there’s a whole new set of considerations! How would Christopher Moore feel about being seated next to Stephen King? (I’m guessing they’d have a great time together, actually). I love that people I admire spend time worrying about where to put their books too. See, famous authors are really just like you and me! (but with more bestsellers to their credit, of course)

Just for kicks, I Googled “organizing bookshelves” to see if any other clever, erudite folks had something interesting to say on the subject. Alas, the majority of hits were for home decorating sites and self-improvement publications, telling how to get rid of unwanted clutter, how to make your bookshelves aesthetically pleading, and how to cull all those annoying classics left over from your youth. (I’m projecting a bit here…) Because gods forbid a visitor comes into your home and is shocked by messy books! What might they think?

As I was about to abandon my Google quest of the day, I did stumble across this funny, lovely how-to guide at TheBarking.com, offering twelve approaches for organizing bookshelves, among them:

You could organize the books in order to create an overall aesthetic impression. For instance, you could group according to spine color or size, or arrange the books graphically and, thus, create a literary mosaic of sorts. This is an interesting potential variation—and does have a certain appeal—but is only really feasible in circumstances in which the books are not actually intended to be read.

Clearly, I have my work cut out for me. The beauty of it all is that there’s no rush. I can take books down, put them back, shuffle and swap to my heart’s content. And then, when I’ve had enough, grab something good off the shelf, curl up in a big chair, and get in a smidgin of quality reading time. Bliss.