March Books

I completed seven books during the month of march. To see the seventh book review, see below. Not one author was American! It's sometimes sad how obvious my preferences are.

First up for the month was Jane Austen's Emma in my quest to read any and all of Austen. Emma Woodhouse fancies herself quite the matchmaker, although her success rate is fairly low. She encounters many misunderstandings and embarrassing situations before she realizes that she's basically being a brat and needs to think before meddling into other peoples' lives. This was not my favorite Austen novel. I found Emma kind of annoying (yes, even more than Fanny.) I did like Mr. Knightley and found this book more comical than others and enjoyed the happy ending, but I just didn't enjoy the overall story as much as her other works. This obviously has nothing to do with her writing style and is based solely on personal preference for the other novels, as I know a lot of people who enjoy this one. It is definitely my least favorite Austen novel, but in all honesty, really none of her novels can be classified as "bad."

Continuing with another favorite author, Philip Pullman, I read the third book in the Sally Lockhart series, The Tiger in the Well. Sally is a single mother and also independent (she's a financial advisor) in Victorian England, which was almost unheard of at the time. Her life is great until one day she receives divorce papers from a man she's never heard of and has all the proof to show they were married. This not only places her in jeopardy, but her child as well. With her best friends in South America, she's left to fight her own battle. This is my favorite book in the series. Sally is chased all over London and forced to disguise herself and really use her wits to make things work. The ending is fantastic and suspenseful and I can't wait to see how they adapt this book to the small screen. This is the last book in the series to focus mainly on Sally. This was also the longest book in the series, but for me, the quickest read.

My last full novel by Jane Austen was Persuasion. Anne Elliot is a 27 year old single girl well on her way to becoming a spinster. In her youth, she fell in love with a navy officer, Frederick Wentworth, but was persuaded to not marry him by her father and a family friend. Years later the well decorated Captain Wentworth returns when his sister and brother lease Anne's house (her father was a spend-thrift after her mother died and the family, sans Anne who joins them later, moves to Bath.) Anne finds herself again in the same company as the captain. I loved Anne. She's reserved and thoughtful, yet refuses to make the same mistakes twice. This, along with Pride and Prejudice rank as my favorite Austen novels. Persuasion seems to evoke more serious and quieter moods than her earlier works. I'm not a very romantic person, but this novel takes the cake for the best love letter ever written. I highly recommend this novel to any reluctant Austen readers.

Rounding out the Sally Lockhart series is The Tin Princess. This book features characters from the first three books, and we finally get to find out what happened to the little girl who disappeared in The Ruby in the Smoke. Adelaide is forced to move to a strange land when her husband's brother dies. She is transported, along with a native translator and her old friend and detective Jim, to a small fictional country located somewhere near Germany and Austria. After the death of her father-in-law, her husband becomes the king and Adelaide becomes the "cockney queen." When her husband is assassinated during the crowning ceremony, Adelaide is left to perform a ritual flag bearing walk up a hill by herself in order to become the ruler of the country. As the new queen, she is constantly in danger not only from Austria and Germany, but from citizens as well who have their own plans for the country. This book was action packed and I enjoyed it, although not as much as the first three books.

Sadly, I moved on to my last Austen reads. Lady Susan, The Watsons, and Sanditon are three unfinished works. The first two were written early and in the middle of her writing career and Sanditon was written right before she died of Addison's disease. While I found Lady Susan quite annoying, I really liked Sanditon until it abruptly ended. It's sad that she got so sick at the end and wasn't able to finish it or other novels, but perhaps less is more, and we should appreciate what she did complete.

My last read for the month of March was my first ever Agatha Christie! I've been waiting to read a mystery authored by her for a while now, and I thought it appropriate to begin with her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. The narrator, Hastings, is just back from the war when he meets his friend John Cavendish who invites him to come and stay at his mother Emily Cavendish's home, Styles. After running into his Belgian detective friend, Hercule Poirot, Emily dies during the middle of the night, apparently poisoned. Hastings immediately enlists Poirot to solve the mystery. There are many shady characters from Emily's gold digger of a husband to John's wife Mary, which keeps the reader guessing until the last minute. I like Agatha Christie and will slowly over time, continue to read the books.

On the plate for April is a bunch of Once Upon a Time books and various YA reads. I'm excited.

Book Review: The Book of Lost Things

Author: John Connolly
Date Originally Published: 2006
Start Date: March 22nd
Finish Date: March 25th

I've heard wonderful things about this book and I was not in the least disappointed. The Book of Lost Things is essentially a coming of age novel about a boy who is dealing with many personal hardships during the onset of war in England. As he retreats to books for comfort, the books begin to talk back, luring him into a world very much like that of fairy tales.

Trouble begins for the main character David when his beloved mother becomes sick. He gains Obsessive-Compulsive tendencies as a result, in his own effort to save her. His daily routines sadly aren't enough to revive his mother. David finds himself dealing with the grief by reading, while his father meets another woman. David becomes resentful of his stepmother, Rose, and his new half-brother, Georgie, to the point where he lapses into fits. He also begins to hear books talk, yet keeps this secret to himself as he sees a psychologist and doesn't want to be institutionalized.

With the onset of war, the new family transports to a house in the country that belongs to the family of Rose. David's bedroom is lined with bookshelves filled with old books belonging to a boy named Jonathan Tulvey, who mysteriously disappeared from the house along with an adopted sister years ago. His room has ivy growing through the cracks and has a great view of a sunken garden in which Jonathan is fearful.

One day while out in the yard, David spots a man lurking in his bedroom. The man disappears once he realizes he's spotted, but not before David notes his odd crooked appearance and his attentiveness to Georgie's cry. Nobody is able to find this man in the house despite David's claim that he was lurking in David's room. One night after a row with Rose, Jonathan enters the formerly frightening sunken garden because he hears his mother's voice beckoning him. When a war plane crashes in the garden at the same time, David finds himself in another world where there is never full sunlight, few can be trusted (werewolves galore,) where there is no way out, and lurking in the shadows is the same crooked man David spotted in his bedroom. Could Jonathan Tulvey have disappeared to this world?

The world Connolly creates is very reminiscent of Grimm's Fairy Tales. There are heroes, villains, and tons of gore (well, a ton for me because I'm not a big fan.) David meets a few trustworthy characters along the way who feel that finding the king, with his book of lost things is his best hope for getting back home. He encounters a handy and brave woodsman, a grotesque Snow White and 7 communist dwarves, a creepy huntress, a brave soldier in search of avenging his love (another soldier) in a floating castle, a werewolf named Leroi (his name is "the king" in French, how appropriate) who dreams of ruling the kingdom, and many more. He learns to appreciate not only the good people he meets, but also the people he misses in England. He also learns to accept the death of his mother. David grows as a person from each encounter both physically, mentally, and emotionally. But is this enough to get him back home, when a sinister plan has been laid for him?

I really enjoyed this book. I love the cover art, as I am definitely guilt of judging books by their covers. It was also a quick read. The book is fairly thick, but about a fourth of it contains different appendices. Many of his characters native to the kingdom tell fairy tales to David. Each one is familiar, yet twisted so that the endings are different, or the gender of the main characters are opposite of our familiar stories. The book was fast paced, scary, but not too scary, and imaginative. What a great start to the Once Upon a Time II Challenge!

Tagged

I've been tagged by Texas Dawg and various others (and oddly enough I met these people in middle school as well) to do the "ten random things about yourself" blog. I won't tag anybody else, because I think I've pulled this scheme before with people and it's not fair for me to constantly tag the same people. Regardless, I need to do the survey myself, even though the same survey is likely somewhere else in the archives.

1. I secretly (well, it's not such a secret anymore) enjoy planning my wedding. I really do get annoyed with all of the fuss for one damn day, but I really look forward to married life starting in October. However, I refuse to get stressed over stupid things, and do a bunch of unnecessary traditions just because everybody else does them at their weddings. So what if we don't want a first dance!

2. Ever since I was a kid, I have gone through phases where I am unable to fall asleep because I am worrying about various reasons. The only times I don't remember doing this were in high school and college, and to an extant, graduate school. I did worry in graduate school, but it was usually about more mundane things like a boy or school. I usually tend to worry about things that I can't control too, which makes the worry practically superfluous.

3. I tend to have a hobby that sort of takes over my life. Right now, it's reading (well that has been consistent practically all of my life excluding my teens.) In high school and college it was color guard. The bad thing about devoting yourself to these hobbies is that you begin to rely on them for your happiness. Luckily, books rarely fail me.

4. I get more and more shy as I grow older. I am also getting oddly more confident with age, so I'm not exactly seeing the correlation between the two.

5. I compulsively shop online. I put things in a store's cart or basket, look at the price, and then usually delete everything. Basically what I am trying to say is that I'm a saver unless it's something I (or Jon and I) need. Books seem to be the only exceptions anymore. And Chick-fil-A for breakfast once a week when I have to open the library or work on a weekend day.

6. I'm a planner. I plan a trip or our future dog or anything to the point where I get sick of it and have to put it away for a while until my interest is renewed and I can effectively plan more. Many things are left half-planned for quite a while, but everything works out in the end.

7. I hate driving at night.

8. I really really REALLY love the British. I fell in love with England three years ago when I visited with my aunt and cousin. Now I'm into all of the pop culture and definitely prefer the literature to American novels. The tea isn't bad either. Earl Grey is my hero.

9. The only thing I have ever picked up quickly is language acquisition. I love learning a foreign language and the pursuit of sounding like a native (which likely never happens but it's nice to get compliments from natives.) After 3 years of speaking only English, I find myself terribly missing French and Italian classes because I've lost so much knowledge in such a short amount of time.

10. I usually complete my household chores in 10 minute increments. I do 10 minutes of work and alternate it with 10 minutes of reading or watching a movie. I'm not ADD but I can't sit and read a book or watch a movie for hours without breaking the monotony. I feel like I'm more attentive to all activities when I do this, and each chore is done more thoroughly.

Feel free to do this if you want. Nobody is forcing you, but I'd like to see people's answers.

Reading Challenge: Once Upon a Time

With the recent loss of one of my best friends, my dog C.J., I'm really in need of some great reading right now to deal with my grief and escape from real life and this empty house (it's not really empty, it just seems that way.) I completed Carl's R.I.P. II challenge this fall and loved it. He has brought back another popular challenge and I once again find myself a participant and slightly pushing myself into the book blog world yet again. I'm very excited about this challenge entitled "Once Upon a Time" because the reading parameters are fantasy, folklore, mythology, and fairy tales. I enjoy all of these genres, but particularly in the spring and summer, as my book choices seem to be heavily influenced by the seasons. After all, what a better escape from all this rainy weather (yes, we're getting it in parched for any moisture Georgia) than a good story.

I'm still working on other reads, so I won't likely get to the challenge until around the beginning of April. It lasts from March 21st - June 20th, so I have some time. I am choosing the "Quest the First" option and will read 5 books that fit into the above genres. I plan on reading two books in April and May and one in June to allow for other reading (Agatha Christie and Wuthering Heights are calling my name) and to spread books out. I will post the reviews individually, rather than including them in my monthly book wrap-ups. Anyways, here are my picks.

1. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly- I've actually had this book sitting on my to-be-read pile for months now and this challenge seems like the perfect time to pick it up. My friend Amanda just finished it and loved it.

2. American Gods by Neil Gaiman- I read Coraline years ago and really liked it. I haven't gotten around to any of his other novels yet, and here is another great opportunity to read some more Gaiman.

3. The Helmet of Horror: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur by Victor Pelevin- I've always been fascinated by labyrinths and the myth of the minotaur. This is supposed to be a new twist on the myth and I'm looking forward to reading it.

4. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke- This is another book that has sat on my tbr pile for months. It looks long, but I've heard so much about and I can't wait to read it.

5. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley- This is another long book and a re-read for me, but I like to come back to it every few years and this challenge gives me the excuse to do just that.

I will also be reading my copy of Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales in between each book. I have been doing this for about a year now, and am maybe 1/4 of the way through the book. Needless to say, it won't be finished by the time the challenge is over.

I look forward to reading all of the reviews!

R.I.P.

The house is entirely too lonely without you CJ. I miss you and will always love you! It was a great 15 years.

Days go by...

I'm back from 9 days in Colorado and attempting to adjust to the daily grind again. Yesterday I went to work at my normal time and ended up closing, because I didn't want Robin to close by herself (trust me, that place is creepy at night) and I had a ton of work to do. In 13 hours, I was able to open and process (well, process for an acquisitions librarian) around 150 books, and about 60 print journals. My office and desk area are considerably neater now and today I'm going to try to settle my email and some miscellaneous orders. I've done the 13 hour thing three times now and this was by far the easiest one for me because I had so much work. Today I got to sleep in and only have to work 7 hours, which will be nice.

I was able to finish two fairly thick books in Colorado. I should be able to finish my Jane Austen and Sally Lockhart kicks this month and move on to some more varied reading come next month. I'm sad to leave them both, but I'm really looking forward to the rest of my reading pile. Jon took me snowshoeing for the first time last Saturday. We found snow boots on super sale so it was kind of destined to be. Actually I looked like a poster child for these guys because Jon found me a great jacket and shell of the same brand on a previous day (an early birthday present) and I was also wearing an advertisement beanie as well. Anyways, I had a lot of fun snowshoeing. The altitude in Rocky Mountain National Park always kicks my ass. I can't seem to do any incline at all and get tired really easily. We went on Loch Vale trail and didn't quite make it to the lake itself, but we ended up at a great point after hiking over a frozen creek (complete with an uphill climb that was much better sliding on our butts downhill) to take pictures for our save the date cards, etc. I can't wait to see the place in summer. I really enjoyed snowshoeing and it felt natural once I realized that I needed to accommodate for my much larger feet. The trail was compacted, which made things much easier, and I would totally do it again in a heartbeat.

Jon and I have sort of revamped our New Zealand plans for next year. Instead of catching the tail end of summer in the beginning of '09, we're likely going to go at the beginning of summer later that year in November or December. This decision gives us more time to save money and allows us to hopefully get ourselves a doggy right after the wedding. We've both fallen in love with a dam/sire combination in Colorado, thanks to our super dachshund connection Ashley and are hoping to get one of their puppies.

Anyways, that's about it for now.