November Monthly Challenge

The monthly challenge for my card making workshop for November was, naturally enough considering the time of year, to make a Christmas card, but there was a restriction. We could only use blue and silver. Basically as soon as I heard this was the theme I knew what I wanted to do. I guess in a way it was cheating a little bit because it is a design I used last year, but never mind that. In the end it isn't quite as I imagined it because I expected to use blue card, and therefore the front would look a little different (mainly because the bauble would stand out a little more) but in the end I am pretty happy with how it worked out.

I wouldn't have necessarily thought it was so hard to get blue and silver but there was really very little around in terms of papers, and even after looking at this paper lots of times over the last few weeks, I am not convinced that the paper I am using is not purple and silver. I asked in three different paper shops, and they all told me that that this was the only paper they had and it was definitely blue with a red tinge. Again, I would have thought that that made it purple, but what do I know!

The other nice thing this month, was that I was finished making them all on Sunday of last week. I am afraid I can't take credit for this though really. I dobbed a friend of mine in to participate in the challenge. She has only started card making recently so she was freaking out a little, so she came around a while ago and spent the day trying to come up with a design. Last weekend she was freaking that she wasn't finished and so I went over there on Sunday morning and got them all made! She is definitely the organiser amongst my friends!



Once again, my photo doesn't really do it justice I don't think! I really need to either learn to take better photos, or get a professional in!

Le Bal by Irene Nemirovsky

Two classic tales from the author of Suite Francaise brought together for the first time in one volume.

Le Bal is a sharp, brittle story of a girl who sets out to ruin the mother she hates. The Kampfs have risen swiftly up the ranks of 1930s Parisian society. Painfully aware of her working class roots, and desperate to win acceptance, Madame Kampf decides to throw a huge ball to announce her arrival to society. Her daughter Antoinette, who has just turned fourteen dreams of attending, but Madame Kampf is resolved not to present her daughter to potential admirers. In a fury of adolescent rage and despair Antoinette exacts a swift and horrible revenge...

These two novella's are both short, at around 60 pages each. The synopsis is quite good for this novella, so I won't worry too much about recapping. What I would say is that there are times when reading Nemirovsky's work that you have to wonder if everyone she knew was unlikeable. It is not the first of her books that have had me wondering this - the characters in David Golder were the same.

The family dynamics were difficult to say the least, with a distant father, a mean spirited, social climbing mother, and the daughter was definitely in need of some discipline!

As a commentary on the difficulty for an outsider to break into the all important society it was effective.

Given that the story is so short, it must have been an effective exercise given how much I felt about each of the unfortunate characters in this very unhappy little world!

Snow in Autumn pays homage to Nemirovsky's beloved Chekhov and chronicles the life of a devoted servant following her masters as they flee Revolutionary Moscow and emigrate to a life of hardship in Paris. As the crisis pushes the family to the brink of dissolution, Tatiana struggles to adapt to life in Paris and waits in vain for her cherished first snows of autumn.

After the self absorbedness (not even a word I am sure!) of the characters in the first novella, it was a breath of fresh air to find more heart within this one! Whilst I am not all that familiar with Chekhov and therefore did not catch the homage to him, it was easier to like the Carine family as they flee from the Bolshevik revolution, accompanied by their faithful servant Tatiana and the ghosts of the past.

The portrayal of the difficulty of coping with such massive changes was movingly portrayed, particularly through the eyes of the elderly Tatiana as she waits for the first signs of snow and winter in a strange new city.

Nemirovsky touched not only on the physical change of location for the family, but also on the moral changes that occurred as a family used to the best of everything have to get used to living on not very much at all.

It was this novella which redeemed this little book for me. If I had only had Le Bal to base my thoughts on I would have been a little disappointed.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Should be Reading:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• 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!

This week's teaser comes from page 257 of Angelique and the King by Sergeanne Golon:

"I am sure, Sire, that if you had been able to meet him yourself, instead of your ambassadors, these difficulties would not have arisen. you have a gift for detecting a person's true character at a glance."

The Sire in question is Louis XIV of France, also known as The Sun King. I have no idea who is causing the difficulties!

The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville

Daniel Rooke,soldier and astronomer, was always an outsider. As a young lieutenant of marines he arrives in New South Wales on the First Fleet in 1788 and sees his chance. he sets up his observatory away from the main camp, and begins the scientific work that he hopes will make him famous.

Aboriginal people soon start to visit his isolated promontory, and a child named Tagaran begins to teach him her language. With meticulous care he records their conversations.

An extraordinary friendship forms, and Rooke has almost forgotten he is a soldier when a man is fatally wounded in the infant colony. The lieutenant faces a decision that will define not only who he is but the course of his entire life.

In this profoundly moving novel Kate Grenville returns to the landscape of her much-loved bestseller The Secret River. Inspired by the notebooks of William Dawes, The Lieutenant is a compelling story about friendship and self-discovery by a writer at the peak of her power.

There's no doubt that if I try to work out where my gaps are in terms of the Historical Fiction that I read, then Australian history is one of those gaps. It's not because it doesn't interest me, because it does, but I think because it is either difficult to find out about good books that use Australian history as the base, or because there aren't that many good books out there.

Not long before I started blogging back in 2005, I read The Secret River by Kate Grenville. Set at the time of the First Fleet it looked at the relationship between white settlers and the native Australian Aborigines who were already here. Grenville returns to this same setting in The Lieutenant.

The main character in the story is Lieutenant Daniel Rooke. He is a young man who has been chosen to receive a top notch education based on his impressive mathematical abilities, and finds himself recruited to serve in the First Fleet that it coming to Australia. Whilst he is a soldier, his main role once he gets to the new land will be as astronomer, observing the night skies and in particular looking for signs of a comet. With his skills as astronomer, linguist and orienter are very valued on such an expedition, he is also very much aware that he is something of an outcast.

When the fleet arrives in Botany Bay, Rooke sets up his observatory at a distance away from the rest of the soldiers and convicts. This places him in an ideal position to be able to interact with the local tribespeople, and he quickly begins to study the language and make friends with the people, most especially a young girl. It doesn't take long however for relations between the settlers and the natives to degenerate and Rooke finds himself having to choose between duty and friendship.

Whilst the setting is similar, there are significant differences between the two stories. In this novel, Grenville has pared the narrative right back to the basics of the story. We are very much focussed on Rooke's life, and his interactions. For me, this made The Lieutenant a much stronger, more interesting book.

I was interested in a couple of the choices that Grenville made with this book. There is no secret that this book is very much based on the life of one Lt William Dawes who was a skilled astronomer and who did document the language. On her website, Grenville explains the choices that she made. The interesting thing to me was that she chose to use different names for all the characters - not only for Rooke/Dawes but also for first Governor and for the known names of some of the other important figures from the First Fleet. I am not sure that it was necessary to make these changes, but I do understand her intent. As she says on her website:

I've taken events that took place in the real world and used them as the basis for a work of imagination.

This is a novel, then, not history.

It is a deceptively short book. The hardcover version I had had a total of 307 pages, but the text size and white spaces were definitely on the generous side.

I enjoyed this trip into Australian history, and hope to read more with this setting. This book will be published in the US and UK on February 5 2009.

Advent Tour Update

I can't begin to express how pleased we are at how great the turn out has been for this year's advent tour .... so far! We have more people participating this year, than we have in the last two years combined! That doesn't mean that there isn't still room for more people to join in!

You too can join in by signing in at the above post. Your post doesn't have to be long - just something that you want to share with others.




I was planning to blog about some other stuff tonight but I got home to discover that one of the kids in our neighbourhood decided that it would be a good idea to come into our back yard and squirt an entire bottle of sunscreen that I kept by the back door all over the wood deck, and then to turn the electricity off at the switch. Not happy Jan! Not happy at all.

The Quilter's Homecoming by Jennifer Chiaverini

A Roaring Twenties adventure unfolds in Jennifer Chiaverini's latest bestselling Elm Creek Quilts novel, another in "a series that neatly stitches together social drama and the art of quilting" (Library Journal).

Newly wed in a festive yet poignant ceremony at Elm Creek Manor, bride Elizabeth Nelson takes leave of her ancestral Pennsylvania home. Setting off with her husband, Henry, on the adventure of a lifetime, Elizabeth packs the couple's trunk with more than the wedding quilts she envisions them dreaming beneath every night of their married lives. They are landowners who hold the deed to Triumph Ranch, 120 acres of prime California soil located in the Arboles Valley, north of Los Angeles.

"Triumph Ranch," says Mae, a traveling companion whom Elizabeth has let in on the promise of the Nelsons' bright future. "That sounds like a sure thing." But in a cruel reversal of fortune, the Nelsons arrive to the news that they've been had, and they are left suddenly, irrevocably penniless.

They are hired as hands at the farm they thought they owned, and Henry struggles mightily with his pride. Yet clever, feisty Elizabeth -- drawing on her share of the Bergstrom women's inherent economy and resilience -- vows to defy fate through sheer force of will. As her life intertwines with Rosa Diaz Barclay, native to the Arboles Valley and a fellow quilter, their blossoming friendship sheds light on many secrets that have kept each of them and their families from their rightful homes.

In the cabin where Henry and Elizabeth are living on Triumph Ranch, Elizabeth discovers quilts belonging to Rosa's mother, and in their exquisite patterns recognizes a misplaced legacy of love, land,and family. But her newfound understanding of the burden of loss that Rosa shares with the mysterious Lars Jorgensen places her in mortal danger. Only by stitching the rift between the past and the future can the inhabitants of Triumph Ranch hope to live in peace alongside history.

I read the last book in this series, Circle of Quilters, months ago. Whilst I normally don't read books in a series immediately one after the other, usually I do get to them within maybe 8 or 9 weeks. With this book I think I have borrowed it from the library at least three times, and just never quite managed to read it!

Even when I did finally start it, it took me a very long time to start to feel as though I was really invested in the story. I did wonder if that is perhaps because the story felt kind of disconnected from the rest of the books in the series with its different characters, different location. The disconnect was more magnified in my mind, because the one character that holds this whole series together is Sylvia. Even in the earlier historical novels, we spent a little time with her, and then flashed back in time, or the characters were directly connected to her. In this novel, she was mentioned a few times but when the book started she was a four year old cousin to the main character! Now I am not sure that it wasn't just my mood that made me feel this way, because by the end of the book I ended up enjoying it.

The main character is Elizabeth, Sylvia's cousin, who is moving to California to start her new life with her new husband Henry. He has invested all of his savings to purchase a ranch in California's Arboles Valley. Henry views it as a chance to be his own man, but things don't quite work out as they expect when they arrive. We spend time with Elizabeth and Henry as they must learn how to deal with the disappointment that they have experienced, as they readjust their expectations of their new life, as they become involved in the community around them, and as life becomes harder for everyone as the economic climate changes towards the end of the 1920s.

There were a couple of events that were alluded to within the novel, that I didn't think were probably fleshed out, whilst some of the other plot turns were telegraphed a mile away, but for the most part this was an enjoyable read. I was a little concerned by the pollyanna ending, but then again this whole series does have a feel-good vibe to it, so I didn't really expect much differently!

My Inner Dewey

Marg's Dewey Decimal Section:

325 International migration & colonization

Marg = 3187 = 318+7 = 325


Class:
300 Social Sciences


Contains:
Books on politics, economics, education and the law.



What it says about you:
You are good at understanding people and finding the systems that work for them. You like having established reasoning behind your decisions. You consider it very important for your friends to always have your back.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Just because ...

We were talking about this song at work today, and I have had it stuck in my head all afternoon. Of course, now I feel the need to share!



Way back when I went to one of the Pet Shop Boys concerts with an old friend. I wonder what he is up to now!

Sung to the tune of Sgt. Peppers...

It was 3 years ago today
I started to blog and play

It doesn't really fit does it??

Oh well...I am sure you get the sentiment. On this day three years ago I started this blog. Little did I know that blogging would become such a big part of my life, so much so that it is my main hobby as well as the source of my connection with people all around the world.

Now that I look back at those early posts and reviews I cringe, but at the end of the day they are what they are, and so I leave them up for posterity!

So let's review the last year or so shall we? Personally I think that the focus of this blog has moved a little bit from just a predominantly book review blog, to all a more general reading blog, and these days a little card making as well as with a bit of life in general. The only problem with that last part is that I live such a boring life that it is hard to find anything interesting to post about there! LOL!!

Another change this year has been the whole hearted jump into Reading Challenges! It's hard to believe that last year I didn't participate in any challenges that I remember.

A big highlight of the last few months was being Blogger of Note for a day. My number of visitors skyrocketed to more than 30000 visitors a week! Wow! The numbers of visitors has dropped down again a fair bit, but some of the people who found me through Blogger of Note have stuck around! Thanks to all of you who did!

Last December's Blog Advent Tour was very successful, and this years is already sure to be bigger and better! If you haven't already signed up, please do so. There are lots of first timers who have already signed up, many of whom are new blogs to me!

Another highlight has been watching the continuing growth of Historical Tapestry, a group blog that focuses on the historical fiction genre! I am very excited about the things that have been happening over there recently, and I look forward to more great HF news and reviews from the group.

What hasn't changed? I still read a lot. As always I am behind on my reviews, I still haven't found another job, I still use the library a lot, the list of blogs that I read in my Bloglines account continues to grow ever longer, and I still love blogging!

Seeing as I started with a Beatles reference, it seem only fair to provide a snippet of a couple of their songs! Enjoy.

The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig

"Pride and Prejudice lives on," (USA Today) "a fun and zany time warp," (New York Daily News) "history textbook meets Bridget Jones" (Marie Claire): Readers and reviewers alike praise Lauren Willig's bestselling Pink Carnation series for its passion, adventure, and tantalizing stories of flower-named spies during the Napoleonic wars.

Lauren Willig continues the exciting Pink Carnation series with her fourth novel, The Seduction of the Crimson Rose, featuring Lord Vaughn, the delightfully devilish spy from The Masque of the Black Tulip, and Mary Alsworthy, the raven-haired beauty whose sister accidentally stole her suitor in The Deception of the Emerald Ring. Determined to secure another London season without assistance from her new brother-in-law, Mary accepts a secret assignment from Lord Vaughn on behalf of the Pink Carnation: to infiltrate the ranks of the dreaded French spy, the Black Tulip, before he and his master can stage their planned invasion of England. Every spy has a weakness, and for the Black Tulip that weakness is black-haired women—his "petals" of the Tulip. A natural at the art of seduction, Mary easily catches the attention of the French spy, but Lord Vaughn never anticipates that his own heart will be caught as well. Fighting their growing attraction, impediments from their past, and, of course, the French, Mary and Vaughn find themselves lost in the shadows of a treacherous garden of lies.

As our modern-day heroine, Eloise Kelly, digs deeper into England's Napoleonic-era espionage, she becomes even more entwined with Colin Selwick, the descendant of her spy subjects.

I have been reading this series now for a couple of years, and for the first two books, after I closed the book I was very much interested in knowing when the next book came out. After I read the last book, I was still interested, but I was aware that the third book in the series hadn't quite lived up to the first two. Unfortunately, neither did this book, the fourth in the series.

I still love the idea that Willig started off with. Two time lines, one where a grad student (Eloise) is trying to pick her way through the historical record to find out exactly who the leader of the Pink Carnation spy ring was, and what happened to the group. As Eloise finds more letters and information, then we travel back in time to see the events as they unfold.

In this book, the heroine is Miss Mary Alsworthy, who in one of the previous books was jilted quite by accident in favour of her sister. Mary is seen as something of an ice princess by the ton, and she keeps any unsuitable men away from her using her iciness as a weapon. It is unthinkable that Mary may well have to rely on the kindness of her sister and her husband to look after her, because Mary is very much in danger of being left on the shelf. When Mary is approached by Lord Vaughan, she does not realise that it is because her looks are very much the type preferred by the infamous Black Tulip, and her task will be to infiltrate the gang.

What follows is kind of a hotch-potch. The plot takes twists and turns that seem unlikely, despite the fact that Willig acknowledges exactly that in the Author's Note, and then elaborates that it wasn't far from actual events.

By far the biggest problem for me in this book was the build up of tension between our heroine and her hero, Mary and Lord Vaughan. Now, I love reading about the aristocratic lord who is somewhat aloof, cold and haughty who thaws dramatically when he meets the love of his life. He may still be aloof to everyone, except to that inner circle of people. The problem in this case is that Vaughan is cold (and yes we do find out the reasons why) and Mary is an ice princess - there's no thawing going on here. There also wasn't enough build up of attraction between them.

In terms of the contemporary strand of the story, I understand that Eloise only gets 5 or 6 chapters per book, but it just seems to me that it is moving forward to slowly. I want to see Eloise get it on, although it seems as though the momentum is building.

I am hoping that it is just me, and that this series is not losing steam, because I really want to see it through to the end, finding out exactly what happened to the Pink Carnation and whether Eloise finally gets her man.

In the end I rated this book a 3.5/5. That in itself is a respectable grade. I guess I just wanted more, and I do definitely want more from the next book, The Temptation of the Night Jasmine, which is due out on 22 January 2009. The main thing that concerns me about the next book though is that I can't remember meeting the heroine before. If I have time I might try to reread at least the first couple of books to give myself a refresher course in all the minor characters.

This is one of the books that I chose to read for the Pub08 Reading Challenge and also one of the books that I nominated to read for the Bang Bang Book Challenge.

Cross posted at Historical Tapestry

Advent Tour Update and Teaser Tuesday

Wow! What a response to the announcement of this year's tour. In one day, we have enough people to fill the calendar. However, please don't think that means that there is no space for you! What could be more fun than visiting one blog for the Advent Tour...visiting two or three or four or more blogs!



Please keep on signing up for the tour. The more people who join in the merrier!

And now for this week's Teaser Tuesday.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Should be Reading:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• 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!

This week my teaser comes from page 112 of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale:

Almost as horrible - and apparently equally believable - was the idea that the nursemaid had helped him to kill the boy she was hired to tend. The alternative was that this crime harked back to the original biblical murder, Cain's killing of Abel.

It was kind of hard to not post a spoiler, but I think that it this above quote shows that just about everyone was under suspicion. The him referred to above is the boy's father!

I'll add a book cover image when I get home from work!

Lest we forget

Over the last couple of years on Anzac and Remembrance Day, I have posted videos and poems and songs, but this year, on the 90th anniversary of the end of World War One, I wanted to do something different.

This is a brief look at three brothers, all of whom lost their lives at Passchendaele. Article written by Craig Tibbitts and originally published on the Australian War Memorial blog on 13 November 2007.

(L-R - Theo, William and George)

As haunting as any image of the ghosts of Passchendaele is this studio portrait photo of the Seabrook brothers, the sons of William and Fanny Seabrook of Five Dock in Sydney NSW.

Theo (age 25) and George (age 24) were both privates, while their younger brother William (age 20), with his previous military experience, soon made it to Second Lieutenant. William had in fact joined the AIF back in August 1915, but this had somehow fallen through as he was discharged two months later. At any rate, he joined up again with his two elder brothers in August 1916 and they left Sydney together as part of the 17th Reinforcements for the 17th Infantry Battalion.

By the time they got over to Belgium to actually join their unit it was already June 1917 and preparations were well underway for the great offensive at Ypres. The Battle of Menin Road that began on 20 September 1917 was the first engagement of Australian infantry in this offensive and proved a stunning success.

But despite this success, for the Seabrook boys it was their first, last and only battle. All three were mortally wounded in action, and died in the days immediately afterwards. For some the war was very short, but the sacrifice was nevertheless the full measure.

One can scarcely begin to imagine what went through the minds of William and Fanny Seabrook, and how they might come to terms with this perhaps baffling and seemingly pointless loss of their three cherished sons.

William is buried at the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, just west of Ypres. George and Theo’s remains were either never identified or never found, so they are commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial.

2009 Reading Challenges

The 2009 reading challenges are popping up on blogs all over the place! Whilst I am trying not to go crazy with challenges, there are two that I feel that I can safely join in on, and J Kaye is responsible for both of them.

The first is the 2009 100+ Reading Challenge. So far this year I have finished 162 books. There is no way I am going to make 200, but 100 is doable! The rules:

(1) You can join anytime as long as you don’t start reading your books prior to 2009.

2) This challenge is for 2009 only. The last day to have all your books read is December 31, 2009.

3) You can join anytime between now and December 31, 2009.

4) If you don’t have a blog, please join our Yahoo Groups.

5) When you sign up under Mr. Linky, list the direct link to your post where your 100+ books will be listed. If you list just your blog’s URL, it will be removed.

6) All books count: children’s, YA, adults, fiction, non-fiction, how-tos, etc.

7) Feel free to post in the comment section or on Yahoo Groups your monthly progress as well as your favorite books that month.

The second challenge that I am committing to today is the 2009 Support Your Local Library Challenge. I LOVE my library. It is very rare that they don't have the books I want to read, and they save me a fortune in money. I couldn't support my reading habit if it wasn't for the library! The details and the sign up post can be found here:

You all know what a supporter of the library my family and I are. What better way to pay homage than by having a reading challenge in 2009? Since we are all different, there will be three sizes of challenges.

** The first is to read 12 books from your local library in 2009.
** The second is to read 25 books from your local library in 2009.
** The third is to read 50 books from your local library in 2009.

You decide which one of the three challenges is best for you.

Here are the guidelines:

1) You can join anytime as long as you don’t start reading your books prior to 2009.

2) This challenge is for 2009 only. The last day to have all your books read is December 31, 2009.

3) You can join anytime between now and December 31, 2009.

4) When you sign up under Mr. Linky, list the direct link to your post where your library books will be listed. If you list just your blog’s URL, it will be removed. If you don’t have a blog, leave the URL blank.

6) Our goal is to read 12, 25, or 50 books checkout from our local library in 2009. Please decide which when you sign up and don’t change it.

7) These can be audios, downloads, children’s, YA. As long as it’s a book, format and target age group does not matter.

8) Feel free to post a link to your reviews in the comment section below. That way, we can visit your blog and read your review.

9) If you have any questions, feel free to ask below or email me at jkayeoldner@yahoo.com. Comments usually get a quicker response.

Weekly Geeks #24 - Fun facts about authors

1. Choose a writer you like.

2. Using resources such as Wikipedia, the author’s website, whatever you can find, make a list of interesting facts about the author.

3. Post your fun facts list in your blog, maybe with a photo of the writer, a collage of his or her books, whatever you want.

4. Come sign the Mr Linky here with the url to your fun facts post.

5. As you run into (or deliberately seek out) other Weekly Geeks’ lists, add links to your post for authors you like or authors you think your readers are interested in.

Haven't done a Weekly Geeks for a while, but this one looks like a lot of fun. I've decided to focus on British author, Elizabeth Chadwick.

1. Elizabeth Chadwick won a Betty Trask award (an award for young novelists under the age of thirty five for a first novel of a romantic or traditional nature) for her first ever published novel, The Wild Hunt. (Click link for my review of this book)

2. The award was presented to her by HRH Prince Charles

3. In 1994, Elizabeth Chadwick was hired by Columbia Pictures to write the book of the movie First Knight, which starred Richard Gere and Sean Connery. (Coincidentally, for a very short time I used to know a girl who was an extra in that film!)

4. On her Musical Soundtracks blog, Elizabeth Chadwick shares the songs that she used for inspiration in her writing. Whilst her novels are very firmly placed within medieval times, her musical tastes range from Billy Joel to Metallica, Kate Bush to Feargal Sharkey.

5. Part of her research is done through her passion for reenactment with Regia Anglorum. She can regularly be found dressed up in medieval clothing, cooking and eating medieval food! An added bonus is that she uses some of her own photographs from RA events in her book trailers. I think that gives them an incredibly personal touch!

6. Another of her research tools is to use Akashic record. To find out more about this interesting subject, click here.

7. On her main blog, Living the History, Elizabeth often shares incredibly detailed posts about her research trips etc. If you are at all interested in medieval times, then this should be a stop on your blog rounds!

8. EC's latest books are difficult to get hold of in the US, but a couple of them are being released by Sourcebooks in the US next year. All I can say is make sure you get hold of them, because they are excellent reads, and it would be fantastic if more of her books were available there as well. If you are really interested in getting hold of her books, then I recommend The Book Depository, who have free postage to certain countries around the world. I think that you can also get them from Amazon.ca.

My reviews of the books are in the links below:

The Greatest Knight
The Scarlet Lion
A Place Beyond Courage
The Time of Singing

9. Most of this information was gleaned from Elizabeth Chadwick's recently revamped website.

And that's it for this week's Weekly Geeks post!

Ithaka by C P Cavafy

At the moment I am reading a book called East of the Sun by Julia Gregson. It is about some young ladies who are travelling from England to India during the late 1920s. As they are arriving at Bombay, a toast is proposed and the following poem is read out, with the suggestion that instead of Ithaka, they use the word India.

I don't normally read poetry but I read this one through a couple of times and think that it is probably a metaphor for any journey, or maybe just the journey that it is life itself.

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon-don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon-you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.


Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean

Translated by

Edmund Keeley & Philip Sherrard

Source

Publisher's Weekly Best books of the year

It's a bit scary really to think that we are nearly at the end of the year and it is time to start thinking about what have been the best reads of the year.

Publisher's Weekly have put their thoughts together. The list is LONG, so here is a link for you to click over to read for yourself. I am just hoping to comment on a few of the categories!


Fiction

These ones are on the list to be read:

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson - just picked this up from the library tonight
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh - intend to read this for the Booker Challenge
The Boat by Nam Le - I have heard a lot of great things about this book, and it is a bonus that it is by an Aussie author.
Serena by Ron Rash - heard good things about this book.
Breath by Tim Winton - I really should have read more Winton. What a bad Aussie I am!
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Mystery

There's a couple of familiar author names but I haven't read any of the books.

SF/Fantasy/Horror

None of these either!

Mass Market

I have read Private Arrangement by Sherry Thomas. To get on this list with your debut book is such a great achievement.

Religious Fiction

The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner - Heard a few good things about this one but haven't read it yet!

Children's Ficton

Nation by Terry Pratchett - Given that it is Pratchett I will get to it eventually.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

An extraordinary debut novel of love that survives the fires of hell and transcends the boundaries of time The narrator of The Gargoyle is a very contemporary cynic, physically beautiful and sexually adept, who dwells in the moral vacuum that is modern life. As the book opens, he is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and suffers horrible burns over much of his body. As he recovers in a burn ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned, he awaits the day when he can leave the hospital and commit carefully planned suicide—for he is now a monster in appearance as well as in soul. A beautiful and compelling, but clearly unhinged, sculptress of gargoyles by the name of Marianne Engel appears at the foot of his bed and insists that they were once lovers in medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly injured mercenary and she was a nun and scribe in the famed monastery of Engelthal who nursed him back to health. As she spins their tale in Scheherazade fashion and relates equally mesmerizing stories of deathless love in Japan, Iceland, Italy, and England, he finds himself drawn back to life—and, finally, in love. He is released into Marianne's care and takes up residence in her huge stone house. But all is not well. For one thing, the pull of his past sins becomes ever more powerful as the morphine he is prescribed becomes ever more addictive. For another, Marianne receives word from God that she has only twenty-seven sculptures left to complete—and her time on earth will be finished. Already an international literary sensation, the Gargoyle is anInferno for our time. It will have you believing in the impossible.

I don't actually tend to take much notice of holidays, and that is even more true when it is a holiday that we don't actually celebrate here. It was therefore a bit of a surprise to find myself reading not one but two books that are perfect Halloween reads. The first is a short story collection called Many Bloody Returns featuring vampires and birthdays stories from lots of different writers, and the other was this book.

From the very early pages, it is clear that our main character is one that most people would not want to befriend. Ironically enough, prior to his accident he was, physically at least, someone that would be considered very attractive - young, wealthy, attractive. After a terrible childhood, he drifts into a world filled with pornography and drugs, until he is driven as opposed to drifting in this world. After his accident, his is no longer physically attractive because of his terrible scarring, an irony that is not lost on him or anyone else.

This isn't a book for the faint of heart. The first few pages are nothing but graphic, as our main character, who remains nameless throughout the whole novel, has a terrible car crash.
We meet him a few seconds before as he drives along a cliff top road, influenced by drugs and alcohol. We ride in the car as it rolls down the hillside, as the flames engulfs, as he is rescued and taken to hospital and as he realises the full extent of his terrible injuries. I started reading this book on the train, and I was actually wincing at some of the parts, particularly where he talked about what happened to one of his feet.

And yet despite the gruesomeness of the descriptions, the writing is multi layered with moments of macabre comedy, beautiful tenderness, and incredible depth. The writing is not perfect - there are moments when tenses slip - but it is definitely compelling.

When our burns victim meets Marianne Engel, he is caught up in the whirlwind of energy that she brings with her, almost manic at times. He does not know her, but she is insistent that they have known each other for hundreds of years and she proceeds throughout the rest of the book to tell him their story. She also tells other stories, of ultimate love stories set in Iceland, Japan and England through the years. The story she tells is completely fantastical, and whilst there is some evidence to suggest that people are right to question Marianne's mental stability, our main character finds himself becoming less suicidal, less emotionally restricted and more open to new friendships around him due to her influence.

This book has so many layers - it is definitely a love story, there are fantasy elements, particularly in the latter stages of the book, it is a historical essay on the production of books in medieval abbeys, and a tribute to Dante's Inferno with side trips into mysticism and other historical detail. In lesser hands this could have become tangled and we could have been left with an unsatisfactory mess. Luckily for the reader, Davidson is skilled, and instead we end up with an infinitely readable, complicated and beautiful novel. A strong love story bound in fascinating detail.

Love is an action you must repeat ceaselessly.

This is a very assured debut novel. I can't wait to see what Andrew Davidson comes up with next.

This is one of the novels that I have nominated to read as part of the Medieval Challenge.

Cross posted at Historical Tapestry


Other Blogger's Thoughts:

Raging Bibliomania
So Many Precious Books, So Little Time
Bermudaonions Weblog
The Sleepy Reader
Back to Books
Devourer of Books
Book-a-Rama
Fantasy Book Reviews
Tip of the Iceberg
That's the Book

Medieval Challenge

I am not exactly sure I missed the fact that there is a Medieval Challenge. You can either read or watch a movie. The challenge has been going for a while, but I am pretty sure that I can still read enough to meet the rules.

I am going to be a bit naughty and list the medieval texts that I have read between the date the challenge started and now:

The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin

Figures in Silk by Vanora Bennett

The Running Vixen by Elizabeth Chadwick

The Time of Singing by Elizabeth Chadwick

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

A Fool's Tale by Nicole Galland

Veil of Lies by Jeri Westerson

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Should be Reading:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• 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!

This week's teaser comes from paged 85 of The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville. I am very much looking forward to reading this one.

"Those buggers have forgotten us, " Timpson said sotto voce to Rooke, running a finger around his plate and sucking at it. "Spat us out and said good riddance. "

So my horse is still running....

...but I did end up pretty much doing what I thought I would. Some housework, some reading, some TV and a bit of a nap.

What I hadn't planned on doing when I got up this morning was going to the hardware store and spending quite a lot of money! It was however worth it because I have made myself some crafting space in the spare room! It's not really organised yet but it is at least off of the dining room table for the first time in months. It used to only get moved when we had visitors and even then it was just put in the corner!





I also bought some vegetable seedlings, and we are going to have another go at killing them off. Over the weekend I will show you what my plants normally end up looking like! LOL!

Come on Dover. Move Your Bloomin' Arse!

It's Melbourne Cup Day here, and that means that we don't have to go to work!

It seems quintessentially Aussie to have a day off for a horse race, although I have heard of a couple of other places around the world where they do the same, but not many! Given that I have a complete lack of interest in horse racing for me it is just a day off, although a few of my friends are very much interested in dressing up and going to the races. One of my friends has all of this week off so that she can attend most of the Spring Racing Carnival. I'm not sure how many races she actually sees, but I know she has a good time.

I couldn't place a bet to save myself, so the closest I get to gambling is to participate in the sweep at work. Unfortunately there are no horses in the race called Dover. If there was I would have to learn how to place a bet to put some money on it. It's not really a skill that I feel I must have so for now I am not going to worry too much about it!

A lot of years I don't even remember to watch the big race, and I don't necessarily see today being any different. I am planning to do a bit of housework, read for a bit, maybe watch some TV, maybe have an afternoon nap. Of course, plans can change - it's still early in the day yet!

Many Bloody Returns: Tales of Birthdays with Bite edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L P Kelner

Never-before-published vampire stories by Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher, Kelley Armstrong, and many others.

Suspenseful, surprising, sometimes dark, sometimes humorous-these all-new stories will ensure that readers never think of vampires (or birthdays) in quite the same way again.

In New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris's "Dracula Night," Sookie Stackhouse is the only human at the annual commemoration of Dracula's birth. But this year, the Prince of Darkness actually shows up-and finds Sookie to be a tasty-looking present.

New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher's crime-solving wizard Harry Dresden, of the Dresden Files novels, heads to a role-playing party to give his vampire brother a birthday present in "It's My Birthday Too," only to discover there are some bloodthirsty party crashers who don't share their brotherly love.

In "Twilight," Cassandra DuCharme, who appeared in New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's Dime Store Magic, knows she has to kill to live as a vampire another year-but finds herself disturbingly disinterested in the hunt.

Plus ten more bloody good birthday stories that take the cake.

Dracula Night by Charlaine Harris - Sookie Stackhouse finds herself invited to a celebration of the birthday of Dracula being hosted by Eric. This was a bit of a let down to me. I loved seeing this overly eager side of Eric, but there was too much time spent on backstory. When you only have twenty pages of story telling, you need to get the story going quickly.

The Mournful Cry of Owls by Christopher Golden - A young girl is about to celebrate her 16th birthday, and to find out about the truth of who she really is. I really liked this story, despite the fact that it had a more sombre tone to it that some of the others included in the collection.

I was a Teenage Vampire by Bill Crider - When a young girl in 1950s smalltown America thinks that it would be great to invite the local vampire to her birthday party, no one realises that the consequences will last forever. This was a lot of fun from a new to me author.

Twilight by Kelley Armstrong - The whole reason why I even borrowed this book was to read another Otherworld story while I wait for the next full length book. Vampire Cassandra needs to kill at least one person per year or else she will die forever. Sounds like a good enough incentive to get it done, but she finds herself strangely reluctant to do so. Loved the interaction with Aaron in this story.

It's My Birthday Too by Jim Butcher - a short story feature Harry Dresden, wizard extraordinaire. I really enjoyed this one too. I have a feeling that I might have spoiled myself for some pretty big reveals in future books though, especially seeing as I have only read the first two. Never mind.

Grave-Robbed by PN Elrod - Undead detective Jack Fleming is approached by a young girl to help unveil a charlatan medium who is targetting her recently widowed sister. I could definitely see myself reading more by this author.

The First Day of the Rest of Your Life by Rachel Caine - As far as I can tell this is like an introduction to the Glass House series. Whilst I have read nearly all of her Weather Warden books, I haven't started on this series yet, but after reading this I definitely intend to.

The Witch and the Wicked by Jeanne C Stein - When witch Sophie is contracted to cater a vampire birthday party, little did she realise that things were going to take such a dramatic turn. With the guest of honour burned to a crisp, and Sophie left with the ashes, she decides to have a go at making a youth cream with very interesting results. Not a bad read.

Blood Wrapped by Tanya Huff - I have heard lots of mentions about Tanya Huff's books over the last few years. It's hard not to have especially seeing as there was even a TV series made based on her books. I had not really been all that interested in picking up her books though. I am now! I cannot wait to get the first book in the series and find out more about Vickie, and most particularly about Henry.

The Wish by Carolyn Haines - Apparently this author has published more than 50 books, but I don't remember hearing of her before. This story didn't really do much for me.

Fire and Ice and Linguini for Two by Tate Halloway - Garnet is a witch, and her boyfriend Sebastian is a vampire. Sebastian has assured her many times that he does not want to celebrate his birthday because he is cursed. The events that follow probably lend some credence to this theory when the two of them are forced to fight for their lives against a demon. This story was pretty entertaining. I might look up the previous books in the series at the library at some point.

Vampire Hours by Elaine Viets - A woman who is in an unhappy marriage meets Michael - a man who is offering her a whole lot more than just mundane living. I liked the idea behind this one, wasn't quite so keen on the execution. This was her first vampire story.

How Stella Got Her Grave Back by Toni L P Kelner - Another first time effort. After spending years away from her home towne vampire Stella bring her lover Michael back to her home town, only to find that there is someone else buried in her grave. She is a Jane Doe, and Michael and Stella are determined to find out who she is, and who killed her.

Australia: The Movie

I am really looking forward to seeing this! It opens here this week I believe, but I am not sure when I am going to be able to get to see it. Hopefully I will.

Now I can finally watch some programs that I want to watch!

The big news in our house this weekend was the installation of Foxtel IQ (which is kind of equivalent to TIVO I think). We have had Foxtel (cable TV) for years but even though I am the one paying the bill I never really got to watch a lot because the TV with the set top box is in the front living area and my computer is in the back living area.

When the salesman came to door selling it, I said no, we already have normal Foxtel, but then they offered afree upgrade to IQ, plus a box in the back room. I had been thinking about doing both for a while, so it seemed like a great deal. It seemed like an even greater deal when we got two IQ boxes. So for the last couple of days I have been able to watch some foodie programs, some History Channel, and tonight I even watched a movie! Unheard of in my house I can guarantee you. I enjoyed the movie so much that I am recording it when it plays again in the middle of the night!

The main downside is going to be try to ensure that my son does not fill up the memory in the front room with loads of rubbish! I am pretty sure that he has already figured out how to use it much better than I have!

I am loving it so far!

The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin

In twelfth-century England, one remarkable woman is trained to uncover the final secrets of the dead.

Rosamund Clifford, the mistress of King Henry II, has died an agonising death by poison - and the king's estranged queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, is the prime suspect. Henry suspects that Rosamund's murder is the first move in Eleanor's long-simmering plot to overthrow him. If Eleanor is guilty, the result could be civil war. The king must once again summon Adelia Aguilar, mistress of the art of death, to uncover the truth.

Adelia is not happy to be called out of retirement. She has been living contentedly in the countryside, caring for her infant daughter. But Henry's summons can not be ignored, and Adelia must again join forces with the king's trusted fixer, Rowley Picot, the Bishop of Saint Albans, who is also her baby's father.

Adelia and Rowley travel to the murdered courtesan's home, a tower within a walled maze - a strange and sinister place from the outside, where a bizarre and gruesome discovery awaits them. But Adelia's investigation is cut short by the appearance of Rosamund's rival: Queen Eleanor. Adelia, Rowley, and the other members of her small party are taken to the nunnery in Godstow, where Eleanor is holed up for the winter with her band of mercenaries.

Isolated and trapped inside the nunnery by the snow and cold, Adelia watchs as dead bodies begin piling up. The murders are somehow connected with Rosamund's demise. Adelia knows that there may be more than one killer at work, and she must unveil their true identities before England is once again plunged into civil war.

It's fair to say that I really enjoy the work of British author Diana Norman, whether we are talking about the straight historical novels that she publishes under that name, or the historical mysteries that she has started to write under the pen name of Ariana Franklin.

With the character of Adelia Aguilar, we have a character who can take us to the heart of a medieval murder, in the same way that we can see when we watch TV series like CSI. She has been specially trained in the medical schools of Italy to investigate the hows and whys of peoples deaths. In the previous book in the series (Mistress of the Art of Death), Adelia found herself in King Henry II's England, and with this book she is summoned again by the king himself to investigate and see whether his beloved mistress, Rosamund Clifford, may have been murdered, even though she lives in a tower in the middle of a barely accessible maze.

What complicates the investigation this time is that Adelia not only has to look after her own safety, and the safety of her friends, but also that of her daughter. She is being accompanied during her investigation Rowley Picot, a man of many masks - the King's trusted fixer, Bishop, Adelia's ex lover, and father of her child.

For me, one of the strongest parts of this novel was when all the characters were snowed in together for a good length of time. With everyone eager to impress Queen Eleanor who has unexpectedly arrived, and who is looking to start an uprising against her husband for her own reasons, life in a small community is difficult enough, let alone when you are trying to investigate a crime, and keep the Queen happy at the same time.

There is less of the investigation aspect used in this novel, and more interaction with the other characters, most of them have more than one agenda. As the body count grows, Adelia must protect her people, untangle the complicated relationships, and find the murderers of a several people.

I know that there are people who have read the first novel for whom the relationship with Rowley didn't really work, but it really doesn't bother me. I like that there is a chance for Adelia to be loved for the strong and intelligent woman that she is, even if it is a love that has to be constrained by time, distance and circumstance. It probably helps that I like Rowley a lot.

Overall, another fun read, from a fine historical author. I look forward to reading Grave Goods, the third book in the series, which is due to be released in March 2009. It is probably worth mentioning that this book has also been released under a different title in some countries - Death Maze.

This is one of the books that I nominated to read as part of the Pub08 Reading Challenge. I am also using it as one of my books for the Medieval Challenge.

As always, if you have reviewed this book, then please leave a comment and I will add your link to my review so that others can read a variety of opinions about this book.

Cross posted at Historical Tapestry

Pumpkins

It's interesting reading all the posts about Halloween, because we basically don't do anything for Halloween at all. The school had a Halloween party but other than that, there was no pumpkin carving, no trick or treaters (although I did buy some lollies just in case because occasionally we will get one or two come to the door), no one I know had a Halloween party. Nothing...nada...zilch.

One of the things that I have found interesting over the years that I have been connecting with people around the world is the way we all treat pumpkins differently.

Author Catherine Delors posted on her blog about Halloween in France, and how it is basically not celebrated at all. She also mentioned that pumpkins were available in the shops and that it was used to make pumpkin soup (including the basic ingredients). Pumpkin soup would be one of the most popular uses of pumpkin here in Australia as well, especially during winter, served with a swirl of sour cream and perhaps with a sprinkle of nutmeg on it.

Another way we like to eat pumpkin is roasted along with other vegies like carrots, sweet potatoes and potatoes. Yum.

One way we don't eat them is in sweet potato pies. Whilst I am not knocking this sweet treat that seems so synonymous with Thanksgiving celebrations in the US, I can't imagine eating pumpkin as a sweet. Having said that, there are some Aussies around who eat pumpkin scones. I have never figured out if they are meant to be sweet or savoury though. I also have been known to enjoy a slice of carrot cake which is sweet even though it has vegetables in it.

That's not good either!

Hot on the heels of the revelation that I wouldn't last very long if I was chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor, it turns out that I am no good against zombies either.


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Reading Challenges update

So I really need to sort out where I am up to with each of the challenges that I have said that I was going to participate in, so that I can figure out my reading priorities for when I have gaps between library books!

Pub08 Reading challenge

I still need to read Daughter of York by Anne Easter Smith, Fire Study by Maria V Snyder and Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland.

I have two reviews written, one for The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin and the other for The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig. Those reviews will be posted in the next week or so. I still need to write my review of The Pajama Girls of Lambert Square by Sara Donati and People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.

This challenge ends on 31 December 2008. I figured out that so far this year I have read 35 books that have been published this year, so if I don't get to read the remaining two books on my list, I have plenty of choices on books to swap in. In effect this challenge is completed.



Romance Reading Challenge

I still need to read The Huntress by Susan Carroll or Lover Unbound by J R Ward. I have read and reviewed the other books nominated.

This challenge also finishes at the end of the year.





Chunkster Challenge


I still need to read Wolf of the Plains by Conn Iggulden.

A chunkster is defined as a normal print book of more than 450 pages. So far this year I have read 29 books that would qualify so for I have kind of finished this challenge as well. This challenge officially finishes on December 20.

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

I've read Rhett Butler's People, Dreaming the Serpent Spear and The Witches Trinity, but haven't yet written the reviews and still need to read Aztec by Gary Jennings and Counting the Stars by Helen Dunmore.

This challenge actually finished on 1 October. I read way more than 6 books in the period from 1 April to 1 October (whoops), so I am going to sub the following books in and declare this challenge complete:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
My Lady of Cleves by Margaret Campbell Barnes


I Heard it Through the Grapevine Challenge

Need to read Counting the Stars by Helen Dunmore to complete this challenge.

This challenge finishes on November 30






Stephenie Meyer Mini Challenge.

I have read and reviewed The Host, and have read Breaking Dawn. Just have to write the review for that one, and then I am done. This challenge finishes on January 30 2009.







Book Awards Reading Challenge II

I have read a couple of books for this challenge already. It finishes on June 30 2009.



Bang Bang Book Challenge

The books that I nominated for this challenge were:

Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik
Winston's War by Michael Dobbs
Flashman and the Dragon by George Macdonald Fraser
Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig
The Birth House by Ami McKay

I have read the last three, just need to read the first two. This challenge finishes on February 29 2009.


RIP III Challenge

The books I nominated were:

Rises the Night by Colleen Gleason
Personal Demon by Kelley Armstrong
Before They are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
The Blackstone Key by Rose Melikan

I haven't read Before They Are Hanged or The Blackstone Key yet, but I have read Faefever by Karen Marie Moning and Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer which will both qualify so I am going to swap those books into my list, and then say, I am done, with the reading part of the challenge anyway!



Phew! That took a while!


The Pulitzer Project, The Orange Prize Project and The Booker challenges are all ongoing challenges. I really need to read at least one book for each just to show that I am still intending to participate!