Top Ten Tuesday-Top Ten Characters I'd Like to Be BFFs With

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  I love this week's topic.  I get friend crushes all the time!  Sometimes real people, sometimes celebrities, sometimes TV characters, and yes, book characters!  So who would I hang out with in my fictional life?

1.  Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
I love Hermione in all of the books, but this is the book where she starts fighting for the rights of the house elves, one of the best social justice themes in the series, in my humble opinion.  She's smart, fiercely loyal, strong yet vulnerable.  And she could teach me some really good spells!

2.  Jo March, Little Women
I imagine that it had something to do with growing up in the 1970s rather than the 1870s, but when I read Little Women the only female character I really felt a connection to was Jo.  Sure, I loved Beth and cried when she died, and I understood Meg and Amy, Jo was the one who seemed like she could step out of the pages and make it in a post-sexual revolution world.  I love her selflessness and her independence and her ambition.

3.  Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh
Winnie the Pooh has a characteristic that most children's fiction today seems to lack-gentleness.  We seem to have entered any era where even children's literature has to be ironic and slightly cynical or sarcastic.  There are great examples of cute stories (sometimes so sweet they make my teeth ache), but few with the same kind of gentle spirit that Winnie has.  Christopher Robin is such a good friend to Pooh, and even though he goes away he always comes back, which is a great trait in a friend, I think.

4.  Lisbeth Salander, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
And now, for something completely different.  Christopher Robin might be my comforting friend, but when I have ass-kicking to do it's Lisbeth I'd want by my side.  Sure, she's damaged.  Sure, she's violent.  But she is also a genius, and she can be vulnerable.

5.  Jen Lancaster, Bitter is the New Black
OK, so Jen is a real person, living in my city even.  But her memoirs read a little like fiction, and she is quite a character.  Witty, sarcastic in my favorite sort of way, not afraid to laugh at herself-I have this recurring fantasy of getting on the El and the only seat left is next to her, and my own wit and insightful comments about the other passengers on the train cause her to instantly know we are meant to be best friends for life.  Even if she is a Republican.

6.  Temperance Brennan, Deja Dead
Important to note that while I enjoy the Dr. Brennan character on the show Bones, it is the book character I would want to be friends with.  She is much more normal than her TV counterpart, and I could definitely give her some advice about the men in her life.  Andrew Ryan loves you, Tempe-make it work!

7.  Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis, Bad Love
While I have not enojyed the last couple of Alex Delaware novels as much as the others, but as a character team goes, Alex and Milo are one of my favorites.  I'd do a ride along with them.  The way they banter back and forth, I'd never have to talk.

8.  August Boatwright, The Secret Life of Bees
August Boatwright was a was the oldest of the three sisters that took in Lily Owens after she ran away from home in Sue Monk Kidd's novel.  If I was ever in trouble, and needed to run away, I would want to run directly to August.  The fact that August was played by one of my friend crushes, Queen Latifah, in the movie version of the book, doesn't hurt my overall warm feelings for the character.

9.  Laura Ingalls, Little House on the Prairie
When I as a girl, I thought it would be so much fun to live on the farm with Pa and Ma and Laura and Mary.  While I now realize how terribly hard my soft 20th Century self would have found life on the prairie in the 1800s, it still seems idyllic to me.

10.  Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
Ok, so really I'd just like to have been able to go to Narnia with them and fight the White Witch, but they seem like very nice kids, too.

Wordless Wednesday

All Together Dead, Charlaine Harris

OK, I admit it-I have a Charlaine Harris addiction (to my new Literary Blog Hop friends-don't judge!)  There is just something about her writing style that I find really charming.  Maybe it's the southern thing, maybe it's the down-home characters (well, at least the ones that aren't vampires or demons).  I realize that there is very little substance, but I sure like her style. 

I just finished the seventh book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, All Together Dead.  It follows Sookie on her trip to the fictional city of Rhodes to accompany the vampire Queen of Lousiana to the vampire summit.  Apparently the queen feels like having a mind reader along might just keep her from being sent to vampire jail for allegedly killing her husband, the King of Arkansas.  Sookie soon discovers that there is a plot afoot to disrupt the summit and kill the vampires involved.  The only question is, where is the danger coming from?

Really I could probably copy and paste every other review of the Sookie Stackhouse books I've ever written here and it would apply.  Her new love interest, Quinn the were-tiger, is dreamy.  The plot takes twists and turns that are at times surprising, but it is formulaic enough that it met my requirements for mindless escapism.  Overall, if you like the Sookie books, you're going to like this one too.  If you think books about vampires and weres and demons and fairies and mystical bodyguards from another dimension are the ninth circle of hell, then this is definitely not for you!

Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

On Wednesday, July 19, the Council, having gleaned and discerned, released its official verdict: the fall of the tile bearing the letter "Z" constitutes the terrestrial manifestation of an empyrean Nollopian desire, that desire most surely being that the letter "Z" should be utterly excised - fully extirpated - absolutively heave-ho'ed from our communal vocabulary!

Henceforth, use of the arguably superfluous twenty-sixth letter will be outlawed from all island speech and graphy.

(Pg 6, Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn)

Ruthless by Anne Stuart

ISBN-13: 9780778328483
Publisher: Mira
Published: August 2010
409 pgs
Source: Personal Library
House of Rohan Series #1

It has been awhile since I have read a historical romance; thus I chose Anne Stuart's Ruthless as she is one of my favourite historical romance authors. Anne Stuart also writes contemporary romance and in my opinion no other author writes bad and sexy heroes quite like the way she is.

Being the eldest daughter in the family, Elinor Harriman feels she has the responsibility to oversee the welfare of her younger sister, Lydia, and mother after the death of their father. Their father had left nothing for them and besides worrying over their poverty state Elinor has to make sure that their mother didn't gamble away all their assets despite her sickly condition. Alas, their mother is one selfish and stubborn woman and the next thing Elinor knew, she has lost all their funds. Elinor goes after her to the Heavenly Host, a secret society where exiled aristocrats gather to indulge their carnal desires.

Viscount Rohan is the host of the Heavenly Host and he is known to be a mysterious, dark and a ruthless man who always has things done his way. He has met countless women but never one quite like Elinor. Thus when Elinor stomped into his lair demanding for her mother, he couldn’t help but to take notice of her despite that she is outspoken and fiery. On the other end, Elinor refuses to be swayed or attracted by his charms, but would she change her mind after discovering that he isn’t the man whom everyone thinks to be?

What can I say? Anne Stuart has written another winner in Ruthless. She has once again captivated her readers (at least with this reader) with a romantic tale and a dark, alpha male hero to match, in which I think has become her signature. What I liked about this story is beside the intensity between the hero and the heroine, there is also a secondary romance between Elinor’s sister, Lydia and Charles Reading, who is Viscount Rohan’s best friend and right-hand man. While the plot is not new, what I liked are the characterisations, the dialogues and also the juxtaposition of the rich and poor, as well as the depraved and the innocent set in Paris during the mid 18th century.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a secondary romance of Lydia and Charles but because their story is so brief, I wanted to read more of their story but I was disappointed to learn from Anne Stuart (I wrote an email to her) that there won’t be a book featuring this couple since she felt that she has more or less covered their story in Ruthless. I definitely hope that she would change her mind and decide to write their story in the near future. Meanwhile, I look forward to reading her second House of Rohan series, Reckless.

---

I just settled down in my new office today (we moved last Friday). My workstation is organised (well at least the most of it) but I still have about six boxes which haven’t unpacked but at least they are to be kept into the store. I’m currently munching on green peas and crackers and drinking a cup of hot green tea as I’m typing this; it is raining cats and dogs outside and I wish I’m at home snuggling under a blanket with a book in hand. Onto a brighter note, I will be watching Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 with my husband this evening. I can’t wait!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Literary Blog Hop-Contemporary Classics?

Welcome, literary hoppers!  I'm excited to participate in the Literary Blog Hop hosted by The Blue Bookcase this week, since I am not working and actually have time to string together coherent thoughts in the Question of the Week.  More on that in a moment.  And now for a word from our sponsor:

This blog hop is open to blogs that primarily feature book reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion.
How do I know if my blog qualifies as "literary"? Literature has many definitions, but for our purposes your blog qualifies as "literary" if it focuses primarily on texts with aesthetic merit. In other words, texts that show quality not only in narrative but also in the effect of their language and structure. YA literature may fit into this category, but if your blog focuses primarily on non-literary YA, fantasy, romance, paranormal romance, or chick lit, you may prefer to join the blog hop at Crazy-for-books that is open to book blogs of all genres.

Now, on to the main event...can a contemporary novel be considered a classic?  Not that I want to necessarily align myself with the Catholic Church, but I think that a novel can only be called a classic once its merits have stood up against scrutiny and it's been thoroughly vetted by readers over a rather significant period of time, much like candidates for sainthood are in Catholicism.  In order to be a classic, I believe that a novel must do one of two things-it must either present such a clear cultural snapshot of a time and place that it comes to represent that time and place, or it must have themes that continue to resonate long after the actual time period in which it was written.  It must either be completely time-bound or have that indefinable quality of timelessness (or both, a la Jane Austen-completely captures Victorian England and presents timeless themes).

That said, the Catholic Church may take years to do it, but we all know Mother Theresa is going to be a saint.  I think that the most we can do as contemporary readers is determine the authors and novels we believe will be classics, and hopefully live long enough to see if we are right.  I think it is safe to say that if the critics get to pick, then I'm pretty sure the Jonathans (Franzen and Safran Foer) will be there.  This is easier done with children's books, since their generations are shorter.  Harry Potter has already been through a few generations of kids, and it continues to captivate them.  The Giver by Lois Lowry is another example, though that one is a crossover, since I know just as many adults as children who love that book.

As for adult novels, here are a few I hope will stand the test of time.  First, anything written by Margaret Atwood, but especially The Handmaid's Tale.  While I would love to envision a day when a woman's reproductive status does not define who she is, I'm gonna put my money on needing feminist writers like Atwood well into the future.  I also think that Toni Morrison's books will hold up to the passage of time.  While most people find Beloved her best work, I think that Paradise is a masterpiece of narrative structure.  Her fluid sense of time creates this wave of connection that really forces you as a reader to become engaged in a way that straightforward narratives do not.  A Thousand Splendid Suns is so powerful, and so moving, that if Hosseini's work is not remembered in 50 years it will be a tragedy.

Underlying this week's question, and most questions about English language fiction, is that the novels we read and find so powerful today only get into our hands because someone on an editorial staff in some publishing house decided that we get to read it.  While I think there is plenty of variety (and diversity) in the publishing world in general, I do notice a decided lack of authors of color or female authors in most of the discussions of "serious" contemporary authors.  I am not disputing the masterfulness of Franzen or Safran Foer or McCarthy or McEwan-I just think it makes sense to be mindful of the other voices not being heard as loudly.  Stay tuned for more on that topic later in the month, when I explain my theory of reading as social justice.

Adventures of Rusty & Ginger Fox by Timothy Ostermeyer

ISBN-13: 9780984504008
Publisher: Synergy Books
Published: November 2010
48 pgs
Source: Publicist

Adventures of Rusty & Ginger Fox is one of the most interesting children book I have came across lately. What makes this book such a lovely reading experience to me is aside from the cute story, author Tim Ostermeyer has captured the essence of the wildlife animals through his excellent photography skills.

Rusty and Ginger belong to the red foxes species. The story opens with them exploring the forest and they encounter all kinds of other wildlife animals (such as deers, wolves, cougars, black bears, bobcats) along their way; another thing I loved is it has a fact page of wildlife information for every animal introduced in the book so readers are able to learn a little more about them as they read along.

Rusty and Ginger then stumbled upon an island where they got to meet two little adorable girls and to explore a treasure chest. Finally, there is also a message about sharing towards the end of the story which I find all so meaningful and endearing. This is absolutely a charming book to be read by readers of all ages.

About the Author: Tim Ostermeyer has spent the last 20 years taking pictures of wildlife worldwide and winning over 250 first-place awards for his photography. Currently living in Allen, Texas, Ostermeyer works as a structural analyst for the engineering firm Raytheon and continues his passion for photography while operating his photography studio. For more information on Ostermeyer and his photography, please visit http://www.rustyandgingerfox.com/ or http://www.ostermeyer-photography.com/.

(Many thanks to the publicist for sending this book to me for review.)

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday

This is totally a random picture I found on my Flickr album since I didn't have the time to go through my photo archives at home. This was taken during a winery visit in Perth, Australia last year.

My First Top Ten Tuesday!

Since I have started participating in the Literary Book Hop hosted by The Blue Bookcase, I have found so many goo d, grown-up, literary blogs I can hardly contain myself.  Apparently that is exactly what I needed to get my own blogging back on track-I'm feeling inspired.  And since I, like many of us, enjoy lists, I was especially excited to find Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This weeks Top Ten Topic is favorite holiday books.  Sadly, I know very little about holiday themed books for adults, since I find most of them incredibly cheesy.  Sentimentality for the sake of sentimentality is not really my thing.  However, I'm also a teacher, which therefore gives me an out to focus my list on children's books! (With the exception of Dickens-I mean really, it's Scrooge!)

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas-do I really need to explain?

A Christmas Carol-again, pretty self-explanatory, no?

Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins-This is one that I use with my students every year.  They love the story of the goblins, and how Herschel tricked them into lighting the menorah. 

The Polar Express-Chris Van Allsberg's trip to the North Pole is a delight! 

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe-OK, not technically a holiday book, but it has Father Christmas in it, and I got the entire set for Christmas in 1981 when I was in sixth grade, so it feels like Christmas to me.  I read all seven books before going back to school in January.  If I could go back to one time in my life and relive it, it might be that week, wrapped in my quilt reading about Narnia on my bed, safe and warm with my parents in the next room.

 Little House in the Big Woods-The Christmas chapter is one of my favorites.  I'm not sure anything brought home to me at 8 how different my world was from Laura's like reading about how excited she was to get an orange for Christmas.

Well, I guess my Top Ten turned into my Top Six, but I'm alright with that.  I've gotten a peek at next week's theme, and I'll be able to make up for it then!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

She looked into his ruined beauty and hated him. Hated him for a thousand reasons, most of which had nothing to do with him at all.

(Pg 154, Ruthless by Anne Stuart)

---

I was supposed to read The Levels by Sean Cregan after reading Kazuo Ishiguro's A Pale View of Hills, since both of them are library copies and I need to return them before the date due. However, I had to put down the book after reading two chapters as I couldn't find myself get into the story. I think it has to do with the characters since I couldn't feel any connection with them; or another reason being that I just wasn't in the mood for that genre at this time. Oh well.

Onto a non-bookish note, I am almost done with my packing. I have packed about 20 boxes and that excluding my superior's, haha. (I will be off to do some bloghopping packing after typing this.) Hope everyone has a Happy Tuesday!

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a novel of world war two as experienced by Henry, a Chinese-American boy, and Keiko, his Japanese-American first love.  IN 1942 Seatle, Henry and his family live in the Chinatown section of the International District.  Keiko and her family live in Nihonmachi, the Japanese section.  Henry's father, born in China, is a fierce Chinese nationalist, with a hatred of all things Japanese because of their invasion of China.  He tries to instill this hatred in Henry, but all Henry can see is how his obsession with the war in China keeps them from developing a real relationship.  Keiko is a second generation American who doesn't even speak Japanese.  Henry and Keiko meet and strike up their friendship as the only two Asian students at an elite prep school.  Because they are on scholarship, they are made to work in the kitchen, serving the white students their lunch.  Their shared "otherness" bonds them in a way that simple friendship can't describe.  Henry is devastated when the order comes from President Roosevelt to inter all Japanese-American or not-in camps well inland.  Henry promises to wait for Keiko, but his father, who mostly disowned Henry after discovering he had a Japanese friend, intercepts Henry's letters to Keiko, and her letters from the camp, and they grow apart.  In 1986, Henry, now in his 50s, finds himself drawn back to the Panama Hotel, where the discovery of items left behind by Japanese families on their way to internment camps brings his old feelings to the surface.

I'm feeling lukewarm about this book.  On the one hand, it brings a new perspective to the history of Japanese internment, with its focus on the interplay between Chinese and Japanese, and how Chinese American's had to identify themselves so as not to be mistaken for Japanese, since most Americans of the time (and probably still) couldn't or didn't care to understand the differences.  On the other hand, it felt like stories I had read before, most notably Snow Falling on Cedars, about a white boy falling in live with a Japanese girl, and the ways that the community responded to the internment of their neighbors.

That said, I was moved by the story, and horrified as always by the way that fear and false patriotism were used to justify the blatant racism of the era.  Since 9-11 I have watched in dismay the way that Muslims have been treated in some parts if the country, and I sometimes think it is only our shameful history of Japanese internment that has kept detention centers and mass deportation from becoming a reality.    I don't know whether this particular novel does much to add to that conversation that has not already been said, but it was an enjoyable read.

A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro

ISBN-13: 9780571245659
Publisher: Faber and Faber Limited
Published: 2009
183 pgs
Source: Library

A Pale View of Hills was published in 1982, and it was the first novel to be written by Kazuo Ishiguro. While I have his other book, Never Let Me Go, in my pile, I chose to read this first as I don't think I have seen too many reviews on this around the blogosphere.

A Pale View of Hills tells the story of a middle-aged Japanese woman named Etsuko living in England as she recalls her past living in post-war Nagasaki, during a visit from her daughter, Niki. As the narrator, Etsuko began to describe her acquaintance with a woman she knew as Sachiko and her daughter Mariko during her days in Nagasaki. Before she went on to recall her relationship with Sachiko, readers are well aware that there have been two marriages in Etsuko's life through the first chapter. Her first marriage was to a Japanese man named Jiro and together they had a daughter, Keiko. Niki is actually her daughter from her second marriage to a British man. During the time when Etsuko is living in England (there isn't any mention of Jiro so it was understood that Etsuko and Jiro had split), Keiko became withdrawn and spent most of the time locked in her room. She committed suicide later, and this was made known to the readers from the beginning because Niki was telling Etsuko that she doesn't feel comfortable staying in the room facing opposite Keiko's room.

This first part of the story tells a lot about Etsuko's recollections of her friendship with Sachiko and Mariko. As the story progressed, I found myself disliking Sachiko because she somewhat gave me the impression of being an arrogant and a materialistic woman. In any sense, there are also a few similarities between Keiko and Mariko as both seemed to be loners and harbour a sense of depression.

The story took a turn during the second part as this focus more Etsuko's relationship with Jiro and his father Ogata-San, as well as the latter's opinion towards the Japanese society between the past and the present. If you are feeling confused at this point, you are not alone because that was my initial reaction as far as the progress of the story is concerned. Etsuko has intrigued me with her recollections of Sachiko and Mariko during the first part of the story, so I was perplexed and feeling somewhat frustrated that there isn't further elaborations on them on the second part of the story. I also have to confess that I was actually more interested to read about Sachiko and Mariko than Jiro and Ogata-San, not because the latter wasn't interesting but there is something about Sachiko and Mariko that I couldn't quite put a finger on. It was only after reading the whole book and some pondering did I realise that not only this story is multi-layered but it is also how you interpret it in the end. This book makes a great book club discussion in my opinion, and I think this is the kind of book which you will either love it or hate it. For me, I don't hate it but I don't love it to pieces too; still I quite like the idea that this story would provoke some pondering from the readers and that has totally heightened my reading experience aside from being an escapism.

Have you read it? What is your interpretation of this story?

Nice to Meet You, Literary Blog Hop- Charmed, I'm sure!

Welcome, lovers of literature, to my first adventure in Literary Blog Hopping.  I've been remiss in my blogging of late-I blame those pesky little things called working and going to school.  Darn that need to make money anyway!  But I digress...The Literary Book Blog is hosted by the The Blue Bookcase, and is defined as...

How do I know if my blog qualifies as "literary"? Literature has many definitions, but for our purposes your blog qualifies as "literary" if it focuses primarily on texts with aesthetic merit. In other words, texts that show quality not only in narrative but also in the effect of their language and structure. YA literature may fit into this category, but if your blog focuses primarily on non-literary YA, fantasy, romance, paranormal romance, or chick lit, you may prefer to join the blog hop at Crazy-for-books that is open to book blogs of all genres. 

If you're interested in my cogitations about whether I am "literary" enough for this hop, you can find them in my post Does It Matter What We Read?
 

This week's question is:
Is there such a thing as literary non-fiction? If so, how do you define it? Examples?

While I admittedly don't read a ton of non-fiction, I can say with certainty that the answer is yes, there can be literary non-fiction.  If you consider the many definitions of literature, they often contain a reference to the aesthetic or structural nature of the work.  Non-fiction writing can be transcendently beautiful, incredibly heartbreaking, lyrical and gritty-the best non-fiction doesn't just inform you about the chosen topic, but about life and love and pain and joy and sorrow.

There are a few examples I can think of for the subcategory of literary non-fiction.  Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, considered by many to be the first in the true crime genre, comes to mind.  The writing is spare, the mood evocative-sounds literary to me.  There's also Maya Angelou and Alice Walker, both of whom wrote about their lives in a way that transcends mere navel gazing and speaks volumes to larger truths. 

An author not as well known but whose books I believe fit in this category is Rick Bragg.  His memoir of his mother, All Over But the Shoutin', is one of the best non-fiction books I've read (which is a much smaller number than my fiction total).  It is a loving, almost reverent look at his childhood with his mother at the center.  Growing up poor in rural Alabama, Bragg took his experiences and used them as a journalist to bring humanity to stories on issues such as urban poverty.  This line from the book, describing the small town where he grew up, is an excellent example of why he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1996: 

"This is a place where grandmothers hold babies on their laps under the stars and whisper in their ears that the lights in the sky are holes in the floor of heaven. This is a place where the song 'Jesus Loves Me' has rocked generations to sleep, and heaven is not a concept, but a destination."

Miscellaneous Ramblings

Photo Credit

See that picture above? That's how I'm feeling right now - tired. If you are a follower of this blog, you'd be aware that I'm currently packing my stuff for the relocation of our office next week. I have been working in this office tower for (let me think...) about 5 years. Five years isn't a long time, but it isn't a short time either. I have grown to love the place, considering that it takes me about an hour to travel to work, and vice versa. I know I may sound like a broken record, but right now I can't help feeling nostalgic about everything. I think it may take me awhile to adjust to the new environment, just because I'm still feeling sentimental about my current working place.

Onto another note, I'm enjoying reading Kazuo Ishiguro's A Pale View of Hills. This is the first book I read by this author, and I'm glad this book didn't disappoint me. There is an atmospheric feel to the story, though I can't say it is entirely creepy. Mr Ishiguro had it written in a way that makes you feel totally intrigued and captivated by the story. You just couldn't help but to keep turning those pages; yes it is that addictive. I have to make sure to check out the rest of the books by this author in the near future. And speaking of books, here are a few which I bought lately:

• Matched by Ally Condie
• The Castle in the Pyrenees by Jostein Gaarder
• The Human Bobby by Gabe Rotter (Kathy and Sandy highly recommended this so I've gotta listen to them)
• Harbour by John Ajvide Lindqvist

So Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 opens here yesterday. I wanted to watch it badly but my husband said he could only watch it with me the week following next, due to his work commitment. I just wish that day will arrive sooner (My husband don't read the books, but he really enjoys the movies).

Well I hope everyone has a great weekend ahead (it's Thursday night while typing this). I'm hoping to have the review of A Pale View of Hills up next week, considering I'm spending lesser time on blogging nowadays due to my office shifting but we shall see.

Does It Matter What We Read?

This week I discovered the Literary Blog Hop, hosted by The Blue Bookcase.  Unlike Crazy-For-Book's Friday Book Blog Hop, which is open to every book blogger regardless of what type of books they review, the Literary Blog Hop is open only to:

"This blog hop is open to blogs that primarily feature book reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion. If your blog does not fit this description, it may be removed from the Linky List. 

How do I know if my blog qualifies as "literary"? Literature has many definitions, but for our purposes your blog qualifies as "literary" if it focuses primarily on texts with aesthetic merit. In other words, texts that show quality not only in narrative but also in the effect of their language and structure."

All of the blogs that I have read as a result of finding this hop have been high quality, well written blogs.  I was thrilled to find them, and look forward to many long mornings having coffee with them.  I think that the idea of genre-based or topic-based blog hops is also a great idea.  I have enjoyed participating in the Friday Book Blogger Hop on Crazy-for-Books, but there are sometimes so many blogs that it can be hard to wade through them all.

Here's the issue:  As soon as I read the above definition, I started wondering if my blog would "measure up".  I mean, I have certainly read books that would be considered literary for the purposes of the hop (The Lacuna, Night, I'll Take You There) but I also read popcorn mysteries, fantasy and paranormal, and the occasional women's fiction.  I consider that I have a very eclectic mix of reading experiences, and I don't think I need to explain or justify why I read Toni Morrison one week and Charlaine Harris the next.

This led me to think about the reasons people read, because I think that the kids of things that people read are related to the reasons that they read.  Here is what I came up with in my own admittedly short thinking on the topic.

Edification:  Reading is famously seen as a window to the world, and one of the many reasons people read is to learn about cultures, eras, and experiences different than their own.  For some people this means reading non-fiction.  For some this means reading really high quality fiction that accurately and sympathetically represent the vagaries of the human experience.  Research has shown that one of the best ways to improve vocabulary and higher level thinking skills is by wide-reading. 

Entertainment:  Let's face it-humans love a good story.  From the earliest days of humans sitting around the fire telling stories of the hunt people have shared stories as a way to pass the time.  Most of the people I know who are readers read because it is an enjoyable activity, something that they choose to do despite the draw of flashier media like television and the internet.  Speaking for myself, there is nothing I like more in the world than to sit in a comfy chair with a cup of coffee and a good book.  Which leads to the next reason for reading...

Escapism: When I choose to read Stephen King or Jonathan Kellerman instead of Joyce Carol Oates or Salman Rushdie, it is generally because I am looking at reading as a relaxation activity, one that allows me to turn my brain off and get lost in a story.  The demands of school and work can fill a person's brain with so much noise that reading anything of substance can be a challenge.  I suppose some people find reading really challenging material relaxing, I just don't happen to be one of them. 

So...what the heck does any of this mean?  Does it matter what you read, as long as you are reading?  As an educator, I would say no-I'm thrilled if my students find texts that engage them (though I have issues with the Disnification of certain children's literature, though more because I am anti-branding, churning out the newest generation of consumers).  Of course, as an educator I also believe in life long learning, as cliche as that phrase has become.  For myself, I try to find a balance.  Of the hundreds of books on my shelves waiting to be read, there is a shelf that is dedicated to what I think of as substantive reads.  They will come off of the shelves during Christmas break, and during the summer, when I have less work and school stuff on my mind.

What does this mean for my future as a Literary Blog Hopper?  I figure I'll give it a try.  I'll try not to be too hurt if my link disappears into the ether.  Ultimately, as much as I enjoy blogging and the dialogue that can happen as a result, my reading life is for me.  

Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

In many ways, that room is the most pleasant in the house, with a splendid view across the orchard. But it had been Keiko's fanatically guarded domain for so long, a strange spell seemed to linger there even now, six years after she had left it - a spell that had grown all the stronger now that Keiko was dead.

(Pg 53, A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro)

The End of the World is Hilarious

What do you get when you cross an angel, a demon, a witch hunter, a sixteenth century prognosticator, the Antichrist, and the Four Horsemen on motorcycles?  You get the hilarious end-of-the-world vision of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett known as Good Omens.

Good Omens opens with the birth of the Antichrist in a rural hospital in England.  The demon in charge of his arrival, Crowley, thinks that all has gone according to plan when he sends a newborn home with a demonic nanny.  His adversary, and friend, the angel Aziraphale, does his level best to convert the boy to the side of good, supplying an angelic gardener to counteract the demonic nanny.  What neither of them realizes however, is that the Satanic nurse present at the birth made a mistake, and sent the real Antichrist home with another family.  They realize their mistake at the boy's eleventh birthday-the date at which the end of the world was supposed to begin.  When they realize their mistake, the search for the real Antichrist (a normal 11 year old named Adam) ensues.  As strange things with an eerie resemblance to the Book of Revelations start happening all over the world, the forces of good and evil start gathering for the war between Heaven and Hell that is to come, unless four children, a witch hunter, and the descendant of the only prognosticator to correctly predict the events to come can head off the ineffable plan of the Almighty.

Gaiman and Pratchett do a fine job of skewering the whole idea of good and evil.  Their basic premise seems to be that good and evil need each other-that the whole point of being good or being evil is to have the opposite side to fight against.  This point of view could be seen as an allegory for all kinds of human institutions-competing religions, political ideologies, classes...In addition, they seem to be making a case for atheism, or at least for the existence of God being irrelevant to the daily lives of humans.  As Crowley and Aziraphale discuss towards the end of the book, what was the point of creating the Tree of Knowledge if God didn't expect his creations to eat from it?  Why give humans free will and the run of an entire planet if you didn't expect them to make their own way?  At one point the ineffable plan is defined as a way for God (a word which is never used for the ultimate creator in the book, by the way) to test his creations to see if they work as he devised them-not in his (or her or its) glory, but the way you would test pilot an airplane after you put it together to make sure it would fly.  In the end, humanity doesn't need angels or demons to create moments of transcendent glory or moments of horrific cruelty.  We do alright on those scores without divine intervention.

Monday Musing

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia from The Printed Page where readers get to share the books that came into their house last week; this month the host for Mailbox Monday is Julie of Knitting and Sundries.

Here's what I received last week:

1) Adventures of Rusty & Ginger Fox by Tim Ostermeyer (from the publicist)

2) Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by David Levithan & Rachel Cohn (bought from The Book Depository)

What books came into your house last week?

---

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Marg and Claire that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

I borrowed two books from the library last week - The Levels by Sean Cregan and A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro. I've seen many bookbloggers mentioned about Kazuo Ishiguro's books but just haven't got around to reading them yet, so I really look forward to reading this book.

Sean Cregan's debut novel The Levels is an urban gothic thriller about an abandoned housing project, the Levels, inhabited by Newport's homeless population which is run by the powerful Sorrow. I thought the blurb sounds interesting and with that eye-catching cover, I just couldn't pass this up. I hope I'll have the chance to read this before the date due (my reading progress is slow nowadays since there have been a lot of things on my plate lately - the relocation of office in another two weeks, getting things prepared for my daughter's admission to Primary One next year, etc. and this is why I did not sign up for the Secret Santa or Holiday Swap this year even though I terribly wanted to and I've also got a feeling that christmas shopping will be a last minute thing. Oh well. *sigh*

Hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead!

Tyger Tyger Burning Bright

I've always been a fan of historical fiction.  Honestly, I think that if history class was taught with high quality historical fiction people would remember more of it that "In fourteen hundred ninety two Columbus sailed the ocean blue" and "I can not tell a lie." At any rate, I'm glad to have discovered a new-to-me author of historical fiction, Tracey Chevalier.  In Burning Bright she paints a lively picture of life in England at the turn of the nineteenth century.  The story centers on Jem, a country boy brought to the city by the death of his brother and the lure of the circus, and Maggie, a poor city girl from a rather shady family hustling to make ends meet.  Two more different people are hard to imagine, but they strike up a friendship that feels completely believable.

After Jem's brother falls from a tree, breaking his neck, his family is left devastated.  His father, a chair-maker, come to London from the small town of Piddletrenthide (which is an actual place-I looked it up) after being offered a job by the owner of a traveling circus that came through on their way back to London for the season.  They move into the area of London known as Lambeth, and discover that their neighbor is none other than William Blake, poet and artist.  The year is 1792, and France is in the throes of a revolution.  This makes the monarchy in England very nervous, and there are soon bands of men roaming the city forcing people to sign loyalty oaths to king and country.  This provides a backdrop as Jem, his sister Maisie, Maggie, and the rest of their families struggle to maintain their moral footing.

While Blake is an important character in the arc of the novel, the most vivid characters are the ordinary people living in Lambeth.  Chevalier takes on issues of class, poverty, prostitution, the treatment of girls and women, and the political climate of the period in a way that I felt I was living in that place in that time myself.  Isn't that what we ask of historical fiction?  The parallels between the uber-patriotism of the Londoners during Blake's time and the unthinking, unquestioning patriotism that was a hallmark of the Bush era were not lost on me.  It seems that anytime the government feels threatened, dissent and free-speech are quashed, and a certain amount of unreasonableness ensues.  Like I said, maybe if history was taught using historical fiction we as a people would be less likely to repeat it.

The Art of Disappearing by Ivy Pochoda

ISBN-13: 9780312650995
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: September 2010
320 pgs
Source: Personal Library

There are many perceptions of magic. While some may think of and link them to witchcraft (usually in the olden days), others view them as an entertainment and a form of art. So, is there such a thing as real magic, or are they merely tricks and illusions. I'm afraid I can't answer them, but I want to say I love watching magic performance and that I really enjoyed reading The Art of Disappearing; a story between a magician and a textile consultant.

Mel Snow is drawn to Toby Warring the instant they met in the Old Stand Saloon in Tonopah, Nevada. Toby brought her a drink first, and she only knew he is a magician after the waiter told her about his profession. They had a few exchanges and shared a little about their life and their family. And they got married two days later.

They begin their life together in Las Vegas, where Toby hopes he would make his name as a great magician there; one whom performs real magic and not merely tricks and illusions. But Toby has a painful past that will always remind him of his magic and his lovely assistant who disappeared during a performance and couldn't bring back. From then onwards, he has swore off using assistants in his magic. On the other end, Mel still couldn't forget the childhood loss of her brother and hopes that he would appear one day again after she had lost him to a swirling river during a storm. They might not know each other for a long time, but at least they share a connection and felt the regret and loss in each other.

During his debut performance in Las Vegas, a mishap happened and they flee to Amsterdam, hoping they would put all the unhappy past behind them and start their new life in a new place. It is only a matter of time that Toby begins to find his way back to magic, and by then Mel begins to wonder if their love is genuine, or is it just part of a magic conjured by Toby.

Haunting and spellbinding like magic, The Art of Disappearing is one of the most unforgettable fictions I read this year. I loved it that the premise has a surreal feel and that it makes you think of the choice(s) you will make in life. The Art of Disappearing may sound like a love story, but I think there is so much more to it - the two protagonists finding their way, coming to terms with their pasts and deciding on the path they want to go. Aside from the lovely premise, I also loved Ivy Pochoda's writing style and how she managed to bring this story and the characters to life through her words.

Speaking of characters, as much as I enjoyed reading them, I have to say I didn't really understand Mel's feelings towards Toby at some point. She may have fallen in love with Toby, but throughout the book she sometimes refers him as 'the magician', which made me think there is still some distance between them. I wasn't sure what her intention is, but I just felt it is strange of her to refer that of her husband. Nonetheless, this won't diminish my liking for this book.

Finally, after reading this book this thought just came to me: Would you like to change anything if you are given a chance to travel back to your past?

(My daughter pointed out to me that day that she saw an image of a rabbit on the cover. I have to confess I didn't take notice of it until she mentioned it. However the image shown online is much more obvious as compared to my print copy, and don't you have to agree that children always have the most imaginative mind?

The bottom cover is how it looks like when it was first released in September 2009.)

Green Books Campaign: For the Love of Strangers by Jacqueline Horsfall

This review is part of the Green Books campaign. Today 200 bloggers take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. By turning a spotlight on books printed using eco- friendly paper, we hope to raise the awareness of book buyers and encourage everyone to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books.

The campaign is organized for the second time by Eco-Libris, a green company working to make reading more sustainable. We invite you to join the discussion on "green" books and support books printed in an eco-friendly manner! A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco-Libris website.

*~*~*~*~*~*

ISBN-13: 9781616030032
Publisher: Leap Books

Published: 2010

Illustrated by: Mary B. Kelly
280 pgs
Source: Leap Books
(For the Love of Strangers is printed on FSC-certified paper.)

Ten years ago, Darya and her younger brother Nikolai live their life in a Russian orphanage. Six years later, they are now living with an elderly woman who called Tee-tee (whose real name is actually Teresa Tomasio and she is an American) whereby she works as a director of the Helpline Crisis Referral Center by day, and undercover shelter director by night. You see, she runs a safe house for battered women and their kids, and she named it Philoxenia (Greek for "love of strangers" and that's where this title comes about.)

When Darya first steps onto America's land and into Tee-tee's life, she is full of doubts. After all, Tee-tee saw Nikolai at the orphanage first. However her doubts and her insecurities slowly fade away after getting to know more about her adoptive mother and knowing that she has a soft spot for women who need to get away but have nowhere to go. Because the county is so large and it is so rural and poor, they can't possibly support for every woman who needs safety thus Philoxenia is part of a network of houses scattered in residential neighbourhoods.

However, it seems like there are also other strangers - nonhumans - who want to seek protection too. When Darya thought she could hear the voices and pleas from the deers roaming about the forest around their area, she thought she was imagining things but she could sense the fear and pain in their eyes and she knew that their life are threatened considering her community hunt for them. She wants to help them, but would she be able to get the support from her adoptive mother and most of all, would she be able to take all the taunts and wraths of her community?

For the Love of Strangers is a haunting yet a compassionate account of a young girl's mission of protecting not only the battered women and their children but also more on the deers which face the cruelty fact of extermination. Although some scenes of this story take on a mystical tone at some point (Darya being able to understand the pleas of the deers and so forth), the message behind about protecting the animals and the emphasis on the beauty of nature come off strong and clear. Though For the Love of Strangers is a fiction, the sad truth is how those deers suffered in the story indeed happen in reality and everytime I see those videos on skinning animals for their furs or killing them for any benefits just makes my heart breaks.

But of course this book isn't entirely focused on protecting the deers only (though I loved the premise and fully support the cause), this story is also about 16-year-old Darya and her insecurities even after she was being adopted. She often wonders if her adoptive mother truly loves her and whether or not would she be sent back to Russia one day. I think Darya is a strong character, yet there is also a vulnerable side of her that makes me want to hug and comfort her. I suppose this is how a child might feel towards her adoptive parents at some point regardless of anything.

Poignant and lyrical, For the Love of Strangers will appeal not only to the YA readers but to the adults as well.

(Many thanks to Raz and team of Eco-Libris for hosting this great campaign, and also to Leap Books for sending this book to me for review.)

A Short Note

You know, I was contemplating with the decision whether or not to post this as I didn't want to come across as bragging (seriously this didn't even cross my mind) but I thought I'd like to share with you a flash fiction titled Free Of Charge written by Holly Schindler; the author who wrote A Blue So Dark.

So what have that got to do with me? You asked.

Well, it begins like this: Holly started a Flash Fiction Challenge somewhere in August and she asked her readers to come up with a writing prompt (it can be anything based on a different theme by her for each month) and she will write a flash fiction based on the winner's prompt. In her November prompt, she asked readers to give her an object to write about. I sent in my prompt about magic, together with a few paragraphs from my story which I intended to write during the NaNoWriMo period last year (still in KIV for your information) but didn't due to my busy schedule. She didn't use my passages, but she did come up with a great flash fiction which I loved! And, she also included a video of herself reading it!

I think I will be on cloud nine for the rest of the day today.

Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

I took one of his hands in mine and massaged the deep crevices between his fingers. "They're beautiful."

"I didn't want my classmates to see what I could do." Toby laughed. "Then there was a year I barely used them at all. Right after I made my assistant disappear."

(Pg 41, The Art of Disappearing by Ivy Pochoda)