Bright and Warm Like a Fire - TV On a Dark Night

As everyone who works a 9-5 job knows, tv can become an important part of your end of day routine. Life feels less than fun when the schedule looks gloomy and you end up watching repeats of DIY SOS because your brain doesn’t want to read a book. I’ve had speedway on Sky Sports to keep me entertained but drama wise the last two months have been a bust. I’ve just been sitting around , waiting for the announcement of more Sherlock, hanging on for Christmas Dr Who and rationing my DVD supplies (PS I bought The Vampire diaries Series 1).

Suddenly tv is getting its act together:

Spooks, Series 9: Last week saw the return of Spooks. Spooks political storyline component has been lacking the brilliance of early series for a few years now. Still, the action always feel tense, even if the shows long running political storylines and immediate threat plots have lacked some believability and internal consistency. On the other hand the personal drama of the series always feels solid and it doesn’t matter how many characters they kill off, or how many main characters turn out to have awful secrets I almost never see their dramatic plans coming. It’s like 24 where women are actually allowed to be cool and capable (#IstillloveyouJackBauer). Season 9 has opened with a doozy of a teaser reveal about Lucas North and a fantastic ‘the iron hand of Harry Pearce’ scene. There’s also a new female character played by an actress I love in everything she does (trying not to spoil because I know at least one person who sometimes reads here watches the series when they arrive in the US).

Life Unexpected: When I saw the trailers featuring Liz Parker, previously of Roswell and Jack, previously of Dawson’s Creek I knew I was going to try and make it through this series even if it was schmaltzy. Surprise, the dialogue is snarky and sharp in places (there’s a little schmaltz and some well worn jokes, but this is a family drama so I forgive it). There are funny pieces that switch your impressions of the characters, for example when Lux claimed she hated YouTube I thought she was going to be one of those teens, who is smarter than the average teen, but then she watches the video about Christian the lion and they all tear up and she admits she likes some of YouTube - yay. The pilot suggests this will be an intelligent look at real, messy lives and relationships. I’m especially looking forward to seeing how a relationship might work between a mother who gave up her daughter, a father who didn’t know he had a kid and a teenager who has basically looked after herself since she could walk. I am concerned about the love triangle set up, we will see how that goes. I am voting for Jack to not be made jerkish to justify Liz (I will be calling them by their old screen names in my head) going off with clearly less attractive, immature ex-quarterback guy – a proper, hard choice between two equally cool guys would make my day.

Downton Abbey: From the writer of Gosford Park comes a new drama along the same classily shot upstairs downstairs lines, without the same kind of film star quality among the servants. There is abundant top tv talent among the downstairs cast though and the renowned Maggie Smith is the upper class family matriarch, with a few tv/film crossover actors and actresses making up the rest of her family. I wasn’t convinced at first. ‘Downton Abbey’ was commissioned by ITV, who tend to suck at costume dramas compared to BBC. There are ad breaks which can break the mood and it takes a few segments to really get into who the characters are. However, by the end of an hour and a half episode I was sold so hard. I love EVERYONE in this show. And there will be romance between Anna and Bates despite their age difference I hope.

And Liam from Corrie (debatably the hottest guy ever on Corrie, at least in the top 5) in footman livery happily kissing a hot, evil duke and being upset about being betrayed in love and failing to safeguard his position enough was excellent. Julian Fellowes have you possibly written a footman romance between him and William, even though hot Liam (or Thomas, whatever – will they get him a cute black Labrador puppy in this program too, it is the ultimate Liam accessory) is kind of schemerey and evil? I fear not – I fear there will be misery and abuse of affections and evil, but hot footmen being sacked at the end of the series, or nothing at all (ITV you do not have the best track record with happy endings for major gay storylines), but I hold out hopes. Also men cry in private in this series and are stoic and hardworking in public. The male head of the house is both progressive in some areas and incredibly unable to see his privilege in others. The costuming is gorgeous, especially (and this feels wrong to say) the mourning dresses for the young sisters. Love, it is in the air ITV, you may yet win me over.

Now all I need to do is catch up on True Blood series 2 and I will have a proper drama season ahead of me. I am very much hoping to see Hellcats appear on UK shores soon, after hearing lots about it during Karen Healeys reviewathon last week, but I can wait a while now. Oh and there will be a new instalment of the Whitechapel mini drama, which looks excellent. I will possibly watch Aftermath, the two part drama about Stephen Tompkinson as a police officer looking for missing girls, just to see if he can do it (I love him, but really, a crime drama? It might be worse than John Hannah as Rebus).

To see what others are looking forward to this autumn tv series check out:

My Friend Amy’s post (Gossip Girl – they put it on at such funny times over here that I always miss it now and why is it on ITV3 not proper ITV – see ITV this is why we don’t get along).

Asking the Wrong Questions post (not excited about Hellcats).

'Mare's War' - Tanita S Davis

Octavia and her older sister Tali are dreading the upcoming summer. Instead of hanging out with their friends, or earning money towards a car they’ll be taking a road trip to a family reunion, at an undisclosed location, with their grandmother. The girls grandmother, Mare, isn’t like other people’s cuddly grandmothers and Tali describes her like this in the novel’s early pages:

‘My grandmother has long, fake nails and a croaky hoarse drawl, and she’s always holding a long, skinny cigarette – unlit, otherwise my dad will have a fit – between her fingers. She’s loud and bossy and she drinks bourbon with lemon juice at dinner. She has a low-slung red coupe, and Dad says she drives like a bat out of hell.’

I imagine that at this point all the adult readers will want to meet the loud, glamorous main character of ‘Mare’s War’ by Tanita S Davis. Teenage readers will cringe for Tali – how embarrassing, why doesn’t her grandmother just knit quietly like everyone else’s? The girls would rather not spend any time stuck in a car with someone so caustic and different.

What the girls don’t know about Mare is...well pretty much everything, as their mother hints at the beginning of the book. While they’re taking the most roundabout tourist route ever to their unknown destination, Mare shares her life story with her granddaughters and the reader begins to see Mare (Marey Lee Boylen) navigate her later teenager years, as her life unfolds through flash back chapters.

Marey Lee’s story is narrated in the present tense to make it feel more immediate and relevant to teenagers, than her life might seem if it was related in third person by an eighty year old character. Her story begins with the dramatic events that caused her to run away from home and 1940s small town Alabama life. Her mother’s boyfriend Toby tried to rape her younger sister Feen, who Marey Lee has always been charged with looking after. Although Marey Lee tackles him before he can hurt Feen and their mother throws him out when she realises what he’s tried to do, Feen is sent away to stay with relatives for her safety. Marey Lee and her mother’s relationship becomes frosty, because of the incident. When the opportunity arises for Marey Lee to escape by joining the army, she takes it, lying about her age and forging her mother’s signature to ensure she’s taken on.

Marey Lee joins the Womens Army Corps during WWII as part of the ‘free a man to fight’ initiative. She joins the regiment for African American women, part of the 6888th Battalion. Her early army training is explained and there are dramatic obstacles, like gas training, to overcome in what I think of as the training montage section (if this book were a movie the training would be shown as a couple of minutes of inspirational montage shots, accompanied by music, ending with a fist pump moment of triumph as the recruits overcome their biggest obstacle). My favourite thing about ‘Mare’s War’ was what an intimate portrait Tanita S Davis created of the women’s army life. A great proliferation of female recruits, other than Marey Lee, get just a few mentions and quick character sketches are provided of the officers. Despite the lack of in depth character development for these characters the small details brought by their presence and their words build up to create a the feeling of a real world. Readers also get a strong feeling for the friendship between Marey Lee and one of the other soldiers, Peaches Carter, as many small events bond them together and lead to a deep trust being developed that lasts their whole life.

Marey Lee’s friend Ruby is a character who has been developed in an intriguing way. When dissecting her appearances in the book, it’s clear that Ruby often turns up to represent an important point the author wants to emphasise, for example she starts the conversation about whether British white women should date African American men. However, Ruby’s is easy to picture and there’s a strong sense of her personality whenever she appears. Maybe this is because she’s one of the most conventionally minded characters, so any blanks in her on page personality can be filled in by the reader’s previous reading experience, or maybe the connection between her and the reader is established by Davis’ unobtrusive craftwork threading small reported details and moments into her novel. I’m unsure, does anyone else have theories about why Ruby feels so full of life though she’s not often given much space on the page?

After completing training Marey Lee works at the army base in Des Moines before travelling to Britain to work as part of the huge operation sorting and sending the post for the frontline troops. Her army duties aren’t as exciting and potentially dangerous as Ida Mae’s job ferrying planes to army bases in Sherri L Smith’s 'Flygirl’ but ‘Mare’s War’ still show the drama of army life during WWII, for example Marey Lee and her comrades boat to Britain is chased by a German submarine. The novel also shows dramatic personal circumstances like the attempted assault of Marey Lee’s sister and the girls being chased through a London train station by bigoted, white soldiers.

‘Mare’s War’ is a novel that seeks to teach and expand readers knowledge about the racial situation in 1940s America, Britain and mainland Europe. Davis is also eager to look at the challenges the 6888th battalion faced as African American women in each new location (in England people stare, while in Paris the women fit into the more racially diverse population) alongside the problems they faced because they were women, for example as women the soldiers are cast as sluts in the newspapers back home, as African American women they receive notice that the Red Cross has set up a separate hotel for them when they stay in London as they feel the 6888th 'doesn't think [we] colored girls are "happy" mixing with the white girls at the enlisted WAC hotel in London.'. There was no legally segregation in Britain at this time, but that didn’t stop private segregation being enforced under any available guise. Davis has created an engaging cast of characters to walk the reader through these issues and through lesser known areas of history (women training for the army, African American service women stationed in Birmingham). But we could equally say that Davis has picked an intriguing period of history to allow her to showcase the determined, female characters she has imagined. It’s hard to separate out which is Davis’s most important mission, telling the story of a character she has created and cares about, or giving greater visibility to an important part of history filled with relevant issues. The fact that it is so hard to separate out which Davis gives more importance to is the mark of a great novelist who understand everything that readers need from a novel.

While Marey Lee’s life story is the most dramatic element of the book and it happens to her while she is a teenager, her story takes place in the past. She experiences many things that differ from life today and I suspect that Davis thought teenage readers might need time to fully identify with her struggle, especially as she is so sharp with the present day teenagers Tali and Octavia. Octavia’s first person narrative and Tali’s reported speech provide a second entry point into this book for teenagers. Tali and Octavia have their own struggles to overcome, Octavia is afraid of driving and Tali is battling the universal unfairness of being a teenager that all readers will recognise. Although their troubles differ greatly in scale of importance from the events Marey faces in the past narrative, they matter to the girls and modern teenage readers might be able to identify with them quickly because their concerns relate to modern life.

The girls troubles also allow teenagers to contrast their worries with those of past generations and perhaps discard some of their cynicism about things that adults say, like ‘Back in my day...’. The girls provide modern context and voice some of the scepticism teenagers might have about Mare’s story, At first Octavia and Tali are hostile towards Mare’s stories of the past. Tali refuses to accept that her grandmother was really poor as neither she or her parents have ever lacked for money. Octavia brings up the disparities between modern life and 1940s life for teenagers when she asks why Mare was already working at fifteen, or why the family didn’t call the police when Toby tried to attack Feen.

At times I felt like the girls were a little too naive about the past, for example when they wondered why anyone would care if Peaches was a lesbian. It felt like this and similar questions comments about people of different races dating were inserted as teaching moments and felt rather obvious. Maybe that’s unfair though, maybe I think Octavia and Tali would be more informed about historical people’s prejudices because I grew up in a different generation from these teenage characters. I really liked that the girls questions and dismissals of older, intolerant attitudes suggested that Davis believes a teenagers might be more accepting.

After spending time in Britain, the battalion travel to Paris where they remain until the end of the war. Mare’s story doesn’t quite end there though as she has to return home to confront her mother, who has remarried while she’s been away and work out what she’s going to do after the army. The present day road trip is coming to an end, just as Marey-Lee’s story reaches its conclusion. If you’re anything like me both endings will squeeze your little heart, but the present day one will smoosh you up good. Not to be sappy, but I felt privileged to be guided so easily and entertainingly through this period of history by a narrator like Marey Lee and a writer like Tanita S Davis. And that’s why I bought 'A la Carte’ right away.

Bonus personal reasons I loved this book:

The 6888th is based in Birmingham while they’re stationed in England. Birmingham is the biggest city in my area and it was so exciting to see some localish history, that I never knew about turn up in ‘Mare’s War’. I’ll be following up on the suggested reading in the acknowledgements to learn more.

Mare briefly mentions how some women aren’t meant to be mothers, when she talks about her relationship with her son – more of this in books please.

Peaches is an African American, lesbian soldier, who gets her own dramatic moment in Marey’s story and does not end up being involved in any kind of tragedy. She goes on to have what sounds like an exciting, happy life and Mare remains close friends with her. Happiness for a lesbian character in a historical novel is the rarest of eggs. I wasn’t expecting to see a lesbian character in this book at all and then half way through the book there was Peaches, almost coming out to Marey Lee and admitting that her mother is friends with a lesbian. That made me think of this piece of wisdom from Aja’s post ‘I know you care for him as much as I do’:

‘It's one thing to start out a book, like Swordpoint and Havemercy did, introducing your main characters as gay from the start. Because from the outset the reader knows, the reader can choose whether they approve, or tolerate, or whatever. They can put that book down and walk away.

But reality doesn't let you choose. Reality is when your best friend turns to you and says, "the thing is, I'm gay," and your entire world turns upside down.’

A quote that can only be followed by ‘Yes – this!’

Other Reviews

Reading in Color (subtitled I Should Call My Grandmother. You Should Too, a title I absolutely understand now)
The Happy Nappy Bookseller
Miss Yingling Reads
A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cosy
Bookslut
campbele
Bookish Blather
Capricious Reader

The Joy of Reading

I have more reviews coming next week, but I thought I’d close out for the weekend by telling you all that I’m reading ‘Dark Goddess’, the sequel to Sarwat Chadda’s novel ‘Devil’s Kiss’ which features a female Templar squire called Billi. A few chapters back Billi saved a boy from a werewolf attack. The boy is by no means emasculated in order for her to be able to save him, he is in fact strong, well trained and a member of the Russian equivalent of the Templars who just finds himself over powered by a werewolf. He isn’t super appreciative of the saving, but then I don’t imagine Billi would thank anyone for coming between her and her enemies either. And later he gives her a fancy gun as a present, to make her more fully equipped for attacking werewolves.

And suddenly my world is full of blood red sunshine and sharp edged rainbows, because this book exists.

This seems like a fantastic time to tell you about a group called The Chainsaw Gang that Sarwat Chadda and Steve Feasey, author of ‘Changeling’ belong to, who are bring the horror back to the paranormal. Now I have no problem with paranormal romance, I grew up reading a lot of paranormal romances, from Anne Rice, L J Smith etc, etc (although my preference is for paranormal romances to have some horrorific content mixed into the main relationships a la Buffy where almost anybody could become evil, or die) but I do like some straight up scary, evil times alongside my dark romances. So this group of writers sounds perfect for me to explore and I thought some of you might like to know about them too.

Carrying on from yesterday Tamora Pierce has a great post about why she writes mostly female characters and she talks about studies done on gender in picture books (which I know is not what I was talking about yesterday, but I would love to see the results from that study, because it would seem logical that what teenage boys read in their early years shapes what they read as teenagers, just as what boys read as teenagers shapes what they read and write as men) among other good points.

Have a fab weekend everyone. This is the last weekend before social land gets very pleasantly busy again so I think I’ll be mostly eating at a food festival, watching speedway, getting my hair done (hurray) and reading books and blogs. What are everyone else’s plans?

Boy in a Box

Edited for clarity hopefully: This post is intended to purge a general gathering of gah feeling that has been gathering over the last few days and was inspired both by The Booksmuggler’s excellent recent review of 'Gentlemen' (want) and angered tweets by April from Good Books and Good Wine. What follows is my attempt to dispute what I’m calling ‘The Boy Problem II’ ‘The Boy Problem I’ is people’s concern over boys not reading – very possibly a valid concern – I do not know, I have no data on this problem. The idea behind ‘The Boy Problem II’ is that there are few books being written out there and being highlighted on blogs, that boys will find interesting. I will address this concern by briefly looking at the numbers and handing out book recommendations.

First I’m going to have tell you which kind of people who ask for 'books for boys' I'm talking to and to do that I'm going to have to make assumptions. Please know I am aware that there are groups who want boys to be interested in books who do not fit with these assumptions and want all kinds of books that interest all kinds of boys. I think that's kind of an important distinction - some people want boys to be interested in books and find books they're interested in, books that may also be of interest to girls whereas some people want more books created for the fictional, easy to classify boys who fit into a very carefully measured box they've create in their heads. The people I'm talking about people throughout this whole post are people like this woman:

I assume that when people, like the one above, talk about ‘The Boy Problem II’ they classify books that boys will find interesting as books with male protagonists (links to related post about books boys might enjoy with female main characters – sorry I know that it’s totally valid for boys to want to read books with male characters as well but I couldn’t resist), probably male protagonists who are themselves interested in subjects that are traditionally thought of as male spheres of interest.

I assume that when people, like the one above, talk about the lack of books boys will be interested in, they are not excluding books written by female authors, as long as they contain male main characters. I very much hope I am not wrong in making this assumption, but I worry that I am.

I assume that when people, like the one above, talk about the lack of books boys will be interested in they are referring to straight, cisgendered boys and so would not accept books featuring gay or transgender protagonists as evidence of books being published for boys (which is of course a rubbish exclusionary view fraught with implications that make me go *headdesk*. That first assumption I had to make i’nt exactly sunshine and rainbows either. I am also rather obviously ignoring the problems of labelling a book, ‘for boys’ in this post – these are issues for later posts as they might confuse my point here).

I assume that people, like the one above, who talk about the lack of books published that boys will be interested in are only interested in young adult novels.

Let me begin by showing you just five books that have been published within the last five years, that I have read and blogged about and that seem to fit with all of those above assumptions. I will also attempt to briefly sketch some of the subjects these books touch on that are traditionally considered subjects of interest to boys:

‘The Last Exit to Normal’ by Micheal Harmon - getting the girl, skateboarding, pranks
‘Dooley Takes the Fall’ by Patricia McCormick - investigation, getting into trouble, murder
‘Leviathan’ by Scott Westerfeld - alternate history/sci-fi, physical battles, machines
‘Little Brother’ by Cory Doctrow - gaming, politics, adventure
‘Slam’ by Nick Hornby - sport, sex, sci-fi/time travel

‘Leviathan’ will eventually be part of a trilogy. ‘Dooley Takes the Fall’ is part of a series. Two of those books ( ‘The Last Exit to Normal’ and ‘Dooley Takes the Fall’) have purely contemporary settings ( it seems to be a complaint that boys may be prominent in sci-fi narratives, but they’re nowhere to be seen in contemporary young adult fiction) and another two could be classified as books with a contemporary setting, although they may at times involve none real life things like time travel (‘Slam’ and ‘Little Brother’).

Now I’m going to make a list of five series that fit the above criteria. Some I’ve read, some I haven’t, but that really isn’t the issue, the issue is that these YA series (series – involving multiple books – that boys will like – multiple. books) with male protagonists do in fact exist:

‘Adventure’ series by Willard Price
‘Artemis Fowl’ series by Eoin Colfer
‘Young Bond’ series by Charlie Higson
‘Percy Jackson’ series by Rick Riordan
‘Scott Pilgrim’ series by Bryan Lee O’Halley

There are 37 books currently in those 5 series alone.

And for a bonus finish, how about some novels with male main characters that are considered classics, but are now sometimes called young adult classics:

‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ by Mark Twain
‘Catcher in the Rye’ by J D Salinger
‘Around the World in 80 Days’ by Jules Verne
‘Treasure Island’ by Robert Louis Stevenson
‘Kidnapped’ by Robert Louis Stevenson

Now I will point out just five of the many blogs around the web run by female bloggers that regularly highlight older and recently published books that fit the criteria I stated above. There seems to be some concern that with so many female book bloggers, boys aren’t being told about young adult books they might enjoy because female book bloggers only talk about books girls might like (oh I think I made a hole in the desk with the head banging required to stop myself diverting off an dissecting that statement). May I suggest:

GuysLitWire – A site dedicated to reviewing young adult books boys might be interested in. Their reviews range through contemporary, historical, sci-fi, and sometimes they also talk about non-fiction and graphic novels. Founded by a mixture of male and female bloggers.

Reading in Color – Ari runs a regular feature called Male Monday, and includes a balance of contemporary and historical young adult novels.

The Happy Nappy Bookseller – Doret often talks about books featuring boys playing sports and other young adult novels featuring male protagonists.

Chasing Ray – Coleen is always highlighting young adult books with male protagonists, as well as non-fiction boys might be interested in, either at her personal blog, or in her Bookslut column.

Voracious YAppetite – Check her upcoming YA releases, which often feature books with male protagonists.

And may I note the massive irony of any intersection between argument that run 'boys don't want to read about girls' and 'female bloggers should be writing about books boys will like'. It is kind of huge.

This is not intended to be a complete or exhaustive list of all the young adult novels out there with male main characters. If it was, it would be a poor show. If I could list all the titles available with male main characters in one blog post we would know there was a problem. Instead it is an illustration of what is out there: big name series with huge publicity campaigns behind them, fantasy, sci-fi, a decent selection of contemporary titles, classics for teenagers. I could name a lot more books that I haven’t read yet that I know feature male main characters –A LOT. I have excluded books which offer a dual narrative perspective, alternating between active male main characters and active female main characters to avoid clouding the male main character criteria above (and yes ‘Leviathan’ is in there – but Deryn is disguised as a boy for the entire book) even though I think there are a lot of cool books like that which boys would enjoy (the Tales of the Otori series by Lian Hearn would be my first recommendation).

The reason why boys may not be reading YA novels is not because we don’t have enough books ‘for boys’. Why they may not be reading these kind of books is an issue that goes wehaaaaahey outside my own sphere of expertise as I am not a mother, an educator, a psychologist, or in any way involved in the publishing industry, but I can absolutely say it’s not because there aren’t enough YA novels featuring male main characters, doing traditionally boyish things, for boys to read. It is also not because female bloggers are keeping the men down by piling girl books on their backs. The amount of books available with male main characters is NOT comparable with the lack of young adult novels with for example, lesbian characters. Neither is the visibility of all books with male main characters comparable to the low visibility of sub sections within the male main character bracket. Books with Asian male main characters, for example, have much lower visibility on blogs and in other media sources than books with white, male main characters. And books with white male main characters have higher media visibility than books with say, Asian female main characters.

So when I hear people saying that ‘there are not enough books for boys’ I curl my lip and I say pffff (unless I have had a few drinks, then I say other words). There are lots of books out there for the traditional boy who wants to read about traditionally male characters doing things that have traditionally been called ‘male things’.

Finally just five of the many books ‘for boys’ that this woman is excited about:

‘Gentlemen’ by Michael Northrop (contemporary)

‘The Replacement’ by Brenna Yovanoff (fantasy) IT CAME YESTERDAY! I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS BOOK I DECIDED TO USE CAPITALS.

‘Efrain’s Secret’- Sofia Quintero (contemporary)

‘Codetalker’ – Joseph Bruchac (historical)

‘Ship Breaker’ – Paolo Bacigalupi (sci-fi)

I know some people who read here have sons at home and I would be very interested to know what your sons like to read (novels, non-fiction, comic books...) if they do like reading. Maybe I would like something they like to read.

If you're a teenager who reads (female or male) please let me know your thoughts on the gender split of young adult books you've encountered.

Next time on ranting about reading and gender: Sanitised boy characters vs sanitised girl characters – the ‘where are the female characters who talk about their periods in detail - that conversation will come up among my female friends at least once a year’ rant.

But before that you should read these excellent posts on books 'for boys':

Renay talks about how the call for books for boys often seems to imply that books about girls are not of interest to boys and explains why she thinks socialisation has caused boys to react negatively to books where girls are active characters.

Maureen Johnson talks about how easy it is for women to find themselves socially conditioned to read exclusively books by male authors, or books with male main characters.

Coleen of Chasing Ray takes a different stance on the issue at GuysLitWire and says that finding books for boys doesn't have to be a gender war.

While I agree that it doesn't have to be and it shouldn't be, I think making a request that boys have books with male characters is inevitably used by some people to say things like 'girls are emasculating our boys' or 'girls control the book world, oh no how awful we must fix this right now and make sure boys once again control the book world' or 'active girl characters just aren't of interest to boys' (not what the group at GuysLitWire is doing, I love them and I do not intend to include them in the people I am reacting against in this post). I certainly feel and react to that tone (sometimes very much more than a tone) in some of the posts I see on the subject. That makes it hard for me to align myself with any of the sensible search for a way to increase the amount boys read because I feel that by doing so I am enabling the crazy fringes of the sensible conversation to hurt women with sexism. Even that bit about 'I know it is valid...' that I posted above make me feel kind of uncomfortable.

You Can Never Have Too Many Right?

Bookish confession time. Yes, I bought books. I was so good last month, no books bought at all, so a reward was needed (sorry no pictures as I still haven't worked out how to make the camera work with the computer since the Vista disaster):

‘London Triptych’ – Jonathan Kemp: From The Green Carnation longlist. It sounds like a kind of twisty narrative that might have a tense atmosphere to it.

‘The Orphans of Eldorado’ – Milton Hatoum: A reimagining of the myth of Eldorado and a pretty, pretty cover.

’32 Candles’ – Ernessa T Carter: Ari’s review pushed me to pick this up. She’s so enthusiastic about it and I know she has fantastic taste.

‘City of Ghosts’ – Bali Rai: I remember seeing this mentioned in a magazine, but Ari’s mention of it sealed my purchase. It’s 1919 and all hell is breaking loose in the City of Armistar – intrigued.

‘Where I Belong’ – Gillian Cross: The blurb and the cover makes me WANT:

‘There are guns and bandits in this story. And supermodels. And there's drought and starvation too. Are you wondering how they can all come together? Well, that's how life is these days. Things don't happen neatly, in separate little places. We're all caught by the great spider's web of media that spans the world. That's where this story is set. The world. It's the story of Abdi and Khadija and Freya (that's me) and what happened to us because of Somalia’

‘Raised by Wolves’ – Jennifer Lynn Barnes: I saw this mentioned on Smart Bitches. It sounds like it could be a very cool examination of pack hierarchy and female werewolves, with romance and fighting.

'Speak' – Laurie Halse Anderson: If you want to know why I bumped ‘Speak’ up to my buying list, you can read one of the many eloquent posts on the Speak Loudly reaction to inflammatory remarks made by a guy who thinks banning books is the way forward.

‘The Diamond of Drury Lane' and 'Cat Amongst the Pigeons’ - Julia Golding : I came across this series browsing in WH Smiths.This is a plucky heroine series and I know for a fact that later in the series there will be stowing away on a ship.

‘The Agency: A Spy in the House’ – Y S Lee: A new young adult mystery series brought to my attention by the authors fabulous Victorian information blog tour and reviews at Reading in Color and GAL Novelty.

‘Spitfire Women’ - : Did anyone see the program about the British ATA ferry pool last weekend? This is the book one of the historians on the show wrote about female pilots flying all kinds of planes to RAF bases during WWII – the British version of some of the American history novelised in ‘Flygirl’ by Sherri L Smith. The program was so personal and interesting I couldn’t resist exploring more of the history.

‘The Disreputable History of Frankie Landeau-Banks’ – E Lockhart: Reviewed and hugely big upped at so many great blogs like thingsmeanalot, The Book Smugglers and Bookshelves of Doom. I’ve been resisting splurging on it for ages (especially because I knew I needed the hardback copy with the good cover) and gave in this weekend.

‘A la Carte’ – Tanita S Davis: I finished ‘Mare’s War’ last week. The ending really grabbed me by the guts and the story was so intimate that I immediately picked up Davis’ first novel about a vegetarian teenager who wants her own cooking show.

‘Merchants of Culture’ – John B Thompson: A book that promises to set the publishing industry in its historical context and explain how it really works now. Spotted at ‘Read, React, Review’.

Pre-ordered:

‘Under the Poppy’ – Kathe Koja: I think Chasing Ray initially alerted me to this one. A gay Victorian supernatural fantasy, with opium and weird puppets is too gothic for me to resist.

‘The Replacement’ – Brenna Yovanoff: I’ve seen this cover on The Booksmugglers Radar posts, on Maggie Stiefvater’s blog, on Voracious YAppetite and I keep waiting for it to be available to buy. It seems like I have been waiting forever and the waiting game has become dull, with one click of a button I can pre-order the hardback. Cool. Fairies as they should be – creepy and iron intolerant.

'E M Forster: A New Life' - Wendy Moffat: I love EM Forster and this promises a new approach to his life.

The Winter Ghosts - Kate Mosse

I had a bad time with Kate Mosse’s ‘Labyrinth’. It was dull, repetitive, with a plot that made no sense and. it. was. long. If you’re going to be dull, be dull in a novella, some of us have things to be doing. ‘The Winter Ghosts’ was on my mum’s bookshelves and since it’s very rare that a book will pass through our house without both of us reading it I thought I’d give it a go for the RIP challenge. And it was for once a good decision because ‘The Winter Ghosts’ was an entertaining story full of heart and charm.

The reader first sees the novel’s hero Freddie in Toulousse and from the beginning he is described in a way that provokes curiosity:

‘He walked like a man recently returned to the world. Every step was careful, deliberate. Every step was to be relished.

He was tall and clean shaven, a little thin perhaps. Dressed by Saville Row. A light woollen suit of herringbone weave, the jacket wide on the shoulders and narrow at the waist. His fawn gloves matched his trilby. He looked like an Englishman, secure in his right to be on such a street on such a pleasant afternoon in spring.

But nothing is as it seems.

For every step was a little too careful, a little too deliberate, as if he was unwilling to take even the ground beneath his feet entirely for granted. And as he walked, his clever, quick eyes darted from side to side, as if he were determined to record every tiny detail.’

The description is precise, so that the reader gets a clear picture of Freddie, when the narrator is encouraging the reader to have a false perception of Freddie and after the narrator corrects that perception. It feels easy to visualise Freddie, but also to understand his personality by the way that he acts. At the same time not too much of him is revealed, to keep the first meeting full of suspense. The reader knows Freddie is unsure, possibly nervous, or searching for something, but they don’t know why. Your interest – Kate Mosse has it.

Freddie meets an antique documents dealer in Toulouse. He has a letter that he needs translated, because it is written in an ancient French dialect. The dealer begins to read it and then stops after looking at the content to ask Freddie where he got the letter, which gives Freddie the opportunity to unfold his tale in an uninterrupted, first person monologue. The reason for telling the story to the reader framed in such a simple way and by delaying the reading of the letter, Mosse creates more interest. She provides readers with a pastiche novel that combines some of the devices found in classic Victorian ghost stories like dramatic foreshadowing, holding back information to create suspense and a framing device, with an abundance of shorter, suspenseful sentences that might have felt out of place in a Victorian ghost story. Using shorter sentences adds a recognisably modern element of suspense to a novel set in the past that follows the writing rules set by older storytellers. In turn it makes it easier for readers (like me) with an aversion to the long, descriptive passages of Victorian literature to digest and makes it instantly clear to modern readers what kind of tone the book is going to have.

The novel then flashes back to 1928. After ten years Freddie is still mourning his brother George, who was killed in the First World War. In a time when most families have lost someone, Freddie’s deep, prolonged grief looks unseemly and he can’t stand being encouraged to move on. His nerves are shot, in fact he has spent time resting in a sanatorium and he is also rather physically weak. His doctor has advised Freddie to take a trip to France for the air and so he motors around the country, feeling better for the anonymity and lack of expectation that a foreign country provides him.

Is it surprising that Freddie’s observations about brotherly grief and the social conditions of the early nineteenth century were my favourite parts of ‘The Winter Ghosts’? I can’t help it, I am a social history nerd. Freddie talks about how much he still misses his brother, showing the grief that the First World War brought to siblings. It’s a different way to approach the personal devastation that the war caused, as it’s normal to see wives who lose their husbands and parents who lose their sons in fiction about the First World War, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen much about how siblings felt. By describing his parents reaction to his grief (basically they aren’t even the people who tell him his brother is dead and buck up, is the only option Freddie is left with) Freddie shows how society failed to make proper space for the grieving process, which varies for each person. By stifling his grief they store up trouble for the future and then blame Freddie for his mental collapse years after his brother’s death. His parents and friends feel Freddie should have moved on, but he is never given the opportunity to move on.

There are many interesting details about the post war psychology in this novel. Freddie comments that 'They wanted a son who played rubgy and cricket and went to war, not a sickly indoors boy...' which shows that even after George has died, his parents fail to realise that it is exactly these kind of sons who go off to war and die. They almost find themselves accomplices in George’s death, as they want a son they can be proud of, but their definition of proud puts their son in danger because in order to fulfil his idea of what a good son and man should be (and idea which undoubtedly comes from his parents) George goes off to war. Freddie talks about a man from George’s unit who survived and feels guilty. He equates himself with such a man, even though he wasn’t old enough to follow his brother to war, showing that survivor guilt could apply to all those who survived the First World War, not just those who fought and survived their comrades. There’s an interesting picture of a guilty, sad, repressed society in ‘The Winter Ghosts’ that is reinforced by the cold, dark winter landscape of France that Freddie drives through. The atmosphere doesn’t quite feel like the nature in sympathy of the Victorian school, because the weather doesn’t symbolise Freddie’s mood, or the state of his society (we are in France after all, not England, although it could symbolise the state of France after the war but with an Englishman full of personal grief focusing our attention the French situation after the war is referred to fleetingly). There are no dark clouds, or deadly looking icicles that are described in an ominously prophetic way and come to symbolise actions that Freddie will take. Instead his grief is set against an appropriate background, where weather stokes the background feeling of emptiness and depression. That’s nature in sympathy too, but its perhaps Mosse using the device in a less oppressive way. Have I actually made a distinction here – please let me know.

Freddie’s car crashes in the French Pyrennes and he is forced to stumble down the mountain to a small town, which offers a hotel and little else. The town is having a big celebration, la fete de Sainte-Etienne and Freddie is invited. He decides to go, meets a girl named Fabrissa who wants to hear all about his brother and in exchange tells him the story of the time her village was forced to hide from soldiers in nearby caves. Freddie naturally assumes they had to hide from Germans, but this is where the ghost story kicks in. It’s also where we’re asked to necessarily suspend our disbelief about ghosts and our heroe’s credulity, for example Fabrissa asks about George, but Freddie never notices that he hadn’t yet told her his brother’s name. Soldiers arrive, Freddie and Fabrissa escape through a hidden tunnel, with Freddie half believing the soldiers are part of the celebration. Here Freddie and Fabrissa share a moonlit night, before Freddie wakes up determined to find Fabrissa despite the fact that no one in town knows her, or believes he was at the fete.

Essentially ‘The Winter Ghosts’ is a gothic hymn of love from Freddie to his brother, Freddie to Fabrissa and Freddie to the fascination death holds. Consequently it feels lighter in tone than other ghost stories. The grissly find that Freddie makes at the end feels less alarming, although Freddie’s reaction to it is still disturbing enough to raise arm hair. Possibly this is because of the remove of time that is lent to the bleak discovery he makes (I rather think this is a point Mosse is trying to make, that history can deaden us to the grief of tragedy), or maybe it is because this book is less a ghost story of horror and more a gothic, or paranormal romance focused on how closure can be provided for people who lose those they love. It’s final message is of release and happiness, rather than a continuation of horror. The ghosts are benevolent, even before they are set free from their tomb, which is something I’m not used to seeing in ghost stories. It was an idea I liked and without the slowly ratcheted claustrophobia of a typical ghost story there was more room for an exploration of the time, a detailed look at Freddie’s feelings and a description of the village.

Small problems were:

The insistence of making Freddie an authentic historical character by having him decry the modern, usually the modern woman. He states that the 'Jazz and girls with bobbed hair and those, chic false new buildings in Piccadily', were not worth the sacrafice, equating modern women with falsity. He prefers a girl natural 'unspoiled by powder and rouge' (I hate this kind of comment) and these little snippets seemed completely unnecessary to me. There are other ways to make a character sound realistically historical without having him think small misogynistic tidbits.

At times I felt like Mosse was trying to encourage the reader to view Freddie as an unreliable narrator because of his nerves and time in a sanatorium, so she could produce a reaction of surprise when the ghosts are revealed to be real. I went ahead, ignoring all her hints about Freddie’s state of mind and missed that possibility. In my opinion it was a weak possibility that wasn’t fully developed and should have been left out, because it immediately made me compare the book to ‘The Little Stranger’. While ‘The Winter Ghosts’ may be interesting and entertaining it really doesn’t compare to Sarah Water’s novel.

I noticed in ‘Labyrinth’ that Mosse has a thing about repeatedly using words. In ‘Winter Ghosts’ she reveals her love for the word precipitously. She doesn’t reuse this word as often as she reused words and descriptions in ‘Labyrinth’ but it’s still rather noticeable and a little annoying.
Otherwise an entertaining, quick read (I read it in a day). ‘Winter Ghosts’ feels emotionally realistic and makes history feel present and easy to slip into. Great atmospheric tone. Just a few minor niggle along the way. It would have been really sad to dislike all the books written by the founder of the Orange prize. Now let’s see how I do with ‘Sepulchre’.

Shiver - Maggie Stiefvater

Look, it is a review, are you not amazed? I’ve finally returned to talk about the young adult, paranormal romance ‘Shiver’ by Maggie Stiefvater. I’m afraid this is one of those reviews where there are spoilers, so some of you may want to skip it. I really had to talk about some things in detail, or this review would have consisted of me going on about ‘the thing that happens with the thing’ and no one wants that.

Before I get started I’d like to offer up a disclaimer. I didn’t get ‘Shiver’ from Maggie Stiefvater, or her publisher, but I do read and really enjoy the author’s blog. I’ve seen a lot of posts about why she writes characters the way she does, which means that I have a clear shape in my mind of what her intentions were when she wrote ‘Shiver’. I think at times I might struggle to separate her awesome author intention from how I experienced the novel I read. I’m going to try to be super honest about how I perceived ‘Shiver’ before I thought about what Steifvater’s intentions were, but it might not work and I think you should be aware of that.

Every winter the wolves come to Mercy Falls and every summer they disappear. When she was little Grace was attacked by the wolves and this attack fostered (oddly you might think) a positive interest in the wolves. Grace watches the wolves every year, one wolf in particular, the wolf with the golden eyes who saved her from his pack’s attack. When rich brat Jack Culpepper is killed by the wolves, the men of Mercy Falls take up their guns and go into the woods to illegally cull Grace’s beloved animals.

Sam is a quiet, artistic boy who takes a summer job in Mercy Falls book shop every year. After the shooting he shows up naked and bleeding on Grace’s porch. Three guesses what the connection is. Yep, this is a book featuring werewolves. Any humans bitten by the Mercy Falls wolves, will change into a wolf once the temperature lowers and will become human again in the summer. Eventually they stop changing back to human form. It feels like his final season to Sam, but he is determined to fight this final change, especially now that Grace has learned his secret.

‘Shiver’ alternates between Grace and Sam’s first person narratives, which reveal the complex and flawed personalities of each character. Grace is different from many female narrators, even the kind of female narrators who we tend to identify as being different from the popular girls around them. She reads non-fiction and hates fiction, she’s more comfortable with numbers than with using words to verbalise emotions. Overwhelmingly male and female narrators of young adult and adult fiction tend to be interested in novels and good at using words, so Grace contributes a different kind of perspective. Nymeth explains this kind of character much better in her review of ‘Dark Dude’ so let me point you over there for some elucidation.

Grace is also a girl who doesn’t fit the traditional female personality definition. She is terrible at reading people, displaying a lack of that innate female intuition we all supposedly have. She can cook, but only does so because if she doesn’t cook no one in her house would eat. When she shops she (insert quote about seeing something and just buying it). It’s nice to see Stiefvater show a different kind of teenage, female character in a young adult novel – diversity, we like it. I personally found it hard to connect with Grace at times, as I felt she could be too definite in identifying other people’s behaviour as right, or wrong, but I definitely appreciated seeing an underrepresented kind of female character in ‘Shiver’.

Sam is a more of a traditional narrator, as he loves fiction and poetry, he’s artistic and introspective. At the same time he often displays an interest in subjects that perhaps aren’t traditionally considered things boys are interested in, for example poetry. These interests, Sam’s artistic side and the open way that he displays his emotions are part of what makes him such a swoon worthy romantic lead. He is kind, complex and (wonderful for emo me) terribly tragic. He has a back story to break your heart and I felt like his motivations were mostly believable. His character is so complete and he feels like a real person. I repeat, he is swoon worthy.

Both characters describe their experiences compellingly and their lives share many similarities, for example they have both been effectively abandoned by their parents. However, it’s perhaps inevitable that Sam’s story of parental abandonment, unwilling transformation and alternate family structure will resonate the most with readers. While I felt for Grace when she shows how uninterested her parents are in her life, her family grievances just can’t compare to Sam’s story of parents who try to kill him. I felt like Sam’s story was helped by the quick, concentrated flashback form Stiefvater used to present pivotal memories from Sam’s past. In Sam’s narrative Stiefvater seems to have identified the most effective way to present her material, in order to increase the dramatic effect of Sam’s story. She conceals parts of his past life and slowly reveals memories in what feels like a linear pattern, unfolding a coherent past narrative within the story set in the present. The slow reveal generates reader curiosity, the switch between the ugly, physical nature of some memories and the quiet, domestic scenes of Sam’s happier times creates an interesting contrast. Most importantly these memories adds extra layers of feeling to the story, keeping the emotional atmosphere of the novel fresh and diverse.

When it comes to Grace’s narrative Stiefvater seems to struggle to sustain interest in Grace’s life, independent of her relationship with Sam. Grace’s narrative includes just one dramatic flashback, when the novel opens with Grace’s memories of her wolf attack. As this is really the only active memory Grace has that relates to the present narrative (all her other memories relate to passively watching the wolves, or photographing them). I think that Stiefvater settles on making present conflicts and relationships, such as Grace’s troubled relationship with her parents, provide the extra layer of feeling in Grace’s story. While that’s a sound idea, I’m not sure Steifvater is totally successfully in her efforts to increase the readers interest and sympathetic feeling for Grace by showing her complicated relationships. Grace and her parents relationship certainly works well to that end. When Grace describes how angry she is at them, how let down she feels by them my heart was squeezed. Her broken down friendship with Olivia is less successful, simply because Olivia is absent from Grace’s life for so much of the novel it’s easy to forget about their friendship. Grace’s most significant relationship away from Sam, seems to be with her best friend Rachel and it would have been interesting to see them interact more as Grace grows more involved with saving Sam, but again Rachel is missing, reappearing sporadically to make small hints that she feels Grace is becoming estranged from her.

It’s very possibly that I’m missing the point of this book by talking about Grace and Sam’s stories separately. The real driver of drama in this book is the full on romance between the two main characters. As a result of the exclusive emotional attachment Stiefvater has her two first person narrators reflect by keeping other positive relationships in the background, or scuppering them with big misunderstandings, the one area where the emotional tension is always consistent is Grace and Sam’s relationship. From reading Stiefvater’s blog I knew my idea of how a relationship might go was going to differ from the hers so I allowed for that. I allowed for the fact that ‘Shiver’ is concerned with first love, teenage love and love in tragic circumstances, so when Grace says things about Sam like 'I need this to live' I chalked it up to extreme feeling, not a girl who is too dependent on her romantic relationship to be troubled by, although I can see how others would disagree. The romantic scenes feel warm and heartfelt. As Grace and Sam learn about each other and find attraction, comfort and love with another person they reveal themselves and their partner to the reader in a detailed, yet overwhelmingly sympathetic way, which increases the readers connection with them. Stiefvater recognises that if you do love up right there is no need to create fake drama by introducing a love triangle. And for bonus points there is sex! In a YA book! And yes it’s typical fade to black no explicit details after a bit of kissing and grinding stuff, but ‘Shiver’ contains a heroine who gets to have sex that is not creepy and she suffers no TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES! I was very happy about this.

However, in the later stages of the book I came upon a problem with the romance. Sam annoys Grace mightily and Grace wants to go off on one, but she realises she can’t because they have so little time before Sam may become a wolf forever. She bites her tongue, because angry feelings are not important when your boyfriend might be a wolf tomorrow and they get on with loving each other. That makes sense in Steifvater’s world, but I didn’t like it. It will be interesting to see how the romance element progresses in the next book.

While there is often plenty of plot tension surrounding Grace and Sam’s fight to be together, there are a few crucial moments where the tension is just absent. When Sam’s surrogate wolf father Beck willingly goes out into the cold to save Sam, ending his last season as a human prematurely I felt like I should have been feeling more. As the reader receives the narrative through Grace’s first person perspective they find it hard to make a connection with what Beck is giving up. Instead they are forcefully directed by the narrative to focus on the emotions Grace projects about what Sam might gain. This is a huge problem for the book, as the exclusive emotion the pair feel for each other often conflicts with the readers need to feel an emotional connection with other characters in order to feel immersed in the full story. Grace wants Sam to be safe, so although she might care about Beck giving up his humanity, her focus is entirely on Sam’s well being, making her disconnected from her feelings about the huge sacrifice Beck is making. The reader has to step back and go outside the immediate narrative to empathise with Beck’s loss as space for such emotional connection is not provided in the text. The purpose behind Grace’s focus, which she passes to the reader is to keep readers engaged with Sam and Grace and to forge a deep emotional connection between the main characters and the reader increasing the emotional impact of the story. The novel’s inability to allow readers a real chance to care about other characters, in case it jeopardises the certainty with which they approach their relationship with Grace and Sam makes ‘Shiver’ a weaker book.

Another problem I had with ‘Shiver’ was the total insanity of the novel’s plot. I’m not talking about Steifvater’s unique temperature controlled werewolves; that seemed like a clever twist on the werewolf story. My problem with ‘Shiver’s plot is that at times I felt like I was watching a game of ‘Fortunately, Unfortunately’ unfold. Fortunately Grace thinks there’s a cure for Sam’s ‘condition’. Unfortunately a deer hits her car windscreen letting the cold air in, which means Sam changes before they have a chance to cure him. Crashing plot devices like this result in some incredible, dramatic plot twists, but I thought that these plot devices felt contrived. There were a few times when plot developments made me snort with laughter because they seemed to have been ridiculously forced into the novel, to temporarily increase the tension of the plot. More genuine emotional tension was evoked during episodes that emerged naturally as a consequence of the characters actions (the bath – gah my heart was broken during this part), rather than scenes caused by dues ex machine devices.

The way Stiefvater keeps her plot going actually leads to my biggest problem with my favourite male character (Sam, oh Sam, how I adore you). There were times when Sam’s actions would differ wildly from his established personality, in order to fuel the tension in the book. Let’s take the big misunderstanding between Beck and Sam. Sam thinks Beck has kidnapped some kids and turned them into werewolves to keep the pack safe, as many pack members have now reached the stage where they never transform back into humans and they need new human recruits to watch over the wolves who never change back. Sam sees three bleeding kids tied up in the back of a van and they ask for help. He cuts Beck out of his life right there, because Sam knows how bad being a werewolf is and this sets up an emotional tension between him and Beck that emerges throughout the book, making it feel richer. It also sets up a final, last dash attempt for Sam to see Beck before they both change for the final time and that leads to lots of other plot development.

Sam has been constantly set up as the wonderful, brave hero of ‘Shiver’. He’s emotionally vulnerable, but we know he can kill if he has to and he will kill to save people. Does he try to free the kids? Nuuh, he leaves them there. His actions could be justified but I didn’t really believe in the justification I had to come up with to understand why he leaves three helpless kids to their fate. Beck is the pack alpha while in human form, perhaps we can explain Sam’s behaviour as an inability to break pack hierarchy. They’ve already been turned and Sam can’t actually save them. But...really...I’m supposed to think of Sam as the wonderful hero of this book after that? I mean Stefivater still makes me love him because she writes a novel that reminds me of his tragic circumstances and his devoted love for Grace and his swoonworthy behaviour, but it was always there in the back of my mind. I know she says she always writes flawed characters, but...really? I know, I know it all turns out to be a big misunderstanding and it get’s explained in the end and Sam doesn’t really care then because he’s turning into a wolf for the last time without speaking to the man who raised him, but...really? And I can’t help feeling that the closest relationship Sam has ever had has to be temporarily destroyed, not to add to the story but to ensure that Grace is all Sam has and the exclusivity of their romance becomes even stronger and more potently emotional. You can feel the love and the trust steaming off Beck and Sam in Sam’s memories and it made me sad to see that bond broken when they next meet in real life. However, that’s just my personal preference.

So, will I be picking up ‘Linger’ the next book in the trilogy? I think I will. First the ending to ‘Shiver’...no I can’t talk about the ending. It makes me frustrated as a reader, but let’s just say it’s designed to make you go out and rob a bookstore to see what happens next. Stiefvater’s writing, especially her choice of words to describe nature:

'The white peeled bark of the birches looked buttery in the long, slanting afternoon light, and their leaves were a delicate gold.'

and sensory detail like smell:

'Peppermint swirled into my nostrils, sharp as glass then raspberry, almost too sweet like too ripe fruit. Apple, crisp and pure. Nuts, buttery, warm, earthy, like Sam. The subtle mild scent of white chocolate. Oh, God, some sort of mocha, rich and dark and sinful.'

is lovely. Although at the beginning of the novel I thought she might overuse the classic techniques she picks to create atmosphere and tip into overly dramatic writing, the book soon settles down into a style which combines the necessary gothic imagery and sharp, tension driving sentences with longer sentences and everyday scenes. There’s more Sam to look forward to. I’d like to try again to establish a connection with Grace. I absolutely can’t wait to see Jacks sister, Isabel again. And I hear rumours of a new character named Cole, which of course automatically makes me think of Charmed.

There’s something there in Mercy Falls, something fascinating. But I definitely think knowing that Maggie Steifvater is not in favour of creepy relationships and thinks girls are super awesome means I’m reading this book differently than I would if I were coming to it with no prior knowledge. There were some parts of ‘Shiver’ that made my symbolism eye twitch out of control, for example when she remembers being attacked by wolves Grace says:

'I could have screamed, but I didn't. I could have fought, but I didn't. I just lay there and let it happen, watching the winter-white sky go grey above me.'

When Sam later begins to hide information from Grace, that could be interpreted as controlling, rather than kind. Lastly, I am so conflicted about how Isabel is so traditionally feminine and so horrible. And through these parts I just chanted things like ‘this will probably be resolved in the sequel’ and ‘flawed characters’. Let’s see how it will all work out in ‘Linger’ shall we!

Other Reviews

Dreaming in Books

The Rejectionist

The Book Snugglers

Angieville

Twisted Quill
The Reading Zone
My Friend Amy
Medieval Bookworm
Where troubles melt like lemon drops

Announcements

Today I’ll be guest starring over at things mean a lot, with a guest post on Female Warriors. I was just so honoured to be asked to contribute while Ana’s getting settled in the UK and I think my post came out pretty well (after I got over those first two weeks of ‘argh what can I possibly write about). It rambles a bit towards the end, but I am putting that down to the confusion that descends when you try to explain multiple versions of feminism at the same time.

The Nerds Heart YA winner of 2010 is ‘Last Night I Sang to the Monster’ by Benjamin Alire Saenz. Congratulations to the winner and thanks to all our nominated authors and big hugs to our judges this year. I already have at least five books I want to read from the competition.

And finally not an announcement, but a fun fact I felt I had to pass on, because it is about our number one awesome sauce British comic fantasy author. Sir Terry Pratchett makes a sword so he can be a properly equipped knight – includes meteorite pieces.

Bye, Bye BBAW 2010

Today is the last day of BBAW and today we all get to talk about what we liked about BBAW this year.

Let me begin by saying thanks to Amy and the organisational team for bringing this week off again and for adapting to the changes that were suggested to them throughout the process of running BBAW. Themed BBAW was spiffy. Thanks for working so hard and being awesome.

What I enjoyed the most this year was First Treasures. I loved seeing people handing out blog hugs to their favourite bloggers and I, like everyone else, have added so many fun looking blogs to my feed reader. I was also a big fan of the guest posts like Raych’s guest post where she reminds us about all the dramarama and projects that have filled the book blogging world since the last BBAW. The classics debate was fun too.

We’re also talking about blogging goals today. Now I don’t tend to have many blogging goals. I have a few reading goals but blogging just sort of trucks along. This year I actually have some goals for the blog:

November will hopefully see my second theme month on the blog. Last time I read steampunk for a month and this November I’ll be reading books featuring sportswomen. I’d really like to get the word out to the wider world about these kind of books. Goal: Promote, promote, promote.

My blog needs a bit of a redesign (not the background, I love that). I have got to create some more tabs and a list of linked up reviews and work on really understanding meta tags.
I would like to find a way to keep from getting behind on my feed reader and keep up with the community initiatives. This is possibly a far fetched dream, rather than a goal.

I want to keep my challenge participation manageable and realistic. I almost had it this year, but joining challenges were I had to read certain books in certain months scuppered me. I also want to change up the challenges I participate in and maybe I’ll join the Japanese Reading Challenge finally.

I’m missing October 24 hour readathon this year (for happy reasons, I will be at a wedding) but next year I am determined to clear the calendar (except weddings of course) and I will be at both readathons next year.

Seeing such a huge celebration of community has been fantastic. It’s like a big, worldwide parade of happiness throughout the internet and frankly the internet could do with more happiness.

Happy BBAW everyone!

Not a BBAW post, not a Review - What is the World Coming To?

I am getting to the point in the job search where I don’t know what to do in order to actually get a new job. It has been a long time since I started applying and unemployment in the West Midlands is reportedly going down, yet here I am still in the same job.

I am finding myself so unmotivated at my current job. I can’t get myself interested in work at all and that leads to me putting off tasks until the last minute, not giving my full concentration to tasks and inevitably making mistakes. I used to be a good employee. I swear I was interested and I took on even the dull tasks with dedication even if I didn’t enjoy them. It makes me feel really ungrateful to coast along, because these people are paying me and at least I have a job when others don’t. At the same time a prevalent company culture is contributing to my lack of motivation and my lack of motivation just encourages the slacker part of my personality to kick in.

I know that I’ve got to get my motivation levels back up by myself, because the company culture isn’t going to change. I have to get back into this job if I don’t currently have any opportunity to leave, not just so that I become a decent employee again, but so that I don’t go into a depressed spiral. So, I guess I’m here asking for tips and tricks. What do you do when the general tasks you absolutely have to do at work get you down? How do you get back into the mood to work hard and well?

BBAW 2010 - Bookgazing Interviews Bibliophobian

Yesterday you heard all about my Book Blogger Appreciation interview partner from last year and today it's time to post up the interview with Janel from Bibliophibian, my partner for 2010's BBAW interview swap. In my questions I reveal that I am still obsessed with getting a Tardis like machine and Janel explains an ambitious reading project she's involved in.

How did you come up with your blog title Bibliophibian?

JCW: I wanted to have 'biblio' in the title since the main purpose of the blog was going to be book reviews. I played around with possibly using book or librarian in a different language, but none of the choices really worked for me. Searching around a bit more I found a cartoon that referred to a bibliophibian - children who would be drowning in books because their parents couldn't give away some of their books to the library. My own bookshelves have been overflowing and I've struggled to give away books that I know I won't read again.

What's the Canonball Read project that you're involved in?

JCW: Cannonball Read was started by one of my high school friends and another book blogger as part of a challenge to each other - who could read more books in one year. This year is the second year this challenge has been going on. All participants have stepped up to the plate to read one book each week of one year starting in November 1, 2009. The books must be at least 150 pages and write a blog post (or some other website equivalent like Goodreads, LibraryThing) about that book. The first year I did the challenge (which the goal was 100 books a year) I only made it through 30 or so books. This year I've passed that number and I'm currently reading #44 of 52 books. I probably won't make 52 by the end of this October - but I will be close.

Every book blogger has a massive TBR list. Do you use any special tools to keep track of all the books you plan to read?

JCW: Yes - I use Goodreads to track my TBR list. I have a LibraryThing account as well but really only post finished reviews up there.

What book are you reading right now and what do you plan to read next?

JCW: I just started 'American Wife' by Curtis Sittenfield. I will probably pick up 'The White Queen' by Phillipa Gregory or 'In the Company of a Courtesan' by Sarah Dunant.

Do you have a favourite genre of books, or do you read a bit of everything?

JCW: Growing up I read alot of mystery/thriller books, but in the past couple of years I've become a huge historical fiction fan. I try to mix it up a bit and read some general fiction or non-fiction as well.

If you could construct a Tardis type machine that travelled through books rather than time which book do you think you'd visit first and why?

JCW: Good question. I would say 'The Chronicles of Narnia' by C.S. Lewis because this series has always enthralled me.

Do you have any literary role models?

JCW: I wouldn't say I have specific role models, but I'm definitely drawn to strong, independent female characters - especially if they let their heart overcome their brain once in a while.

How do you feel about books being made into films or tv series? Do you have any favourite adaptations?

JCW: I don't mind books being made into films or tv series, but I try to read the book first before seeing the movie. I loved the Jason Bourne movies, but I couldn't get into the book versions because the movies weren't really true to them. In recent past, the Lord of the Rings trilogy & the Harry Potter movies have been my favorite adaptations because they bring to life the descriptions that the authors wanted.

Are you nominated for any BBAW awards this year?

JCW: No - I'm really just a novice to the book blogging world and would feel strange nominating my blog for any awards.

And finally, if you don't mind, could you describe your world away from the computer and books. Who do you see, which bit of the world are you in and what do you like to do?

JCW: Outside of reading, I enjoy singing and playing tennis.

Thanks for answering my questions Janel and for putting up with my late replies :) Check out Bibliophibian for my responses to her questions.

BBAW - First Treasure

Today to start off Book Blogger Appreciation Week book bloggers everywhere are spotlighting one new book blog that they’ve discovered since the last BBAW. Now as anyone with a bloated feedreader will know it is hard to choose just one new awesome blog that you’ve connected with over the course of a year. This year I decided to talk about my BBAW interview partner from last year, Jeanne and her blog Necromancy Never Pays. Here’s why I like the blog:

I love the story of her family talking about how Necromancy Never Pays that she has on her blog.

She wants everyone to comment. I sometimes find commenting on blogs can be a bit intimidating. Jeanne has made herself very approachable by writing a little blurb about why people should comment.

She is one of the people who has read ‘Liar’. I am keen on people reading ‘Liar’ because it means we can talk about it without worrying about the multitude of spoilers.

She puts poems up on her blog, that tie in with something she’s thinking about, or how life is going. So few blogs talk about poetry and it’s nice to discover something totally different in the middle of your feed reader.

She took part in the Critical Monkey contest, where she set out to read books that were outside her comfort zone. That is a dedicated effort to attempt to understand others (and it was fun to watch her express just what wasn’t working with the books when it turned out she did not like them).
On here are a few of personal reasons why I think Jeanne is an awesome woman:

She is made of reassuring, common sense and fun.

We had a long debate about a book, which we had opposing viewpoints on and it did not end with either one of us exploding in an unnecessary ball of internet rage – successful book debating.
She taught me there’s no need to apologise when someone reads a book you liked and ends up disliking it.

Thanks for keeping such a wonderful blog Jeanne : )

Technology - It Hates Me

The plan was for me to post up a little ‘what I’ve been up to’ return post complete with pictures before getting started on Book Blogger Appreciation Week posts this week (yay) but a few weeks ago Vista decided to end my laptop and those backups it kept saying it was taking – yeah not so much. I (or rather my dad) managed to manually back everything up, during the reinstall process but I keep finding things that my laptop no longer does automatically. Like pick up connected devices like my phone, or my camera. So no pictures for you and now it’s the first day of BBAW so let me explain what’s been keeping me away from posting, commenting and various blog projects quickly:

Leaving the house: If I wasn’t spending a weekend with friends then I was probably out with my parents, or getting my hair done. Hen dos, barbeques, the International Glass Festival, a trip to Chester cathedral (such a good cathedral if you like pretty things – and Mallory has a stained glass window there), general drinking and cinema trips. I have been socially busy and it’s speedway playoff time right now, this year’s wedding season starts in a couple of weeks, then I go on a very impulsive holiday (at one point I was planning to go from a wedding reception to a plane, but then I became sane again) so I don’t expect it to slow down much.

Tiredness: Transitioning from getting up in the light to getting up in the dark of British autumn has been HARD. I feel pretty knackered right now as I’m not yet used to waking up, rolling over in expectation of a few more hours sleep, then hearing the dreaded alarm.

Reading: I’m half way through the RIP challenge already – accomplishment, I feel it! I have four books to review since I last made a post– ‘Walk to the End of the World’, ‘Tapestry of Love’, ‘Shiver’ and ‘The Winter Ghosts’. I’m about to start what promises to be a hilarious readalong of Roth’s ‘The Plot Against America’ with Bonjour Cass tomorrow! I have somehow lost my copy of ‘The Turn of the Screw’ and spent a looooong time hunting through our various piles and trunks for it. No joy, have the ghosts stolen it?

Ok so I’m off to get my BBAW act into gear. Today could be a bit of a dangerous day, with everyone making posts about their favourite new blogs my feed reader might explode! Happy BBAW everyone : )

RIP V

It’s RIP V baby – get in the hearse. I’m planning to take on Peril the First this year and read four books that fit the mystery, suspence, thriller, dark fantasy, gothic, horror or supernatural categories between 1st September and 31st October. And no this does not invalidate my TBR no more challenges rule, I made an exception for Carl’s challenges long ago.

My list of possibilities (which contains a lot of the books I didn’t read the last time I took part in this challenge):

'Linger' – Maggie Stiefvater
'Under the Dome' – Stephen King (borrowed from a colleague, oh nine months ago – I must read this)
'The Turn of the Screw' – Henry James
'The Secrets of Crickley Hall' – James Herbert
'Dracula' – Bram Stoker (this would be re-read the tenth or something)
'Paris Immortals' – S Roit
'IT '– Stephen King
'Dark Echo' – FG Cottam
'The Evil Seed' -Joanne Harris
'Her Fearful Symmetry' - Audrey Niffeneger
'The Winter Ghosts' - Kate Mosse
'The Prince of Mist' - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
'Keeping the Dead' - Tess Gerritsen
'The Owl Killers' - Karen Maitland
'The Resurrectionist' - Jame Bradley
'Relentless' - Simon Kernick
'Child 44' - Tom Rob Smith

Breaking Dawn - Stephanie Myer

The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield

A nice big pile to select my four books from.

Real Romance

Hello everyone. I feel like I haven't been around with much regularity lately and now I come to ask you for a favour - what will you think of me and my manners? Well I am too in need of literary help to let that stop me, please lend a suggestive comment if you can.

Last weekend a friend asked me to do a reading at her wedding and I (under the influence) agreed enthusiastically. 'I have a whole notebook of poems I love,' I said. 'I will surely be able to find one about love or marriage in there that you will like,' I said. And we both parted, happy in the knowledge that this would be one easy wedding task.

But it seems that somewhere in life I turned into the kind of tragic love junkie that even the Brontes might have thought was ‘a bit much’. Here are some excerpts from poems I’ve copied into my poetry notebook:

‘Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, 'The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.’


‘Tonight I Can Write’ – Pablo Neruda

‘I cannot work. I cannot read or write.
How can I frame a letter to implore.
Eloquence is a lie. The truth is trite.
Nothing I say will make you love me more.’

‘Nothing’ – James Frenton

Both of them have me sighing ‘How romantic’, neither of them will do for a wedding.

One of the most romantic film scenes I’ve ever seen is John Hannah’s reading of ‘Stop all the Clocks’ in ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’. I was probably a bit too excited when I found out that Will and Lyra’s bench actually exists. My ideas on what is romantic are clearly messed up and I am not equipped to be involved in any kind of traditional marriage ceremony. I need help!

Can anyone suggest an overwhelmingly happy, non-religious poem or passage, about marriage or love that is quite traditional and isn’t:

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians
Shakespeares sonnet 116
My Love is like a Red, Red Rose

Help kind of desperately appreciated ;)