Tag Archives: fiction

2012: My year in books

Posted in The Reading Life by

best2012It’s that time of year, when every newspaper, magazine, blog, and website is filled with “Best of” and “Top Ten” lists for the year that’s coming to a close. So why not jump on the bandwagon?

2012 was a year filled with great and memorable books (aren’t they all?). For me, it’s hard to pin down the absolute “best” books of the year, but this post is my own little way of summing up what I loved, what I hated, what made me laugh, what made me cry… and just about everything in between.

[Note: Included here are books that I read in 2012. Many were released in 2012, but some are older. Hey, it’s my list. Make of it what you will.]

Favorite quirky titles: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple and Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt are the winners here, with honorable mention to The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison. Even better than the titles: The fact that I really enjoyed all three of these terrific novels.

Biggest sources of shame: That I read the Fifty Shades trilogy, pretty much without stopping to breathe, over the course of a weekend. Good literature? Nope. But impossible to tear your eyes away from? Absolutely.

Sexy without shame: The lovely Ocean’s Surrender by Denise Townsend. Good writing, interesting characters, and scorching hot action. Erotic and classy, but never cheesy.

Favorite new graphic novel series: Without doubt, gotta be the Fables series by Bill Willingham. I love everything about it, managed to gobble up all 17 volumes plus the spin-off Jack of Fables series and several other Fables-related stand-alones. Waiting impatiently for volume 18, due out in January.

Favorite new series of the non-illustrated variety: I think I’d have to go with the Mercy Thompson series, the outstanding urban fantasy series by Patricia Briggs. Populated by shape-shifters, werewolves, vampires, fey, and all sorts of things that go bump in the night, yet grounded in relatable characters who have day jobs, homes, and bills to pay, this series has just the right mix of real life and supernatural.

Best twisty-turny plots: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson. Absolute roller-coaster rides.

Favorite illustrated book for kids: Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick. From the author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a simply beautiful and heart-breaking story in which the illustrations are part of the narrative. Appropriate for middle grade readers and above. (This grown-up was reduced to tears)

Favorite illustrated book for grown-ups: Sacré Bleu by Christopher Moore. You just can’t go wrong with a Christopher Moore book. Sacré Bleu, set in Paris, with a star-studded cast of Impressionist painters plus a few otherworldly types thrown in, is funny, fast-paced, and altogether full of win.

Books that I was happy to cry over: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein put me through an emotional wringer, but they’re such excellent books that I didn’t mind in the slightest.

Most powerful YA fiction read in 2012: See above.

Best YA fiction that should just be marketed as great fiction rather than confined to YA: See above.

Loveliest author encounter: When I heard that Mary Doria Russell, author of The Sparrow (love, love, love) was coming to my city to speak at a high school, I contacted her to see if the event was open to the public. It wasn’t, but she arranged for me to attend as her guest. Her appearance was wonderful, and I was so impressed by the reactions of the high school students (at an all-girls Catholic school, no less!) to this difficult and often very adult subject matter. As an added treat, I had time before her presentation to sit and talk with her, and she could not have been friendlier. Afterward, I mentioned in a thank-you email to Ms. Russell that my book group had chosen her novel Doc as our next book, and she directed me to the book group page at Random House, where I was able to request a book chat with her. My little book group and I then spent an hour on the phone with Ms. Russell, and she was absolutely delightful — warm, funny, smart, gracious, and welcoming. We all came out of that discussion practically walking on air.

Best armchair travels via fiction: Antarctica, via Where’d You Go Bernadette; Orkney Islands and Iceland via The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey; Mississippi River via Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin; Alaska via The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.

Most haunting dystopias and apocalypses: The Dog Stars by Peter Heller; The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson; Flashback by Dan Simmons.

Best end-of-a-series to be read with a cup of tea: Timeless, the 5th and final volume in Gail Carriger’s fabulous Parasol Protectorate series.

Weirdest set-ups for great books: Going Bovine by Libba Bray, about a teenager dying of mad cow disease; and Every Day by David Levithan, about A, who wakes up in a different body every day.

Most enjoyable forays into other time periods: The Diviners by Libba Bray, one of my favorites of the year, full of flappers and insouciant fun in the New York of the roaring 1920s; and Doc by Mary Doria Russell, historical fiction about Doc Holliday that was completely lovely to read.

Biggest disappointment (but I read it anyway): Opinions are very divided on The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling. Count me as one of the naysayers.

Biggest disappointments that I just couldn’t finish: The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin (enjoyed the first in this series, but just couldn’t get into book #2) and The Red House by Mark Haddon.

Most unique use of language: The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan. The author’s use of words to create a setting, a mood, and a culture is beyond description. The story itself is beautiful, but it’s Margo Lanagan’s way with the English language that truly sets this book apart from everything else I’ve read this year. (Plus, the cover is really pretty!)

Don’t read if you’re going on a cruise: The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan and The House of Velvet and Glass by Katherine Howe would not be good choices to read during a sea voyage. If you plan to stay on dry land, however, these are both quite good.

Don’t read if you’re pregnant: Breed by Chase Novak and Talulla Rising by Glen Duncan. Fantastically creepy horror, excellent books, but they’ll certainly wipe your mind clean of happy little pink and blue bunnies and lambs.

Best books with airport encounters: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith (good outcome) and Stolen by Lucy Christopher (bad outcome).

Best book that sounds like it’s about travel (but it’s not): Looking for Alaska by John Green.

Best use of a bookstore as a romantic setting: Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.

Great fiction that taught me a thing or two: Gold by Chris Cleve, which taught me all about Olympic bicycle racing and Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness, which taught me about alchemy (and also how uncomfortable it is to dress as an Elizabethan-era woman). And dare I add Breed by Chase Novak? Breed taught me not to fly off to former Soviet-bloc countries to seek experimental fertility treatments from shady doctors. (Clearly, I’m still a bit traumatized by that book. Scary.)

Best riffs on classics: The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey, a re-telling of Jane Eyre, and Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James, set in the world of Pride and Prejudice.

Best reunion with old friends: All of the books in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer graphic novel series. So great to hang out with the Scoobies again!

Futuristic worlds I don’t want to live in: Flashback by Dan Simmons is a chilling portrayal of a future United States that’s utterly bleak and hopeless, and yet depressingly easy to envision. And Because It Is My Blood by Gabrielle Zevin is set in a world in which chocolate is illegal. Tell me that’s not a terrifying thought!

Children’s book that might seem like a Harry Potter rip-off (but isn’t): The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson. (This one came first)

Fun books to read with a kid: The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series by Maryrose Woods; Chomp by Carl Hiassen; Half Magic by Edward Eager; The Haunting of Granite Falls by Eva Ibbotson.

And finally…

Books that just plain old made me happy:

All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen: Brilliantly comedic steampunk cross-dressing fun.
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins and The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith: Lovely, spirited, romantic YA tales with non-cookie-cutter characters.
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter: Who would have thought that a book about 1960s Hollywood, Italian fishing villages, and Richard Burton could be such a great read?

… and many more, which, for whatever reason, I can’t quite categorize but still really enjoyed (plus a few that are probably better off forgotten). It’s been a great year of reading! I can’t wait to see what treasures I’ll uncover in 2013!

 

Flashback Friday: Second Nature by Alice Hoffman

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:

Newest edition. Pretty, but really provides no clue what this book is about.

This looks like the one I read, way back when.

Second Nature by Alice Hoffman

(published 1994)

I have a love/hate relationship with Alice Hoffman. Not with her personally (we’ve never had the pleasure of meeting), but with her novels. When they work for me, I fall in love. But when they don’t, I tend to really, really dislike them. Second Nature goes into the “love” column, along with Practical Magic and The Dovekeepers, among others.

The Amazon description of Second Nature is a bit vague:

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Dovekeepers, Second Nature tells the story of a suburban woman, Robin Moore, who discovers her own free spirit through a stranger she brings home to her perfectly ordered neighborhood. As Robin impulsively draws this beautiful, uncivilized man into her world — meanwhile coping with divorce and a troubled teenage son — she begins to question her wisdom and doubt her own heart, and ultimately she changes her ideas about love and humanity.

Not so different from the generic chick-lit, suburban love story type of fiction, right? Well, no. What they’re not telling you is that the man who enters the life of the main character was raised by wolves — so when they say “uncivilized”, they really mean uncivilized.

A little more info from the Library Journal synopsis:

Hoffman continues her sensitive portrayal of outcasts, growing more bizarre with each book. Here she introduces Stephen, raised by wolves and about to be declared incurably insane, who is rescued by a woman in the midst of a messy divorce. This small Long Island town is complete with pettiness, busybodies, and interrelated lives. Robin’s estranged husband is on the police force, her brother is Stephen’s psychiatrist, and her teenage son dates the girl next door, whose sister is murdered. It is one of many murders (first animals, then humans), all easy to blame on you-know-who.

Okay, yes, bizarre might be an apt description. But it’s also passionate and lovely, and I love a good story that doesn’t follow along the well-trodden path. Maybe every single plot detail doesn’t quite hold up to logical scrutiny, but that’s beside the point. What makes Second Nature work, at least for me, is the depth of emotion and fire that practically drip from the pages.

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 somewhere in your post.
  • Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs

Scheduled for publication in March 2013, Frost Burned is the 7th book in Patricia Briggs’s outstanding Mercy Thompson series. Since I’m a big spoiler-phobe, rather than giving a preview of book seven, I’ll share this description of the first book in the series, Moon Called:

From Amazon:

Mercy Thompson’s life is not exactly normal. Her next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she’s fixing a VW bus for a vampire. But then, Mercy isn’t exactly normal herself.
Mercy is a shape-shifter, with powers that she slowly comes to understand over the course of the series. And she’s a tough woman who kicks butt, literally. Martial arts expert and VW mechanic, Mercy has always been something of an outsider and a loner. But as the books progress, Mercy develops deeper ties to the werewolf pack next door, as well as to various and sundry members of the supernatural world in her little corner of Washington State.

I discovered this series earlier this year, read all six books in a row, and then read the spin-off Alpha and Omega series as well. This is top-notch urban fantasy, with a strong, intelligent woman as the main character, plus an intriguing array of supporting characters. I particularly love the author’s inventiveness in defining and describing wolf pack dynamics. I haven’t encountered this type of approach in any other supernatural or fantasy-oriented books that I’ve read. The combination of love story, urban grittiness, and supernatural mystery really works, and I just can’t wait for the next installment!

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

MondayAgenda

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.

Wishing good cheer, happy holidays, and delightful reading to all! What’s on the agenda this week?

From last week:

Graphic novels galore! I read all of the books I’d planned to — possible a first for me! You can find my comments on the seven graphic novels I read this past week here.

Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman: Didn’t end up starting this one. I want to — really, I do! — but just not right now.

My son and I still haven’t started a new read-aloud yet. He was sick for most of the week, and when he’s sick, we stick with the “comfort food” of good old Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book, If I Ran The Circus, Scrambled Eggs Super, The Sneetches… the reading equivalent of chicken soup.

And this week’s new agenda:

I’ve just started Cold Days by Jim Butcher, the newest release in the Dresden Files series. This is book 14, and Harry is still going strong! This should be fun.

The library stack is growing again. Waiting to be read are Sailor Twain, a graphic novel by Mark Siegel, and YA novel Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins.

Also on my agenda for this week: Spend some time savoring two lovely new gift books that I treated myself to after receiving a couple of gift cards: My Ideal Bookshelf by Jane Mount and Thessaly La Force (I’m absolutely drooling over this book) and Buffy: The Making of a Slayer by Nancy Holder.

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 somewhere in your post.
  • Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

Mrs. Queen Takes The Train by William Kuhn

From Amazon:

After decades of service and years of watching her family’s troubles splashed across the tabloids, Britain’s Queen is beginning to feel her age. She needs some proper cheering up. An unexpected opportunity offers her relief: an impromptu visit to a place that holds happy memories—the former royal yacht, Britannia, now moored near Edinburgh. Hidden beneath a skull-emblazoned hoodie, the limber Elizabeth (thank goodness for yoga) walks out of Buckingham Palace into the freedom of a rainy London day and heads for King’s Cross to catch a train to Scotland. But a characterful cast of royal attendants has discovered her missing. In uneasy alliance a lady-in-waiting, a butler, an equerry, a girl from the stables, a dresser, and a clerk from the shop that supplies Her Majesty’s cheese set out to find her and bring her back before her absence becomes a national scandal.

Mrs Queen Takes the Train is a clever novel, offering a fresh look at a woman who wonders if she, like Britannia herself, has, too, become a relic of the past. William Kuhn paints a charming yet biting portrait of British social, political, and generational rivalries—between upstairs and downstairs, the monarchy and the government, the old and the young. Comic and poignant, fast paced and clever, this delightful debut tweaks the pomp of the monarchy, going beneath its rigid formality to reveal the human heart of the woman at its center.

I started off with a very sad-sounding book for this week’s selection, and I just couldn’t bring myself to stick with it. Who needs sad right now?

Mrs. Queen Takes The Train has been getting some really positive reviews from people whose opinions I trust, and I think it sounds rather delightful and adorable! I’d definitely be up for reading something whimsical and off-beat, and this one seems to fit the bill. I’ve put in a request at my public library… now I just have to wait.

Has anyone read it yet? What did you think?

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.

So what’s on the reading agenda this week?

From last week:

Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin: Done! My review is here.

The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin: Quit after reading 150 pages. I just couldn’t get into it, despite having enjoyed the first book in the series.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: Done! My review is here.

Beta by Rachel Cohn: Returning to the library unread. I was about to start this one, then discovered from the dust jacket that this book is first in a new series… and I’m trying to swear off new series for a while.

So far, no new books for my kiddo and me. We haven’t settled on our next read-aloud yet, and had a couple of false starts this week with books that neither of us ended up enjoying. Soldiering on! We still have a few more to try, and I’m hoping that one of the ones that I most want to read will also appeal to this opinionated 10-year-old.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon: Done! The group re-read has finally come to an end. We’ll be starting the next in the series, The Fiery Cross, in January. And if you happen to be an Outlander fan and want to join the fun, just let me know and I’ll get you connected.

And this week’s new agenda:

I hereby declare: It’s Graphic Novel Week!

I’ve been accumulating a stack of graphic novels over the past few weeks, and I think I’ll dive in and devote my reading week to catching up. So exciting! On the list are:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 9 volume 2: On Your Own: If you thought Buffy’s story ended when the TV show went off the air, and you’ve been missing her ever since, check out the continuing story in graphic novel form.

Angel and Faith: Daddy Issues: Excellent Buffy spin-off.

Soulless manga, volume 2: The manga version of Changeless by Gail Carriger.

A Wrinkle In Time graphic novel: My Hanukkah gift from my daughter. See me gushing with joy about this here.

Fairest, volume 1: A new spin-off from Bill Willingham’s Fables series, which I love madly and deeply.

Werewolves of the Heartland: A Fables stand-alone, centered on my absolutely favorite character from the Fables world. Can’t wait!

Locke & Key: Clockworks: Volume 5 in the superbly creepy series by horror master Joe Hill.

Other than graphic novels, I plan — quite cautiously and with some trepidation — to add in Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman. Given the fact that I am just a terrible reader of short stories and find it impossible to maintain interest long enough to get through an entire book of stories, even if they’re by an author whom I love (as is the case here), I’m setting myself the rather mild goal of reading this collection of fairy tales bit by bit. I’ll aim for two stories a week — that should let me enjoy the stories without feeling my usual frustration at not reading a “real” novel.

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: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

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:

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

(published 1993)

When a friend with exquisite taste in books first recommended this book to me, I delayed and dawdled. It just didn’t sound like something I’d want to read — too Biblical, perhaps? Not at all, she assured me. Just give it a try, she cajoled. When I finally read it, I could have kicked myself. Why, oh why did I wait to read this book? This masterpiece by Octavia Butler scared the heck out of me, kept me up nights, and simply enthralled me.

From Publishers Weekly:

Hugo and Nebula Award-winner Butler’s first novel since 1989’s Imago offers an uncommonly sensitive rendering of a very common SF scenario: by 2025, global warming, pollution, racial and ethnic tensions and other ills have precipitated a worldwide decline. In the Los Angeles area, small beleaguered communities of the still-employed hide behind makeshift walls from hordes of desperate homeless scavengers and violent pyromaniac addicts known as “paints” who, with water and work growing scarcer, have become increasingly aggressive. Lauren Olamina, a young black woman, flees when the paints overrun her community, heading north with thousands of other refugees seeking a better life. Lauren suffers from ‘hyperempathy,” a genetic condition that causes her to experience the pain of others as viscerally as her own–a heavy liability in this future world of cruelty and hunger. But she dreams of a better world, and with her philosophy/religion, Earthseed, she hopes to found an enclave which will weather the tough times and which may one day help carry humans to the stars. Butler tells her story with unusual warmth, sensitivity, honesty and grace; though science fiction readers will recognize this future Earth, Lauren Olamina and her vision make this novel stand out like a tree amid saplings.

Parable of the Sower sets the bar high for dystopian fiction. In a world that is scarily recognizable, as the planet warms and resources become scarce, one young woman finds the strength to lead a makeshift family north toward a better life, guided by her vision of a new faith and a new future. The novel takes place only a little over a decade from now, and it’s all too easy to see that Octavia Butler’s fictional world isn’t that far from reality. Lauren Olamina is an unforgettable heroine, and while her story has more than its share of awful inhumanity and depravity, it has moments of loveliness, inspiration, and connection as well.

Whether or not you typically read science fiction, don’t miss out on Parable of the Sower and its powerful sequel, Parable of the Talents.

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:

Paperback cover from 2009

Original hardcover design from 2003

Tooth And Claw by Jo Walton

From Amazon:

Here is a tale of a family dealing with the death of their father, a son who goes to court for his inheritance, a son who agonizes over his father’s deathbed confession, a daughter who falls in love, a daughter who becomes involved in the abolition movement, and a daughter sacrificing herself for her husband.Here is what sounds for all the world like an enjoyable Victorian novel, perhaps by Anthony Trollope…except that everyone in the story is a dragon, red in tooth and claw.Here are politics and train stations, churchmen and family retainers, courtship, and country houses…in which, on the death of an elder, family members gather to eat the body of the deceased. In which society’s high and mighty members avail themselves of the privilege of killing and eating the weaker children, which they do with ceremony and relish, growing stronger thereby.You have never read a novel like Tooth and Claw.

This may be one of my oddest wishlist selections yet. So why do I want to read this?

I’ve heard this book described as “Jane Austen with dragons”, which is probably an oversimplification — but still tickles my somewhat warped funny bone. It sounds just weird enough to appeal to my dark side, and yet is very much a story about social structure, family dynamics, class struggles… with dragons!

Definitely not your run-of-the-mill storyline! And I have absolute faith that the very talented Jo Walton can pull it off. Her Among Others was one of the most glorious books I read last year, combining science fiction, fantasy, and fairy tale into a powerful story of sisters, magic, and not incidentally, life as a book lover.

Tooth and Claw has been on my to-read list ever since I finished Among Others. I think it may be about time to bump Tooth and Claw to the top of the pile.

Has anyone read it yet? What did you think?

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.

Right down to business: What books are brewing this week?

From last week:

Because It Is My Blood by Gabrielle Zevin: Done! My review is here, but the bottom line is: If you read the first book in the Birthright series, you’ll want to pick this one up.

Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin: Just started, hard to put down.

Magic By The Lake by Edward Eager: My most recent out-loud read with my son, finally finished, and not entirely successful. Neither of us loved it, unfortunately.

And, as always, still going strong with the group re-read of Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon.

And this week’s new agenda:

It’ll take me a few days to finish Ashen Winter, unless I continue staying up past midnight because I just have to see what happens next. After that, I plan to read The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin. Still on my library pile: Beta by Rachel Cohn and Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins.

And then I plan to shift gears and take a break from young adult fiction for a bit.

In children’s books, my kiddo and I are undecided. I presented him with a big stack of books, but he’s not ready to commit. Me, I’m pulling for A Wrinkle In Time, but that may be a tad too intense for him at bedtime. We shall see.

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon: Chapters 70 and 71 this week… then one more chapter next week, and we’re done!

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: Morgan’s Run by Colleen McCullough

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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:

Morgan

Morgan’s Run by Colleen McCullough

(published 2000)

My go-to book by Colleen McCullough would probably be The Thorn Books. I read The Thorn Birds many, many years ago, but it still remains a point of reference for me in many ways. Who can forget Father Ralph and Meggie? (Insert big, romantic sigh right here…) Still, a more recent book by Colleen McCullough had quite an impact on me, and that book is Morgan’s Run.

From Amazon:

It was one of the greatest human experiments ever undertaken: to populate an unknown continent with the criminals of English society. For Richard Morgan, twelve months as a prisoner on the high seas would be just the beginning in a soul-trying test to survive in a hostile new land where, against all odds, he would find a new love and a new life. From the dank cells of England’s prisons to the unforgiving frontier of the eighteenth-century outback, Morgan’s Run is the epic tale of one man whose strength and character helped settle a country and define its future.

Morgan’s Run is a terrifically detailed historical novel, telling the tale of the prisoner transports from England to the Australian penal colonies through the experiences of a remarkable individual. Lead character Richard Morgan is an honorable man, falsely accused and convicted, who suffers unimaginable horrors during the sea voyage and the struggle to survive in a harsh, undeveloped land. I learned a great deal about the experiences of the transported convicts and the early days of English settlement down under, but what really made this an engrossing tale for me was the more personal story of Richard and his challenges, sufferings, and survival.

For those who enjoy historical fiction, I heartily recommend Morgan’s Run. And of course, if you’ve never read The Thorn Birds, read that one too!

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!