Odds and Ends

I wrapped up the Once Upon a Time Challenge with a rereading of "A Mid-Summer Night's Dream." It's just as good as I remembered it! I won't bother with a review; however, if you haven't read, you're doing yourself a disservice.

Lately, my reading has been quite erratic. It feels like a start a new book, get a few chapters into it, and then move on to another one. I've given up attempting to complete Che Guevara for my Chunkster Challenge. It feels like assigned reading, and I'm not in college anymore. :) So, I'll just accept having read three books; I know that I've read many books over 400 pages since January, so I don't really feel that bad. Plus, reading Lee's Virginia Woolf was such an accomplishment, I think I've gotten quite a bit out of the challenge.

I'm not sure if I'll get through all of the classics before the Summer Reading Challenge ends (I didn't realise it ended August 1), but I intend to keep reading them regardless. I'm about half way through Dangerous Liasons, and it's still a lot of fun. I also just bought a new journal, since I've decided to take it up again. When I journal, I love making kind of scrap book pages: I cut pictures out of magazines, and then I find favorite poems or quotes and arrange a page with it. My new journal is pretty small (I'd guess 8" x 5"), so it's sometimes difficult to fit the longer poems, but I've been enjoying an outlet for my creativity. I have no drawing ability, so I take solace in collages! :)

Of course I have to mention my latest book mooch arrivals. I have nine books to send out on Monday, but it's worth it for book stacks like this (there're 11 books in it-one is hiding between The Scarlet Pimpernel and French Lessons)!



Edited to add: here's a fun meme I stole from Bookie. Use the first letter of your first name to answer the following.

Famous singer/band----um, how about Mr. Elvis Presley?
4 Letter Word ----- I don't think there are any swear words, but regular four letter words...exit
Street Name -----
Color ------ Eggshell
Gifts/Presents ----- earrings
Vehicle ------ Eclipse
Things in a souvenir shop ---- enamelled boxes (I think I spelled that wrong)
Boy name ----- Erik
Girl name ----- Elizabeth
Movie Title ----- Emma (great movie!)
Drink ------- Eggnog (gross)
Occupation ------- English teacher
Flower ----- English rose
Celebrity ------ Ewan McGregor
Magazine ---- E! Weekly (I think that's what it's called)
U.S. city ------ Eugene, OR
Pro sports team ---- the Eagles
Fruit/vegetable ----- Eggplant
Reason late for work ----- Excuses, excuses ;)
Things you shout ----- Eureka!
Cartoon character ---- Elmer Fudd

Once Upon A Time Challenge Wrap-Up

The Once Upon a Time Challenge, developed at Stainless Steel Droppings, allowed participants to choose a combination of four books from the four different genres of fantasy. They could also choose to finish the challenge with "A Mid-Summer Night's Dream." I completed my five selections for the Once Upon a Time Challenge, with no substitutions...
Widdershins by Charles de Lint
The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clark
Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstick (didn't review, because I didn't enjoy it)
"A Mid-Summer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare (didn't review, because it's Shakespeare)

The best book: Widdershins by Charles de Lint (although I feel blasphemous not putting Gaiman here).
What book could I have done without? Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstick.
Any new authors? de Lint and Holdstick
Books I did not finish: none! I considered abandoning the Holdstick.
What did I learn from this challenge? That de Lint is a great author! Also, I realised how many other people really love fantasy, through the challenge community. It reminded me of how important the genre was to me in high school. :)

(Note: thanks to Nyssaneala for the idea to have questions!)

The Challenge Diaries

I just realized that I need to get a move-on on two of my older challenges! The Chunkster Challenge ends on the 30th, and I had yet to begin my last book. However, I've resolved to read at least two chapters a day (starting three days ago), which will allow me to finish in time. It's a biography, in fact "the definitive biography," of Che Guevara. It's interesting, and after my Latin American politics class last fall I feel that I have more of a context for it, but it's just not what I'm in the mood for right now. Oh well. Two chapters a day is manageable. I thought about giving up, but I just couldn't bring myself to do so.

In brighter news, I also need to get a move on in reading "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to top off the Once Upon a Time Challenge. I really enjoyed that one, and it'll be good to finish it. I think I'm going to read the play while watching my DVD-it makes the experience much more fun!

I'm behind on reviews for my current challenges, so I'll try to get a review of The Turn of the Screw up later tonight. I'm really enjoying Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but since I was sun-bathing today I went for the light The Secret History. I've raced through the first four hundred pages of it, but I'm saving the rest for tomorrow. That'll put me half way done with the Summer Mystery Challenge.

I need to start reading more non-fic again, however. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm open to anything other than self-help books and anything really, really depressing (i.e.-memoirs about death, abuse, etc.). I know that there are people out there who prefer non-fic to fiction...they need to come out of the woodwork and give me some ideas!

Oh, and as a housekeeping question, does anyone know how to make the cute pics for all my challenges links in the new blogger? I'm comfortable with html, but the new blogger doesn't like me playing with it. :(

Fast Meme and Thoughts on Widdershins

I've been tagged by Meli for a short meme that's been circulating. I suppose that's only fair, since she was so cooperative with the 8 things meme. :) Unfortunately, following the rules (turn to the book nearest you, find page 161, copy out the fifth full sentence) led to a rather boring result, lol:

"Did you discover who are the occupants of the guest-chamber?" Holmes asked Mahmoud.

This is from Laurie King's O Jerusalem, the fifth book in her Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series. Highly recommended, despite the prosaicness of this sentence. :) Since I'm at the tailend of this meme, I'm not going to tag specific people: if you want to do it, then leave me a comment, and then I'll explicitly tag you. ;) Simpler for everyone!

That being done, I'd like to talk a little about Charles de Lint's Widdershins. I read it as part of the Once Upon a Time challenge: I had never even heard of de Lint before, but he cropped up on a few participants' lists, so I decided to give it a go. I am so, so happy that I did: he's now on my short list of new favourite authors.

Widdershins is apparently what's known as urban fantasy: it takes place in the contemporary, everyday world (I think Canada-it's not explicit, but that's the sense I got) that just happens to intersect with the fairy world. The story follows one woman, Jilly, and all of the humans and fairies that get drawn into her messy presence. There are several plotlines running at once, and de Lint changes point of view (third person, but not omniscient) pretty much every chapter. To prevent confucion, he helpfully titles each chapter by the character's pov. :) The book is amazing: de Lint gracefully examines how humans and fairies deal with emotional trauma AND political intrigue. It's not often you see both in one book; it's even less often that both are dealt with well. However, de Lint is not your average writer.

To me, the best thing about Widdershins was the characters. Most of the time, that's what makes or breaks a book for me: do I want the characters for friends? As far as Widdershins goes, the answer is a resounding yes. I feel as if I know all of these people, and that I want to get caught up in their, slightly off-kelter lives. The characters all have their flaws, so there's none of the perfect heros that sometimes mar on otherwise good novel (am I the only annoyed when everyone in the book is beautiful, smart, witty, and rich?). In fact, Jilly is in a wheelchair! The fairies are not Tinkerbell-there is also a fascinating disparity between the "native" fairies and those who came over with the Europeans. I really enjoyed de Lint's take on the subject.

I don't really want to discuss much of the plot-it's simply too complex to summarize, and I think it'd be better to go into the book with an open mind. However, I highly recommend that everyone read this book. Even if fantasy isn't your thing, this is not stereotypical buff fighter/loony wizard/hot girls/maybe dragons fantasy. It just feels like contemporary fiction, with an unusual twist. I know that I want to go out and read everything de Lint has ever written. In fact, I've already checked out another book of his from the library!

Favorite Passage

No matter how different people looked-cousin, human, fairy-inside they were all the same. It was only what you did with the spirit that made the difference.
Big heart or sour twist.
Generous spirit or miser.
You had a choice.
But you had to make that choice, or the circumstances around you would make it for you. People would decide for you.(445)

The Ladies of Grace Adieu (thoughts)

First off, I lied. I said in my last post that I had completed my Once Upon a Time challenge. Obviously, I forgot about Mr. William Shakespeare! A Midsummer Night's Dream is my favorite play of his-I also own the movie version with Kevin Cline. Since my collected Shakespeare work is at home (vs. at college), I'll have to wait until early June. In the mean time, here're my thoughts on the last of the books.. (I'll review Widdershins, which I loved, within the next couple day. Mythago Wood, which I did not love, will probably get a short treatment whenever I can fit it in!)

The Ladies of Grace Adieu is Susanna Clarke's follow-up to her debut novel Jonothan Strange & Mr. Norrell. This one is a short story collection; Jonathan strange plays a role in the title story, which is fun! The entire world of 1800s England w/ magic is continued from the novel into the short story collection, and several stories reference the Raven King. So, if you've read her first novel, you're on familiar ground. However, it's certainly not necessary to have read the novel in order to enjoy this collection.

Susanna Clarke is one of those authors whose style is either love or hate. Similar to A.S. Byatt, Clarke creates an entire scholarly body of work around her world: the stories might have footnotes referencing imaginery encyclopedias, or introductions by stuffy old academics. :) I, personally, adore this kind of writing. The short story collection is quite varied in tone: some of the tales are set in 19th century Britain, while others are set in Medieval England. This obviously affects dialogue and pacing. In one of the stories, Clarke writes in dialect, although not so extreme as to detract from the reading experience.

All in all, if you've read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and loved it, you'll love this collection as well. If you haven't, but you're a reader who enjoys A.S. Byatt or British classics, you'll probably love it as well. I've realised, after writing about this as well as Fragile Things, that I don't really know how to go about reviewing short story collections! Oh well-enough said...I just wish that Clarke had about twenty more books published!

Favorite Passages

Above all remember this: that magic belongs as much to the heart as to the head and everything which is done, should be done from love or joy or righteous anger. (7)

So Venetia went along Church-lane to Kissingland and, though it would benefit the dignity of the Female Sex in general to report that she now despised and hated Captain Fox, Venetia was not so unnatural. Instead she indulged in many vain sighs and regrets, and tried to derive such consolation as she could from the reflection that it was better to be poor and forgotten in Kissingland, where there were green trees and sweet flowery meadows, than in Manchester where her friend, Mrs. Whitsun, had died in a cold grey room at the top of a dismal lodging house. (68)

Restless

So, I've finished the Once Upon a Time challenge-completed The Ladies of Grace Adieu this weekend. I'm not in the mood to review it yet-I'll just say that it was an awesome read.

I just can't seem to settle on any books right now. I'm started Roth's Everyman, since I read Vonnegut earlier in the term. I'm a third of the way through East, West, a story collection by Salman Rushdie; this is part of my continued quest to read all of Rushdie's works. And I'm a little over a hundred pages into Ishiguro's The Unconsoled, which I chose since I loved, loved Remains of the Day. But as you can tell, none of them are grabbing me.

I just got Freakonomics-maybe I'll start that one. Until then, I just can't seem to committ to anything. *sigh* I wish a book would leap out and grab me!

Fragile Things (thoughts)

I read Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman as the first part of my Once Upon the Time challenge. I've read most of Neil Gaiman's adult books: Neverwhere, American Gods, Anasi Boys, Smoke and Mirrors, Stardust, and Good Omens. In fact, except for American Gods, I own all of those books! So, I went into Fragile Things expecting to love it.

And I did. Fragile Things is his second short story collection, and it contains a huge variety of styles. However, all of the stories showcase Gaiman's ability to instantly create a convincing world. Since he's a fantasy writer, his stories usually take place in at least a slightly alternate reality, so I'm sure he's had plenty of practice. Still, it's incredible to watch.

I highly recommend Neil Gaiman to everyone: I feel that he transcends genre-writing. He basically writes fairy-tales for adults; it's always good to feed our inner child. :)

Favorite Passages

I was head-over-heels in love, and so, I liked to think, was she. Our affair continued when we returned to England: fizzy, funny, utterly delightful. It was love, I knew, and it tasted like champagne in my mind. (196)

It's a way of talking about lust without talking about lust, he told them.
It is a way of talking about sex, and fear of sex, and death, and fear of death, and what else is there to talk about? (216)

Whoot, whoot!

In honor of me finally finishing my big senior thesis, as well as completing the Reading Across Borders challenge, I decided to bring on a new challenge. And, although it's super late, I chose the Once Upon a Time challenge. :D I saw this when it actually began, but I was too swamped at the time to participate. However, now I feel that I have the time, and reading all of that science fiction made me crave some fantasy!

So, my list is as follows:

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman: I love Neil Gaiman. A lot. And this is the only book of his I haven't read. I checked it out tonight and I'm already around page seventy!

The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clark: I read Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norell in December, and I enjoyed it a lot. So, I'm looking forward to another book by her.

Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstick: saw it on another blogger's list.

Widdershins by Charles de Lint: ditto.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare: only my favorite Shakespeare play ever!!!