Book Review by Aimee: Isis, by Douglas Clegg

Isis is a book I received for review. In the instant I saw the cover and Douglas Clegg's website I was overcome by book lust, but I didn't realise that the book was a novella until it arrived in the mail. I mistakenly wrote the work off straight away as a poorly marketed children's picture book, but I was wrong. So very wrong.

Isis is the story of Iris Catherine Villiers, a girl growing up in a large, dark house atop rocky cliffs, with a governess who seems cold beneath her beauty, a set of older brother twins (one good, one bad) and a mother who has given up her dreams of the stage to play house while the children's father is at war. In a moment of furious will, Iris causes an event which alters her heart, her spirit, her very existence. But it is how Iris chooses to deal with this grief that carries the momentum of this book, along with the dark consequences that result from Iris' poisonous choice.

Strangely didactic in execution, Isis is a storytelling with the same black undertones as those existing in nursery rhymes and traditional Brothers Grimm fairytales. As the title Isis directs, the book draws its central nature from the Ancient Egyptian myth of the Queen Isis, who loses her husband, Osiris, to murder by a jealous enemy. Osiris as husband (who also happens to be Isis' brother!) is cut into parts by the enemy's wish and strewn all over the land. Rather than leave Osiris to rest in pieces, Isis' grief spurs her on to hunt for each piece and reassemble Osiris in the hope that he will be transformed to her living, breathing lover once more. As it turns out, the new Osiris cannot exist in the land of the living, but in Egyptian tradition where once you're royalty, you're always royalty, Osiris finds his new place as King, this time as the Lord of the Dead.

The writing in Clegg's Isis is Gothic in style, and sparse, with a preference for a strong and clear story without clogged detail. The author (wisely, I believe) draws all the characters sketchily, differentiating between them with a few carefully chosen sensory descriptions. For example, Iris' twin brothers can be told apart as "Spence smelled, in the summer, distinctly of dirt and pond water, while Harvey had a fragrance as if he'd rolled in lavender." There is nothing original about the story's characters unfortunately - you have the groundskeeper who enjoys regaling Iris with local ghost stories, the debaucherous nanny and the good and evil twin in a sprawling Victorian ancestral mansion with pulsing family tombs situated nearby. But it is the twist on the legend of Isis and Osiris that makes this black fable so refreshing. While Isis in the Egyptian myth is treated as a heroine, Clegg has treated his protagonist differently- Iris makes her choices out of the selfishness of longing and loss, and she is held at arm's length for the reader to see her actions as dark folly rather than heroic in nature.

Strangely, the novella is marketed as a horror, as evidenced by the book trailer:



To my mind, however, those in search of a mysterious horror will be disappointed. There are some slightly horrible moments, but when it boils down to it Isis is a sad, wispy tale of love and the selfishness of loss and longing. In all truthfulness, this is not a book that promises to excite and delight and set the heart to hammering - its beauty is the more shy, retiring type.


Despite enjoying the generally creepy atmosphere, the slightly-cliched characters, the symbolism and the pretty writing, what truly makes this precious novella covetable is the gorgeous illustrations. Done in a style reminiscent of the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the spindly artworks are melancholy sweetness and ghostly sorrow in equal measure. The illustrations are clever as well as beautiful - the pictures twist and turn - you may glimpse an eerie face on the normalcy of a tree trunk, and then blink and the face is gone. You'll be wondering whether you're seeing things, but really - that's half the fun, innit?!


I could attempt to criticise Mr Clegg's sophisticated offering by wishing it to have been a novel rather than novella, but on second thoughts any extra length would completely ruin its prettily poetic nature.

All in all, this book was such a pleasant surprise, and I'll be reading more of Douglas Clegg's works having so enjoyed this latest one.

But if you're still wondering whether YOU will enjoy it, I can only give the following guidance: if you're the type of person that holds their breath going past graveyards for fear of inciting bad luck (or worse, raising the dead), this book might make your fears a little worse.
But if you're not too afraid of such things, and you can appreciate for a few moments the delicate beauty of, say a spiderweb's intricate threadings, before brushing it out of your path, then read Isis - it's enchantingly dark, sorrowful and only slightly dangerous.

Rating: Isis receives 4 deathly romantic stars.

Competition: Halloween

Hey all,

sorry for the interruption but thought people might be interested that over on the writer's chronicle forum/blog we're going Halloween mad, and are offering three halloween themed sur/prizes! All you have to do is click here and leave a comment to be entered!

There will be a grand first prize, second prize and third prize!!

Winners will be announced on the 31st of October!

Now the theme of the prize is obviously going to be all things spooky, but will also include abit of an irish spin to it!!

Review-Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

I don’t know why I wanted to read this book. Perhaps it’s because it’s on the 1001 books to read before you die list. Perhaps because the word Lolita and the idea of a Lolita is part of popular culture. Whatever idea prompted me to read this terrible book, I don’t know. For those who don’t know the basic gist of the plot is that Humbert Humbert is obsessed with young girls (“nymphets”).  He longs to make one his and finally he meets Dolores (also known as Lo, Lolita, Dolly). He maneuvers his way into her life first as a boarder in her mother’s home, then her step-father. Humbert talks about his love for Lolita, his deep love for her but he withholds trinkets & favors for her physical affections. To me that’s not love. He lusts after her, he’ll do anything to hold his precious Lo. And she knows this. Even at 12, she is isn’t blind to Humbert’s obsession with her. In fact, she uses him just as much as he uses her. Humbert is an immature man. He manipulates situations in an almost childish manner to keep his relationship with Lo hidden. His obsession with nymphets is due to his sexual desire never maturing. He’s longing to consummate his relationship with a childhood sweetheart so he uses Lolita to fulfill that fantasy. Lolita, I believe, is looking for a father figure. She didn’t grow up with a father and her relationship with her mother was tumultuous. Lolita was looking for someone to love. And in Humbert, she found freedom. Freedom from school, her mother, the little town she lived in. Freedom to roam the county and an adult to buy her ice cold sodas and take her picture shows. Humbert was convenient. She used him til she found someone else. I felt nothing toward either character. By the end of the novel both of them irritated me beyond belief.

Nabokov’s verbose writing style made it hard for me to understand what was going on. I had to reread sections before fully understand what was going on. At first I thought no more fluffy books for me. You are losing your edge. More Tolstoy, less Sookie Stackhouse! But the story didn’t interest me so the writing didn’t redeem the book.

 I’m glad I read it and able to say I read it and finished it, but I would recommend it to anyone.

REVIEW - THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE - DAVID WROBLEWSKI

"The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski
(from back cover)
Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a fictional breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomized by Almondine, Edgar's lifelong friend and ally. But with the unexpected return of Claude, Edgar's paternal uncle, turmoil consumes the Sawtelles' once peaceful home. When Edgar's father dies suddenly, Claude insinuates himself into the life of the farm--and into Edgar's mother's affections.

Grief-stricken and bewildered, Edgar tries to prove Claude played a role in his father's death, but his plan backfires--spectacularly. Forced to flee into the vast wilderness lying beyond the farm, Edgar comes of age in the wild, fighting for his survival and that of the three yearling dogs who follow him. But his need to face his father's murderer and his devotion to the Sawtelle dogs turn Edgar ever homeward.

MY THOUGHTS: I have heard of this book a lot, hopping around book blogland, and saw different opinions of it. I got the book Saturday at the library and was a little awed by how thick it was. 904 pages long. But once I started it I couldn't put it down. It kept calling me to finish it. I wanted to find out what happened to Edgar's father and what his uncle had to do with all this. As Edgar searches out the whys and hows a terrible accident happens that sends Edgar and three of dogs into the wilds of Northern Wisconsin. Edgar does a lot of growing up while on the run and finally figures out being home with his mother and dogs is what he wants. So he heads home to find a way to implicate his uncle in his father's death. I didn't really like the ending to this book. It left questions that I would have liked answered. Other than the ending this book was written beautifully. I felt like I was with Edgar and the dogs while they were growing up together. Awesome book!!

REVIEW - TRESPASSERS WILL BE BAPTIZED - ELIZABETH EMERSON HANCOCK

"Trespassers Will be Baptized" by Elizabeth Emerson Hancock
(from inside flap)
Growing up Southern and Baptist in eastern Kentucky, Elizabeth Hancock lived in a world that revolved around church, foreign missions projects, revival meetings, and of course, the Kentucky Wildcats.
In Trespassers Will be Baptized, Hancock draws us into her riotous tales of childhood misadventures, recounting her and her sister Meg's mischievous--if harmless--abuses of pastoral power: stealing Guess jeans from the Africa donation box or hawking backyard swimming pool baptisms during the neighborhood's annual yard sale.
As Hancock lovingly recalls the wisdom imparted by her long-suffering parents as they ministered to their unruly flock, she introduces us to the quirky and unforgettable denizens of her small-town Kentucky youth. There's Aunt Vaney and the hundreds of Christmas cards that decorated her living room, next-door-neighbor Mary Anna and her mysterious Catholic ways, and Ginny and Geneva Gordon, twin ex-debutante Little Lambs Sunday school teachers.
Whether or not you spent time learning Bible verses from felt boards or making Noah's arks from Popsicle sticks, you will fall in love with this magical coming-of-age story and fascinating slice of Southern culture.

MY THOUGHTS: This is a very good book! It at times is hilarious and funny. Other times it makes you cry. If you have been to church as a child, this book will bring back lots of memories of that time. From the time Elizabeth and her sister Meg were little they had been the daughters of the Baptist Preacher. This book is about their life, the good and the bad, that happened to them as children.

Book Review by Aimee: Random Magic, by Sasha Soren

What is that, you say? A book that can be described as Alice in Wonderland meets Harry Potter? YES PLEASE!

Random Magic by Sasha Soren is a firecracker box crammed full of crayon-colourful, whizz-happy tricks. I was so excited to be accepted as part of the somewhat extensive blog tour for this book I almost wet my pants. Figuratively, of course.
And the care package I received upon acceptance into the tour did little to quash my anticipation - there were chocolates, rubber duckies and a symbolic (but very real) blue feather that suddenly floats gently down into your lap as if out of nowhere, when you reach the very middle of the book...
Obviously, the author and her marketing team care very much about spraying the right ambience to surround and envelop the story, and that's what struck me most about this novel: The Atmosphere. Well, that and the fact that upon finishing this book you'll want to sit down, put your legs up, nurse your poor frazzled head and sip some cool water, as if you've run a marathon.

But first, the story itself. Henry Witherspoon is an educated, upper-class boy who is thrown almost absentmindedly into adventure - when Alice goes missing from the beloved classic Alice In Wonderland, Henry must kick himself into action before Alice, and Wonderland itself spontaneously combusts. He unwittingly enlists the help of the self-proclaimed "doodlewitch" Winnie, and together they prepare themselves for an Alice-hunt.
Leaping from book to book looking for the girl with hair the colour and consistency of cream, Henry and Winnie must battle a myriad of mythical beings and be assaulted by Labyrinth-style puzzles in order to solve the mystery of the little girl lost. Can Henry and Winnie "save the world by tea time"? I sure hope so. I thought at this point I'd also include the book trailer, so here it is:

Random Magic is such a glorious idea. It's as if Ms Soren was on an extreme sugar high during the "lightbulb moment". It's full of whimsy and teacups - you really have to suspend a helluva lot of disbelief to go with the flow of the story, but if you do, the magic carpet'll lift right off the ground and take you with it, whether you're ready or not.
And to be perfectly truthful, I wasn't really ready to be carried along for about three or four chapters. I resisted it - the story launches straight into the adventure and there are an incredible amount of characters to keep track of all in an instant. But after a bit of time and some calming breaths you'll settle into the rhythm. This is the perfect book for chillun who are interested in learning about the foundations of classical myth, and thrive on what I like to call "instant-noodle" adventure - two minutes and the adventure's ready to gobble up.

Almost completely dialogue-driven and jammed with halting sentences, concentration is a must for positive readings of Random Magic. At points I got rather annoyed at Henry's intrusions and repetitive questions on Winnie's pearls of wisdom, and wished he would just sit down and be a good boy and listen to what the wacky witch had to say, dognamit! I do have a short attention-span though, so perhaps I'd be in the minority on this one. You might find Henry's curiosity appealing and idiosyncratic in a GOOD way, *wink*.

This is a cracker of a book to read to some young "advanced readers" just before bedtime. Girls and boys will be dreamily exhausted after running an absolute gauntlet of crazy monsters, and so will you. Kiddies will also appreciate the rapid bursts of onomatopoeia and the general witty commentary from Winnie zipping and zagging through each page. Don't get me wrong though, teens and older ones can enjoy this style of book too - there's some more mature humour that thankfully can go over the younger heads, but generally those who love the adventures of Alice in Wonderland will find something familiar to love in Random Magic, too.

Interestingly, in the Advanced Copy version I received, there's a "deleted scene" at the end of the novel which Ms Soren, along with her editing team, decided to cut away because it didn't fit well with the rest of the story. And I totally understand what she means. The deleted scene is a backstory about one of the characters which lends itself more to the "evil clown" side of the Carnival fair rather than the "ferris wheel" feel of the rest of the book, if you catch my drift. Strangely though, I think I prefer it - I do love me some tales of dark whimsy - the blacker, the better. Again, it might just be personal preference - just the way I prefer Alice's Adventures Through The Looking Glass to the flossier (and more well-known) companion (see that review, here). I can only hope that Ms Soren might choose to write a sequel in the vein of the deleted story...I'll cross my fingers for it. And toes.

Actually, this book reminds me a lot of a young Australian author, Alexandra Adornetto, who at 14 wrote a book called The Shadow Thief and spouting the writing style of Enid Blyton... on crack. Fortunately, Alexandra won the lottery in cover art for her book (see cover here), whereas Random Magic's cover...well, let's be nice and say I have a bone to pick with it. I mean, CLEARLY, this cover is Nicole Kidman's face. Post-too-many-botox-and-collagen-injections. With red pigtails. It ain't the most original picture by any book's standards. And nor is it the right style for this particular book, in my humble opinion.
Now I know that this is not the author's fault in any way, but I do hope that perhaps there might be a new cover of the book printed soon. Something that better depicts the quirky, youthful and left-of-centredness of the book, like a tea party scene with Henry as the Mad Hatter, for example, rather than the face of a mainstream 42 year old celebrity painted in somewhat garish shading. But, eh, it's a small bone to pick! And maybe no one agrees with me anyway, hehe.

All in all, Random Magic might be a bit too quirky for some, but it's a strangely lovable creature. Kind of like that eccentric neighbour three doors down who recites poetry to her flowers, and throws the newspaper back at the postman. AND has about a thousand cats popping out of each nook and cranny around the yard, including the evil spitting one that you have to cross the road in order to avoid on the way to school. But all is forgiven because that same strange neighbour bakes the most delicious cupcakes - and always offers you the biggest one.

This is exactly what Random Magic is like. Try a bite, and see if it's to YOUR taste.

Rating: 3.5 candy-coloured stars for Random Magic.

P.S. Since it's on tour, why not see what other people have to say about Random Magic? I'm lucky enough to be one of the first blog stops - see the rest of the bloggers boarding the Random Magic train HERE. Toot toot!

Matthew, Book Review, *Cormac McCarthy, *Blood Meridian

I finished Blood Meridian (1985) a few days ago, but I needed a few days to digest what I'd read before posting anything. The novel follows The Kid, a teenager from Tennessee who joins a group of outlaws in Mexico and helps them murder, rape, and steal their way across the countryside. McCarthy doesn't gloss over any of the nasty parts, either -- the violence in the book is graphic, unsettling, and abundant. Even so, I don't want to give the impression that the violence in the book is needlessly gratuitous. I mean, it is absolutely gratuitous, excessive even, but never needlessly so. Every last bit of it is central to the several themes of the novel.

On one level, Blood Meridian is a blunt de-mythologizing of the Wild West. Hollywood's cattle rustlers whose bullets never hit their target and strangely honorable duel-at-high-noon bad guys have been replaced with the actual wanted men, cavalry soldiers, and Indian warriors who terrified populaces across the West and Southwest in all their psychopathic, nigh-feral grotesqueness. Men are disemboweled and mutilated, babies are dashed against rocks, women are scalped and raped as they lay dying. It's damned tough to romanticize anything about this part of North American history after you understand the sorts of things that really went on back then.

The violence also serves as an exploration of the depravities in which humans are capable of indulging, and some of those explorations take the form of ad hoc discourses by Judge Holden, the outlaw gang's second in command and one of the most remarkably complex characters I've come across in recent memory (he's a sort of Death/Old Testament/Satan figure, among other things).

The dark subject matter makes the book uncomfortable to read in places, but hopefully that won't stop someone from reading it themselves. A large part of its impact on the reader lies in the stark power of its unflinching depictions of human cruelty, and the book absolutely deserves every bit of the praise that's been heaped upon it over the years. Just expect to come out of the experience a bit drained.

Back on the List

Pygmalion

by George Bernard Shaw (1912; 1938)

I'm just looking at the reason for the disparity of the dates and am finding this. It was written in 1912, but the version that is printed for reading consumption is dated 1938 and is based on Shaw's screen adaptation. Yes, apparently Shaw was around for movies - blew my mind, too. But the most interesting note, to me, was, "First presented in German at the Hofburg Theater, Vienna, on 16 October 1913." That is, it was presented in German before it was presented in English (in London).

What the?!

A play about the class differences in England as manifested in the country's spoken language was first presented in German. Heh. Luckily, the Germans have class differences manifested in their language as well. Unlike, according to one of the letters that appear as bonus materials, the Swedish, who have nothing (okay, not nothing: less) at home to relate the premise to.

I won't retell the plot because I have the feeling you've seen or heard of My Fair Lady, which is Lerner's (and Lowe's) adaptation of Shaw's play.

Interesting is the epilogue that Shaw added, to make sure that the reader knows he is serious about having Eliza marry Freddy and not Higgins. Shaw figured everyone would get along best if they didn't jump over into the romantic side of things, something Higgins with his mother fixation probably couldn't have done, anyway.

Fun read, by the way, except for the last scene in which Eliza and Higgins have it out. That was a bit too much explanation, I think.

The Reason I've Gotten Off the Track

Nicholson Baker,

The Anthologist (2009)

Rarely do I feel that a book is written precisely for me. But, then again, rarely do I pass by an opportunity to read something by Nicholson Baker, so obviously my taste tends in his direction.

Anyway, I happen to write silly little poems for a radio show and this book is a kind of apologia for poems that rhyme.

And it's very intelligently written and has nicely intertwined stories of what narrator thinks and does and says and what happens to him. Ah, the book is a delight.

And, to top it all off, the reader gets lots of lovely inspirations to read more poetry, which is what I've been doing since The Anthologist came out in September.

I'll be getting back to my list soon. But first I'm encouraging you to read some Nicholson Baker. Always a treat.

Off-List Reading

Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry (1973)

By B.S. Johnson

The novel wasn’t originally on my list, but someone else here read it and made it sound appealing to me. And voila, the blog is showing fruits.

I thought the book was great. A little more meta than I usually like, but the self-reference as created text (ick, I thought I wouldn’t be writing statements like that after College) made sense. My favorite instance:

Meanwhile, they were both perfectly happy. Well, this is fiction, is it not? Isn’t it?

Think about that for a while, and if this kind of thinking appeals to you, then hie yourself to the nearest book-purveyor and read it. As Johnson often points out, it is a short novel.

And, just for fun, here are some words I had to look up: exeleutherostomise; fastigium; sphacelated; trituration; helminthoid; cryptorchid; eirenicon; sufflamination; ungraith; brachyureate; theodolite.

But don’t let that turn you off. The double-entry conceit, as laid out in the terms of its inventor, the 15^th-century Tuscan Monk, Fra Paciolini, makes overly perfect sense for the likes of Christie Malry and moves the book along nicely. Not only that, but the individual reckonings are an ingenious way of letting you reevaluate what happened before.

Hie yourselves and read, I say.

Book Review by Aimee: Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk

"You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all a part of the same compost pile." - Fight Club, pg 134.

I think Chuck Palahniuk is a little bit genius.

Having seen the movie Fight Club at LEAST 5 times in recent years, I fear it will be entirely mainstream and incredibly unliterary to refer to the movie in relation to the book and cross-compare the two. But I'm going to do it anyway. For me personally, the movie is so spectacular in its visualness, and Edward Norton and Brad Pitt are completely rad in it, that it slightly edges out the book. And yet, how can this be, since having now read the book, I can see the movie's glory derives entirely from the book's succinct and underwritten scenes of awesomeness?

I hope I haven't lost you.

Fight Club follows the entirely unapologetic, emotionless (and at times highly unreliable) thinkings of a nameless narrator, a yuppie officeworker who is dragging himself through a meaningless existence. His so far unsuccessful search for meaning in life leads him to participate in cancer support groups, even though he doesn't have cancer himself. But even that corner of the earth is tipped off balance when he finds there is another 'faker' in the group, the dark and raggedly seductive Marla.

Not long after this Marla introduction, on a strangely fatalistic whim, the narrator also invites Tyler Durden into his life and his world is transformed. With Tyler, he is a part of the highly secret fraternity known only as "Fight Club" where men physically rip into each other one on one, giving into primal urges that have been suppressed by society's reign.

Operating by the club's secret code, the narrator quickly becomes addicted to the pain of the fight - which is both a release and a relief from his otherwise numbed and unfeeling persona. As the narrator embarks on Project Mayhem with his fellow members under Tyler's totalitarian rule, the plot thickens and twists in ways you might never have imagined and you'll be horrified and amused by the results in equal measure til the very end.

I can't say much more about the plot than that or otherwise I'll spoil the twists.

Pardon the pun, but Fight Club sure packs a punch. It's an excessively dark humour, and has some fantastic quotes you are sure to remember with a secret, evil smile for years afterwards. Palahniuk somehow manages to write an ironic commentary on societal conformity, without alienating boy OR girl readers. And no sentence is wasted - it's a swift and surprisingly stingy read at 207 flimsy paperback pages.

Similar in tone to American Psycho, I can totally see why this book developed into such a phenomenon from the time of its release. It walks a neat tightrope between showcasing beauty in Destruction, and warning of the modern man's disconnect. There's a weird jittery calmness to the book's narration that keeps your brain alert, as if the book itself may swing a fist at your face or might chance a knee to your groin if it thinks you'd react at all- so don't work yourself into a frenzy while reading if you can help it. It might be difficult to contain yourself, though, and it'll make no difference whether you're a perfect princess or a rugby player - you'll be caught up in the bloodlust and the other crazy antics of the Fight Club boys either way.

I really can't rave enough. If you haven't read the book or seen the movie I suggest you do so NOW. Any worries you might have about it being too "gory"- well, the movie really isn't that bad and the fighting scenes take a backseat to the psychological meanderings of Edward Norton's character and his run-ins with people in his daily life. If it's any consolation you'll get to see a fair bit of Brad Pitt with his shirt off. Worth it, yah?

I also can't suggest which one to watch/read first. I watched the movie and then read the book but it didn't spoil it in the slightest. I imagine it'd be the same if you approached it from the opposite end. I still marvelled at the book story though I knew the movie script by heart. And I hope I won't be spoiling too much by saying that the two endings are entirely different. Of course, both endings rocked my socks.

Sadly, I wouldn't be a valued member of the elite secret society. Mainly because I've already broken the first rule of Fight Club: which is, Never Talk About Fight Club.

Damn it. I must be destined for mediocrity.

4.5 stars for Fight Club (the book).

Book Review by Aimee: The Evil Seed, by Joanne Harris

Having finished this book, to quote W.B. Yeats: my wretched dragon is perplexed.

Word of warning; this will only be a MINI book review, rather than a full book review, because I think the writing in this novel reflects something that is only 'halfway there'.

The Evil Seed is an often confusing. sometimes numbing and other times flamboyantly lovely read - a strange hybrid of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Lesbian Vampire" poem 'Christabel', and the videoclip of Guns n Roses 'November Rain', with a sprinkling of The Secret History and a couple of Interview with the Vampire remarks. Unfortunately, the originality, creativity and unique books of all such mediums referred to in the previous sentence are lost in the inexperience of Harris' first attempt at writing.

The novel intrudes on the mind of uni student and artist Alice at a vulnerable time - she is reminiscing about her former romantic relationship with Joe, but suddenly she finds herself having to house the new girl he is besotted with: Ginny. Ginny is like the hottest Kate Bush you ever did see, and perfects the look of 'Little Girl Lost'. But her friends are kinda weird - it takes three invitations for them to step across a door threshold into your house, and they only like to come over at night, if at all possible.

At first, Alice believes that jealousy is the culprit responsible for her ill feelings towards Ginny, but when she finds an old diary of a gentleman's run in with a Kate Bush vampire, Alice begins to suspect that the truth about Ginny may be very sinister indeed...

Joanne Harris, the author of such mini masterpieces as Chocolat, wrote this book when she was a fresh, impressionable 23 year old. She admits herself that she struggled with the idea that the book should be republished, once she became famous and everything. And I have to be frank and say I understand her concerns. I could see glimpses of the glorious, but overall I felt that lingering university student angst, that 90s love for gothica in its darkest and most grunge-like form and a sense of an author that hadn't quite found her voice just yet.

This book is, overall, romantic and lusty and bloody. The vampires (though they are never referred to as this, only 'Nightwalkers') are of the monstrous, ravaging type. They can hypnotise and manipulate people into doing whatever they please, and they appear to live only for hunger and fear.

At times the writing screamed for simplicity, and instead was overwritten, but I enjoyed the Byronic character of Daniel (diary guy), though the modern-day Alice lesser so.

This was a little too dark, musty and derivative to be a great read, but I still consider it to be a good read, particularly if you like books like Wuthering Heights, or Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and require a quick fix of packet blood. Yeah, I know it's not as good as the live stuff. But hey, even vampires can't have home-cooked gourmet every night. And as far as takeaways go this stuff aint devoid of your daily dose o' vitamins. Just take care with the bony bits.

3 stars.

Carpentaria - Alexis Wright

"One evening in the driest grasses in the world, a child who was no stranger to her people, asked if anyone could find hope. The people of parable and prophecy pondered what was hopeless and finally declared they no longer knew what hope was. The clocks, tick-a-ty tock, looked as though they might run out of time. Luckily, the ghosts in the memories of the old folk were listening, and said anyone can find hope in the stories: the big stories and the little ones in between."
--Carpentaria, p1

On the edge of the Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland is the tiny town known as Desperance (despite government attempts to rename the town), a town ravaged by monsoons, cyclones and incomprehensible tidal patterns. Home to the white people of Uptown, and the warring families of the Pricklebush and the Westsiders, the town is constantly at war with itself, with each other, and with the world around it. The story mostly centres around one family, the Phantoms of the Pricklebush - Fishing king, accused murderer and master storyteller Norm Phantom, his proud and haughty ex-wife Angel Day and his children, including political activist Will Phantom, who takes matters into his own hands when the worlds biggest iron ore mine begins construction on Aboriginal land.

As Wright puts it, Carpentaria is about "the big stories, and the little ones in between." It combines the constant rumour mongering and apocryphal stories of the Uptown people with Dreamtime legends, and old ancestral tales. Stories like Elias Smith, the man who walked into town out of the sea and left just as he arrived; or Mozzie Fishman the religious zealot who leads his band of believes across the country following an ancient ancestral tradition.

More than this though, it is also about the uneasy relationship between the white and indigenous residents of Desperance, and of the country as a whole. It deals with issues like land rights and Aboriginal deaths in custody, both issues that have been debated fiercely even since the book was published in 2006.

I wish I could tell you how much I loved this book. I don't know if I'm biased, since I tend to like all things magical realism, but this book is aamzing. It's big and sprawling and epic and utterly utterly incredible. It's taken me about two months to read it (making it the longest amount of time I've ever spent on one book) - the language, grammar and style make it not an easy book to read, but it's so worth it. It's full of quirky humour, utter despair and everything in between.

Briony

Review: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Book Stats from Amazon:

MP3 CD

Publisher: In Audio; MP3 edition (December 2003)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1584725117

ISBN-13: 978-1584725114

Synopsis: (may contain spoilers for some)

This story is a well know horror classic and is an epistolary novel. It is written as a series of letter from an educated English explorer to his sister as he embarks on a journey through the inhospitable icy Northern regions of the world. As he is traveling with his ship and crew, he finds a man half frozen to death traveling on the ice. The captain brings the frozen Doctor Frankenstein onto his ship and nurses him back to consciousness. It is here that Victor Frankenstein's tale unfolds  as he tells his tale to the captain where it is relayed to the reader through the captain’s letters.

A bit beyond the basics

Victor begins by telling his story from his childhood on. He states he is from a wealthy family whom is loving and close. He is educated and is expected to marry his cousin of sorts and is happy to oblige. Being intellectually inclined he studies all the great philosophers of the age, eventually becoming obsessed with creating life from death. When he eventually does this, the man/monster he creates is appalling to him and is relieved when the monster finally disappears.

The monster, spurned wanders in the wilderness contemplating life where he eventually stumbles upon a family that he grows to adore and wishes for his own. They do not know he exists, as he watches them from afar. In this way the monster learns the ways of the world. When he finally tries to befriend them they are of course horrified and violently reject him. The monster is heartbroken and horrendously distraught. He blames Victor, his creator, and vows to destroy his life completely. The quote below exemplifies his complete distress:

Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that ... instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed? I know not; despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge. I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery.

My Thoughts:

I listened to this novel, unabridged, on audio. It was very pleasant because on this version the reader has an English accent which was wonderful and appropriate for the story. I am not sure if I would have been able to actually read it in written form, since old English can be very difficult. So I recommend audio for experiencing this wonderful classic. I give it 4 stars.

The story is emotional and it pushes the reader’s feelings toward those of complete and utter despair, both from the Doctor’s perspective and that of the monster’s. The monster himself is not terrifying. He is a lost soul in part a product of his environment. I think that the story is more heartbreaking than it is scary.

Its link to GLBT:

One of the reasons I listened to this audio book was because it was designated GLBT in nature. Thinking about it from this perspective I think it is due to the intimate relationships between the main characters, being mostly males, which are very convoluted and intense inferring an intimacy of sorts. I can also see that since GLBT individuals may un-rightly be considered an abomination by some, this may also be a source of connection for the community. The horrible feelings of being an outcast, being shunned by society, family, or father all link to the experiences of the monster.

This book is being read for 4 challenges – The Basics Challenge; The Fill in the Gaps; GLBT; and RIPIV.

Links from Amazon are as close a match as I could find to the version I listened to and may not be currently available. They are listed in the order here US/UK/Canada.

Frankenstein (Unabridged Classics for Young Adults and Adults)/ Frankenstein: 1 (Unabridged Classics in MP3) /Frankenstein

Review: The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

I've long said that books don't make me cry. They don't! The Olympics, yes. Kodak commercials, yes. But books? Never.

Well.

So The Book Thief is set in a town outside Munich during World War II, near enough to see the Jews and Communists march by on their way to Dachau. The protagonist is a young girl for whom stories—books—become a lifeline. She has secrets and friends and secret friends. There are villains, big and small. Words are used as a sword and a shield. The sky is white or gray or yellow.

It's a story told by Death—a convention that might seem gimmicky in other hands; I could describe Zusak's style better if I knew how to make an adjective out of the word "Vonnegut." Death doesn't like surprises, apparently: He tells exactly what's going to happen to whom, in the pages ahead—but somehow you feel compelled to find out why and how, in spite of the dread. Zusak triumphs in presenting a heartbreaking and haunting work without resorting to the blatant emotional manipulation of a twist ending or artificially prolonged denouement.

Marketed as a novel for adults in the author's native Australia, The Book Thief may be missed by adults in the US due to Knopf's decision to market it here as a book for teens. This is unfortunate. I can't imagine processing the full richness and poverty of this story without the benefit of hindsight, or without having paid the cost of experience.

It's the kind of book that makes it hard to choose a next book, because it stays with you for days.

Oh, and about the crying? Never say never...

Gravity's Rainbow

I realized I totally forgot to post this here--I and some others are trying to get through Gravity's Rainbow. Details here, if anyone wants to join up...

I think a bunch of people have this on their list, right? Anyone ever tackled it before (or finished it?)?

Shelly's Progress: One-tenth of the Way Through My List

Shelly's List

It seems like a lot of people are way ahead of me in getting through their 100 books. But I was pleased this past week to finish the tenth on my list. So far, I've finished: Infinite Jest, Velocity, The Princess of Mars, The 8th Habit, The World is Flat, Siddhartha, Woman to Woman and other poems, Mortician's Tea, poemcrazy, and Rip Van Winkle. I've put up some thoughts on Infinite Jest and The World is Flat on other blogs (and I did Siddhartha too, but the post was lost). I thought I'd just include a few thoughts here on 3 others that I finished this past month. I think with my recently improved internet access, I should be able to post more updates to this site in the future too.


The Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1912

Yes, it is dated. Yes, there is much that doesn't pass with the politically correct crowd. But it is a good story.

I enjoyed the adventure tale that took me to an imagined Martian landscape with warriors, princesses, and a weird code of chivalry and bravery. It was fun to follow John Carter into this strange world, and to at least pretend to believe that he really did act with all the courage that he tells us he did. I'm glad I put this one on my list, so that I finally got around to reading it. It won't, however, crack my list of top 100 books I've ever read.

Overall result: B


Velocity, by Dean Koontz, 2005

I've seen Koontz's name around a lot, and heard lots of good things about him. That's why he made my Fill in the Gaps list — well, that and because I found Velocity in a second hand shop for a good price.

I was surprised with how well-written the book is. There are several spots that caught me off guard and made me laugh out loud. I didn't expect to find such a good mix of humor in the novel, but it was a good break from the rather graphic telling of violent murder after violent murder.

I thought the story held together pretty well, and was told in a neat and tidy way that reflects disciplined writing. It was a good way to spend a lazy weekend, reading Velocity, and I was unexpectedly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I gave it to a friend after I read it, and he had almost the exact same thing to say about it.

Overall result: B/B+


Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving, 1819

This is a fun little short story. I can't believe I've never actually read it before, because the story seemed like something that was so familiar, so much a part of my subconscious mind. I was surprised when I found out how skewed some of the details I thought I knew were.

Actually sitting down and reading "Rip Van Winkle" is a good reminder of why this story is so much a part of the collective consciousness. It is well written, and very amusing. I really enjoyed the character, and loved the writing, the way the story unfolded, and the whole air of sarcasm (but with good humor) of it all. It's a very fun read.

Overall result: A-


Of the others that I've finished so far, G. O. Clark's poetry collection Mortician's Tea was my favorite, along with Siddhartha. These two were the best of the 10 I've read. The 8th Habit was my least favorite.

Facebook Page!

Sorry to interrupt, but i thought i'd let you all know i've set up a facebook page for FITG (hope the link works) anyhoo, going to add a fanbox on the right on this blog, so i think you can add yourself there if interested. Theres a discussion forum section on the page and all, if people want to discuss books, events or updates

Toodles

Emily