Sunday Salon: Weeding through the books

I just entered a contest to win an autographed children's book thanks to this post about the talented illustrator. And the second I sent my comment in to enter the contest, I remembered that I was just recently thinking of going through the myriads of picture books we have here and weeding them out. Yet I had just entered a contest for another one. My two oldest children are past picture books both in terms of reading ability and interest. My youngest still has an interest but is far beyond most of them in reading ability. So, I asked myself, why still have so many? And sending books along to my niece and nephews (all still small) would free up some much needed bookshelf space here in the land of the overbooked.

But what to pass along? I can't send my childrens' favorites from babyhood. And I can't send the books I acquired as a lowly college intern at Peachtree Publishers long before I ever had kids. I definitely won't be sending my copy of the first book I ever learned to read. Nor will I be sending the books that still tickle my funny bone or make me smile. I can't send the books that have lovely memories attached to them. And I won't send the Caldecott winners from the years of my childrens' births. Those, along with the Newbery (and Printz winner for the youngest who arrived after the debut of that award) and the Pulitzer for that year, were my very special welcome to the world gift from mama to each of my children. So they can't go.

What am I left with to weed out of the overstuffed shelves? Two books. Or maybe one. But wait, I think that one has an inscription to one of the kids from his/her first grade teacher. That can't go can it? I'm not doing very well with this weeding things out thing. And I have no more wall space to line with shelves. Maybe I'll weed through the learn to read books instead. They have far fewer memories attached to them and it's a rare early reader book that has a decent story. I think we have a full shelf of these too. So maybe I'll actually get to reclaim a whole shelf--although if I win the contest for the picture book, it'll probably have to be on that shelf too since the other picture book shelves are crammed full already. Awwwww. What's a book lover to do?!

Review: Seducing Mr. Darcy by Gwyn Cready

As an Austen fan, you'd think I would be less than entertained by a book that messes with the original plot (I've already copped to enjoying the myriad of sequels out there). But this book alters the original Pride and Prejudice so absurdly and entertainingly, that it can't help but be fun.

Flip Allison is an ornithologist with a penchant for steamy romance novels (the steamier the better). She's also burdened with a professionally jealous, Peter Pan of an ex-husband with whom she has to work. And he's the closest she's come to having a relationship in who knows how long. Enter the gorgeous Magnus Knightley, a visiting Jane Austen scholar, who might come in handy at Flip's book club meeting since they are reading Pride and Prejudice. Too bad he's a cold fish.

But Magnus becomes necessary to Flip after she has a massage that allows her to imagine herself into a book. Instead of the romance novel she was hoping to imagine, she plants herself very firmly in Pride and Prejudice and procedes to have a torrid and public liason with Mr. Darcy. All this would mean nothing other than it was the best and most relaxing massage of Flip's life if she didn't discover that she hadn't imagined the scene. Instead, her foray into the pages has changed Austen's most well-known work. And only with Magnus' help can Flip change it back to the way it should be.

The characters' antagonism towards each other belies the sexual tension between them as they race to restore Lizzie and Mr. Darcy to each other. Because of their combined goal, they come to realize the specialness of what they have together far sooner than in a typical romance and it is satisfying to watch as they must decide if they can sacrifice their passion for the good of a much-loved classic.

I found the book to be great fun, entertaining, and surprising. It definitely has its share of explicit scenes but they drive the plot of this terribly appealing farce. Is it high literature? No. But it is about as fun as it gets. And who among us wouldn't jump at the chance to spend some time in our favorite novels? This havoc-wreaking entertainment will appeal to romance readers and to genre-bending Austen fans who don't take themselves too seriously alike.

New little bits of wisdom

I just got home from vacation last night and thought I'd share some of my recent discoveries so as to save all of you from having to stumble across the truth yourselves.

1. Jack Kerouac had drugs and booze as his On the Road diet. I had Doritos, Diet Coke, and Nutty Bars. Jack Kerouac remained thin. I have puffed up like the Stay-Puf Marshmallow Man. Clearly the lesson here is to eschew food for drugs and booze or prepare to replace your entire wardrobe at the fat lady store.

2. I should never assume that R.'s abandonned Lipsmackers can double as chapstick. Moon Rock Candy flavor in particular is silver (and gross tasting to boot). Now the silver on my lips can match the silver in my hair. It looks like I am having a delayed Goth period and that's not pretty. Probably serves me right for not being more girly and actually wearing lipstick with a color to it.

3. A book of over 900 pages that has been completely immersed in a lake long enough to suck up half of the lake water can still be wet over a month later despite diligent efforts to dry it out. And the mold blooms on it will come in just about all colors of the rainbow. Pretty...NOT!

4. A child faced with dance try-outs will only consent to work on her splits two days before try-outs commence despite the fact that I nagged her all summer. Citing financial irresponsibility (we have to pay for tryouts) on her part does not even begin to move a child of 10.

Monday Mailbox

I am on vacation right now but have added books that have arrived in my mailbox as I could based on my long-suffering husband's intelligence from home. So if I have misattributed who sent me something, I apologize and feel free to note my mistake in the comments.

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner.
This book came from Simon and Schuster, my illustrious former employer (not that I worked for Atria when I worked there many a moon ago, mind you--I worked for Prentice Hall, which has since been sold to another publisher). I do still love to read their books so I am always glad to get something in the mail from them. And as for this one specifically, I have enjoyed other books by Jennifer Weiner and think this one looks delicious too.

Mercury in Retrograde by Paula Froelich
Another from Simon and Schuster, this looks like a delightful and fun book about three women who end up in a New York tenement together, befriend each other, and go on to right their lives. Feel good summer fare, what could be better?

Nothing But Ghosts by Beth Kephart
Amy from My Friend Amy was running a book drive to get as many people as she could to buy this book. I'm ever happy to buy books and the description of this one sounded good so buy it I did.

As always, if you'd like to check out the goodies that other people found in their mailboxes, check out The Printed Page where Marcia kindly hosts this meme every week.

Review: Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil Brinton

As a complete sucker for all things Jane Austen, need I say that the idea of reading the very first "sequel" to Pride and Prejudice was an appealing one to me? Even better than that was dicovering that this is more than just a Pride and Prejudice sequel. As its newly minted subtitle claims, it is a sequel to all the novels. Pulling many favorite characters from all of Austen's best-loved works, Brinton has created a fun romp through Regency England in the company of Austen's secondary characters.

This is not focused on the main characters of Aussten's books. After all, she wrapped their stories up fairly neatly. Instead, the focus is on Georgiana Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam, Kitty Bennett and Mary Crawford, Tom Bertram and William Price, and others. While some purists shudder at the thought of introducing these characters to each other, Regency society was fairly small and so people of the same social standing could be expected to have connections to each other, making this intermingling of Austen's creations feasible.

The plot, while not as witty and sharp as Austen's herself, is quite entertaining, opening with Georgiana and Colonel Fitzwilliam breaking their engagement to each other to the stern annoyance of Lady Catherine. Both will look for suitable partners throughout the rest of the book. Each will have to overcome societal obstacles as well as the difficulties of their own hearts and personalities in order to be happy.

As with most Austen sequels, a reader who is not familiar with the backstory and characters from the originals will be disappointed with the novel. But Austen fans who are willing to allow the mingling of their best-loved minor characters will likely enjoy this short and quick read.

Review: Blackman's Coffin by Mark DeCastrique

I made an exception to my no mysteries with bodies in them policy for this book because my book club was reading it. And I have suffered from creepy nightmares since reading it. I will have to go back to being a coward and refusing to read anything that even has the faintest whiff of being scary. So keeping in mind that I am far from the ideal reader of this particular book, indeed of any book in the genre, here goes.

Sam Blackman is in Asheville, NC, in the hospital doing rehab after losing his leg in Iraq when a fellow vet brings him a book. Tikima challenges him to stop feeling sorry for himself with a sarcastic and honest wit that intrigues him. But she never returns like she has promised and Sam discovers that she has been murdered. He attends her funeral and decides to speak on behalf of all the vets whom her life touched. It is because of this moving tribute to a woman he met only for 10 minutes that her sister Nakayla searches Sam out, convinced that her sister had chosen Sam to help her uncover the truth of their great-great-grandfather's murder (eerily similar to Tikima's) some 90 years prior.

Nakayla gives Sam a journal she discovered at Tikima's and this account, by a young boy who knew him, of great-great-grandfather Elijah Robertson's desire to bury his great uncle in the family cemetery (not an easy task considering that white undertakers would generally not touch a black person's body and this one needed to be taken from North Carolina to Georgia) will drive the investigation both into Elijah's long ago murder as well as Tikima's more recent murder. And the investigation will take them to the Biltmore Estate and Pisgah National Forest and will be wide reaching enough to touch Asheville's famous son: author Thomas Wolfe.

The historical information included in this mystery is fascinating and I wondered where the lines of reality and fiction intersected. Asheville is a terribly interesting place and DeCastrique has certainly captured that. But, as noted before, I am a huge wimp about bodies and this book not only has the two main murders, but there are some collateral deaths that haunted my dreams as well. I think that mystery lovers will enjoy this greatly as it is well written and the ultimate denouement isn't easily guessed (at least for this mystery novice) until moments before the text confirms the reader's surmise. Not for me because of my life as a scaredy-cat, it is nevertheless a book many will like.

And as an ironic aside, I actually went to the library and applied for a library card so I didn't have to buy this book, knowing it would be unlikely to be my sort of read. It was on the boat I sank. So despite doing a decent job drying it out, it now looks like a rolodex instead of a book. And I own it. Because the library is strangely sniffy about books after complete immersion. Library copies are far more expensive than bookstore copies. So much for being smart!

A North Carolina author for the Literary Road Trip hosted by Galleysmith.

Review: Caenus and the Quiver of Artemis by Christopher Ledbetter

I took a mythology class in college and have always been intrigued by Greek mythology. I will, however, freely admit that I am not the world's most knowledgeable person on the topic. What I remember about it these days is probably more thanks to Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief, which I read with my son when it was assigned to him in school last year, than to any recent reading of Ovid's Metamorphoses or the like. But the very little bit I have managed to retain did help me out when reading this particular book.

Caenus is a young man just reaching his majority and he has much to prove to his father, the king, before he will be granted charge of the military. He decides to prove his mettle at a famous contest of skill that has previously been won by the same man several years in a row. While there to compete, he meets an elusive woman with whom he has an immediate connection. Rather than try to find her again after being bested through his opponent's dishonorable move, he and his best friend sail home, determined to train well and excel the following year. After completing the grueling training, Caenus and his family are summoned to the wedding of his opponent only for Caenus to discover that the mystery woman to whom he is so drawn is to be the cheater's bride.

In addition to the human plotline, there are hints of mythology and godly intervention in Caenus' contests as the title suggests. But these are little more than hints, not being fleshed out nearly enough to satisfy. Perhaps the question of why the gods seem to favor Caenus without interfering too heavily will be answered in the following books but it seems an important plot point that is never elaborated upon.

And this is my concern with the book as a whole. It is much thinner than it should be, almost bereft of enough to tie all the storylines together. Caenus is determined and has a loyal friend but we as readers don't see enough of him to think of him as a fully rounded character. To be believable, an all-consuming love should grow out of the characters' interaction, even if they do only meet once. Somehow, this seemed more a deus ex machina, a way to get Caenus to fight Makedon than a real and legitimate love. And really, for me, the training with Kheiron and the descriptions of the challenges at Apollo's Tournament were where this book excelled, rather than detailing Caenus and Kalliste's fledgling love.

This has the bones of a good story but it needs to be fleshed out further. There were echoes of Hercules and of the Odyssey but the epic struggle and the love defying all elements need more to bolster them, make them stronger. Perhaps this shouldn't be the first in a trilogy but rather the first part of a longer single book that incorporates the remaining adventures and grows the existing characters more fully.

Thanks to the author for the opportunity to read this. I will still be passing it along to my son and seeing if I can wrest an opinion from him.