Jane Austen Made Me Do It: Original Stories Inspired by Literatures Most Astute Observer of Human Nature edited by Laurel Ann Nattress

“My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” If you just heaved a contented sigh at Mr. Darcy’s heartfelt words, then you, dear reader, are in good company. Here is a delightful collection of never-before-published stories inspired by Jane Austen—her novels, her life, her wit, her world.

In Lauren Willig’s “A Night at Northanger,” a young woman who doesn’t believe in ghosts meets a familiar specter at the infamous abbey; Jane Odiwe’s “Waiting” captures the exquisite uncertainty of Persuasion’s Wentworth and Anne as they await her family’s approval of their betrothal; Adriana Trigiani’s “Love and Best Wishes, Aunt Jane” imagines a modern-day Austen giving her niece advice upon her engagement; in Diana Birchall’s “Jane Austen’s Cat,” our beloved Jane tells her nieces “cat tales” based on her novels; Laurie Viera Rigler’s “Intolerable Stupidity” finds Mr. Darcy bringing charges against all the writers of Pride and Prejudice sequels, spin-offs, and retellings; in Janet Mullany’s “Jane Austen, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!” a teacher at an all-girls school invokes the Beatles to help her students understand Sense and Sensibility; and in Jo Beverley’s “Jane and the Mistletoe Kiss,” a widow doesn’t believe she’ll have a second chance at love . . . until a Miss Austen suggests otherwise.

Regency or contemporary, romantic or fantastical, each of these marvelous stories reaffirms the incomparable influence of one of history’s most cherished authors.

This week over at Historical Tapestry we have been celebrating all things Jane Austen! There are reviews of Austen's books, plus some of the many, many spinoffs that there are around now, a couple of movie reviews, and a group discussion of this book between Kelly, Ana and myself!

Oh....and there are a couple of giveaways!

Head over to Historical Tapestry for all the details!

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Jennifer Egan's spellbinding interlocking narratives circle the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aging former rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Although Bennie and Sasha never discover each other's pasts, the reader does, in intimate detail, along with the secret lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect theirs, over many years, in locales as varied as New York, San Francisco, Naples, and Africa.

We first meet Sasha in her mid-thirties, on her therapist's couch in New York City, confronting her long-standing compulsion to steal. Later, we learn the genesis of her turmoil when we see her as the child of a violent marriage, then as a runaway living in Naples, then as a college student trying to aver the suicidal impulses of her best friend. We plunge into the hidden yearnings and disappointments of her uncle, an art historian stuck in a dead marriage, who travels to Naples to extract Sasha from the city's demimonde and experiences an epiphany of his own whilst starting at a sculpture of Orpheus and Eurydice in the Museo Nationale. We meed Bennie Salazar at the melancholy nadir of his adult life - divorced, struggling to connect with his nine-year-old son, listening to a washed-up band in the basement of a suburban house - and then revisit him in 1979, at the height of his youth, shy and tender, reveling in San Francisco's punk scene as he discovers his ardor for rock and roll and his gift for spotting talent. We learn what became of his high school gang - who thrived and faltered - and we encounter Lou Kline, Bennie's catastrophically careless mentor, along with the lovers and children left behind in the wake of Lou's far-flung sexual conquests and meteoric rise and fall.

A Visit from the Goon Squad is a book about the interplay of time and music, about survival, about the stirrings and transformations set inexorably in motion by even the most passing conjunction of our fates. In a breathtaking array of styles and tones ranging from tragedy to satire to PowerPoint, Egan captures the undertone of self-destruction that we all must either master or succumb to; the basic human hunger for redemption, and the universal tendency to reach for both - and escape the merciless progress of time - in the transporting realms of art and music. Sly, startling, exhilarating  work from one of our boldest writers.

With inside cover copy like that, and the fact that this is the book that won the Pulitzer prize and others, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize as well, who needs a review!

When I look back on this book in a couple of years time I think the thing that will still be strong in my memory is the structure of the book - if you could call it structure as such. It isn't a novel as much as it is an interlocking collection of short stories. This isn't a book that goes from point A to point B. It probably starts at point G and eventually gets to point Z with side trips past point A and B.

In my own mind I was trying to think of a comparison to show how this book works and the closest I could come up with was one of those puzzles we used to have as kids where there was a mixed up picture in a square and there was one piece missing so you had to move all the pieces around until the picture was formed. At first you would get occasional glimpses of what the jumbled image was going to look like, but then you would have to break the picture up to make another piece of the puzzle fit. Eventually though, the last piece slides into place and you see the whole image.

Another analogy might be a really long conversation with a very good friend, where you jump topics with ease, reminiscing about the past, talking about the future, and sharing a joke. Never a linear conversation but rather one that starts at one point, and then ends up somewhere completely different and you find yourself wondering how you got there!

Another aspect of structure that was very different in this book is that Egan experiments with all different forms of storytelling. There are chapters written in the form of a magazine column, another in Powerpoint as well as different tenses and points of view.  I think the Powerpoint chapter was amazing! The language was sparse, the story barely there on the page, but the concepts and the narrative were still strong enough to be clear for the reader, and I loved that we got to see Sasha's future life.

After looking at the structure, how about the characters. I can't say that I particularly related to the characters that we met in the pages of the book, but such is Egan's skill that you actually didn't need to. Our two main characters are Sasha and Bennie. Sasha is on a date with Alex when her habit of stealing things, anything, causes her to steal a wallet whilst in the bathroom. As she analyses why she steals with her shrink, Alex crosses one of her boundaries without even knowing it. We meet Sasha again as a young woman struggling to make ends meet living as a runaway in Naples, and then through the eyes of her best friend Rob who has plenty of demons of his own.

In the next chapter we meet Bennie, who is Alex's boss. He is a divorced man who is struggling to relate to his 9 year old son. One way that he can occasionally connect is through music, but even that is problematical. Through the book we see Benny with his ex wife in happier times, then we meet him as a youth revelling in the punk rock scene with his friends. We meet his mentor Lou and his very young girlfriend and her friend.

The links as we move from chapter to chapter are at times tenuous, but they are all there for a reason. Along the way, Egan makes comment about some important issues. Not only the power of music to transcend time, but also for example the power of media when a washed up PR person is employed to try and rehabilitate the image of an African dictator.

Another chapter that I really liked, not because it was enjoyable but because of the food for thought it provided, was the final chapter. It is set in New York in the not too distant future and Egan has taken our current obsession with social media and expanded it to the nth degree to come up with a quite scary world where even the youngest child has exposure to the media in a way that is similar to our own world but amplified many times over. A washed up musician is being bought back for a live concert and one of our characters is being asked to find some parrots - people who can spread the word, hype up the event to make it a success, to make it the kind of event that everyone who is anyone will claim to have been at even if they really aren't. In a way it kind of reminded me of a discussion of the difference between buzz and hype and how one, or the other, is generated, whether it is organic or whether there is someone in the background pulling the strings to manipulate the public.

This is the second Egan book I have read and liked. A few years ago now I read The Keep which was a kind of modern, gothicky ghost story. I am not sure why I haven't bothered to go and track down her other books. I will definitely be watching to see what the author comes up with next as she doesn't seem to be afraid to take risks in her writing and to take her readers on the journey with her!

Rating 4/5

Library Loot: October 12 to 18

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader 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!

Last week I had quite a small loot comparatively speaking, but we are back to a more normal size this week!


Here's my loot:

Before I go to Sleep by SJ Watson - A month or so back there was a lot of buzz around about this title. It seems to have dropped off a bit lately, but it took this long to get to me!

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins - Yay! Lola. Have been waiting for this book for ages!

Blood Song by Rhiannon Hart - Rhiannon is a Melbourne author who I chat to on Twitter. As soon as I saw her book on the library catalogue I requested it.

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher - After rereading the first book in the Harry Dresden series I want to read my way through the rest of the series now. This is the second book.

Ridiculous Expectations: or how to Find a Prince by Merridy Eastman - I saw a review for Merridy Eastman's latest book. It seems as though this book was a good place to start reading her books!

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik - This is my book club book for next month!

Clare has Mr Linky this week so head over to share your loot!

Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton

Jo Walton burst onto the fantasy scene with The King’s Peace, acclaimed by writers as diverse as Poul Anderson, Robin Hobb, and Ken MacLeod. In 2002, she was voted the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Now Walton returns with a very different kind of fantasy story: the tale of a family dealing with the death of their father, of a son who goes to law for his inheritance, a son who agonizes over his father's deathbed confession, a daughter who falls in love, a daughter who becomes involved in the abolition movement, and a daughter sacrificing herself for her husband.

Except that everyone in the story is a dragon, red in tooth and claw.

Here is a world of politics and train stations, of churchmen and family retainers, of courtship and country houses...in which, on the death of an elder, family members gather to eat the body of the deceased. In which society’s high-and-mighty members avail themselves of the privilege of killing and eating the weaker children, which they do with ceremony and relish, growing stronger thereby.

You have never read a novel like Tooth and Claw.

When we read novels that are set in Victorian, or indeed Regency, times, one of the main tenets seems to be the social structure and the almost impossibility of climbing from one part of the structure to another. For those who do manage to work hard and become wealthy, they may marry someone of higher status but it will never really be forgotten that they are not really quality. There are strict rules relating to inheritance, the church can and does rule the lives of the people and to live outside any of these strictures will lead to disgrace.

For women, the rules of society are even more restrictive. They are expected to marry (and not necessarily for love) and if they are to remain unmarried then they must be looked after by family. Their reputation must be sacrosanct, and the absolute worst thing that can happen is if they are ruined.

Sounds familiar right? So what happens when an author takes all these standard elements of Victorian society and then turns it on it's head by making all of the characters dragons? You get a fascinating world where it is quite literally a dog eat dog dragon eat dragon world.

The book opens as the family of Bon Agornin gathers at his deathbed. Bon married well, and is now pretty much accepted in society but he is a self made man. His children are with him. Penn, the oldest son, is a parson, Avan lives away and works for the government although at first it is rather vague as to what exactly it is that he does. Also present, Bon's oldest daughter Berend and her aristocratic husband Daverak, and the two unmarried daughters, Selendre and Haner.

By tradition, the body of any dead dragon is divided up and eaten. Aristocrats like Daverak have the right to kill any dragon who is ill, or even baby dragons that are determined to be weaklings as the flesh of dragons helps the stronger dragons grow even stronger, to the point where they may be developed enough to have flames.

Bon believes that he has made his intention clear in relation to his final wishes. Selendre and Haner are to live with the family, one with Penn and then other with Berend. His wealth is to go to the unmarried daughters as Berend and Penn are both well established and Avan is making his own way in the world. In the end though, Daverak helps himself to the prime portions of Bon's body, arguing that wealth relates only to treasure not to the body.

Avan is adamant that his sisters should have had first portions of the body and so decides to take Daverak to law for cheating him and his sisters of their rightful inheritance and so the family is divided, with Penn trying to stay out of the fight as he believes he was compromised by agreeing to hear his father's confession on his deathbed - something frowned upon by the church. With one sister living with Penn and the other with Daverak, the two girls are also divided by their reliance on the family members.

Further adding to the complications, one of the sisters may have been compromised by a dragon that she does not love. The only way to stop this from becoming clear to all of society is through the administration of a dangerous brew, which may or may not stop her from ever exhibiting the signs which show that she was pure before meeting her chosen husband - the changing of her scales to a vibrant pink when she feels the first flush of sexual feelings.

The other major issue relates to dowry - there just isn't enough money to go around to be able to ensure that both daughters can marry well. Will only one of them be able to marry? With both dragons being courted, how will both girls find the happiness they want, especially with the backdrop of the ongoing court case. It is really in the romances of the two sisters that you get the heart of this novel particularly with the introduction of Sher as one of the suitors. His mother, literally a stuffy old dragon, is desperate for her son to settle down with a suitable bride, but her idea of suitable and his are very different. The sister of her parson, daughter of a self made man, is most definitely not suitable.

I also found Avan's secret relationship very interesting - another take on the idea of mistresses. If anything though, I found the conclusion to this aspect of the story a little too convenient.

It is very interesting throughout the books to see the way in which Walton has taken the metaphorical ties that bind people in Victorian literature and makes them physical, like a parson who is bound to his benefactor and the servants who are bound to the families they serve, and actually makes them physical bindings by binding the wings so that they cannot fly, cannot feel the freedom associated with flight. Another example is the physical change which a female dragon faces when sexually awakened. The change can occur very easily, and it is very difficult to hide and can have huge consequences to their chances of marriage if they don't change when they should.

Whilst there have been plenty of comparisons to Austen and the very manners related books set in the Regency, the author is very clear that this book was inspired by Anthony Trollope's Victorian set novels and there is some evidence for this in some of the technological advances of the age, like trains,  and the issues of the age being part of the narrative. I suspect that if I had read any of Anthony Trollope's novels I would find the book even more amusing than I did, but it most certainly wasn't necessary.

It would be remiss of my not to give a shout out to Nymeth! Her review was the one that I read that made me think I really need to read this book! It only took me a year to get around to doing so which is better than my record with some other "I have to read this now" books on my list!

Now I need to read Among Others and see what other books I can easily access in the library by this author! Warm, funny, clever and touching - Jo Walton may just have another fan girl!

Rating 4/5

Teaser Tuesday: The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson

This week my teaser comes from The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson, which is the current readalong book for RIP VI.

The teaser comes from page 46:

The sun had emerged, quick and sharp. It seared into the wall, on one small patch, lifting layer after layer of surface tints, from cream to burnt brown; so mottled, hacked, knocked, replaced, corroded that the effect was of a decrepit fresco. It would be a bit of a shame to paint over it now, I was thinking; it was part of the fabric of the building's history, like the various places in the house where the ghostly outlines remained of old doors now bricked up and plastered over. They were a fine counterpoint to the doors we found opened into new rooms that hadn't seemed to exist.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!

Sex, Gossip and Rock'n'roll by Nicola Marsh

In all her time as premier tour manager to Australia's stars, Charli Chambers has never had someone as infuriating—or delectable!—as successful businessman Luca Petrelli along for the ride. He might always be in the gossip columns, but there's no way she's letting him claim VIP status!

But Luca's wicked eyes are just too tempting. In spite of herself, Charli's soon attending after-parties—just for two. She wants to believe this is one duet that's about to go platinum, but in spite of Luca being unprintably good in bed, can she ever get close enough to the real Luca for their fling to be more than just a one-hit wonder?

One of the great things about hanging out on Twitter is that you get the chance to interact with other readers and sometimes authors too. And sometimes that interaction leads you to think that maybe you might try one of the author's books! Of course, the danger is that you won't actually like their book which might be a bit awkward. Nicola Marsh is one of those authors for me. She is a local Melbourne author. We have never met, but occasionally we chat.

This is the first book I have read by Nicola Marsh. I will say that it won't be my last but there are some reservations.

The two main characters are Charli Chambers and Luca Petrelli. Charli is a publicist/tour manager who works for one of the biggest men in the Australian music business - the same man who is Luca Petrelli's estranged grandfather. When Charli is given the job of chaperoning a somewhat faded star through country Victoria she is also told that one of the conditions of the job is that Luca Petrelli comes along as the money man. He is basically in the country for a few weeks and then he will head back to his fabulous lifestyle overseas. Charli is distrusting of Luca - worried that he is going to hurt his grandfather emotionally, and also worried that she might lose control of herself due to the instant attraction that she feels for him.

I liked the idea that the author is trying to come up with new and unusual scenarios around which to build her romance, but I did find myself wondering about the logistics of the kind of tour that was portrayed in the book. Would there be someone along to take care of the financial side? I am not sure. Would there be a huge tour bus? Again I don't know. I guess it was something that you just have to go along with for the sake of the story.

Both Luca and Charli have had difficult backgrounds and therefore have issues that they need to resolve both for themselves and with each other before they can truly commit, but you know that it is going to happen. At times I found the emotional baggage a bit overwhelming - or perhaps overplayed is a better description.

One thing that I did really enjoy about this book was the use of Victorian towns and tourist destinations within the narrative! Towns like Bendigo, Ballarat and Echuca are all places I have visited before for one reason or another, but I was reminded of how fun it can be to be a tourist in your own town so to speaks. After reading this book I was inspired to start looking at maybe going on a day trip which I ended up doing yesterday. I took the train to Bendigo and visited the Chinese Dragon Museum which is mentioned in the book and a couple of other tourist destinations as well.

I also really appreciated that the text still sounded quite Australian. There was only one occasion where I was thrown out of the story because there was a word used that we just wouldn't normally use. There may have been others, but that was the only one that was really jarring for me.

Whilst I get quite annoyed at people who judge readers for reading genre fiction, whichever genre it might be, I must admit that at times I find myself being a bit of snob when it comes to Harlequins/Mills and Boon type category romances. I am not really sure why that is because I have read some really good category romances over the last year or so, and all of them have been by Australian authors like Sarah Mayberry and Marion Lennox. Having said that, over the years I have found that these types of books can be very hit or miss for me. This book was somewhere in the middle. I am intrigued by the sound of Nicola Marsh's next book, Busted in Bollywood, and so will hopefully get to read that one soon after it comes out.

Three things that make me happy

I love Elizabeth Hoyt's books so I would have been reading this book anyway, but the trailer for the upcoming Scandalous Desires made me laugh!




This makes me laugh every time I see it! And believe me, I have watched it quite a few times!




And in good news, we have a cover and a release date for Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore! The book comes out in May 2012 and I can't wait to read it!

*This post is bought to you due to the fact that I am procrastinating instead of finishing the reading so that I can write my readalong post for The Lantern Readalong post. It will be up tomorrow instead! Whoops.

Fragile Things Readalong - Week 5

This week's stories to be discussed are:

Locks
The Problem of Susan
Instructions
How do you Think it Feels

Last week, this week and next week there are stories in the reading that are not included in the edition that I have and there could well be more! Last week I managed to track down an audio version of the story but this week I didn't realise it until just now so haven't read it.

The fact that there are different stories in different editions for different countries puzzles me a little. In fact, it is something that puzzles me in relation to books as a whole, not just this short story collections.  The main reason it does so is because I often read the acknowledgements and there will be a nod to the US editor and the UK or Australian or wherever editor and I have to wonder what happens if the editors in the two different countries make different suggestions as to how they think a book can be improved and one doesn't like what the other suggests. Do they agree to disagree? Does the author have to choose which suggestions to take and then tell the other editor, sorry, this is just the way it is? What if there are different changes to be made in the copy edits for the two countries! Anyway, completely off track start to the post this week!

The first entry this week is called Locks and is a reflection on telling a young child a familiar story - Goldilocks and the Three Bears and on the lessons that we can learn from such a tale! Like a couple of the other stories in the collection this one is based on real life. More than either of the other two that we have read so far, I can hear Neil Gaiman talking to me, as though he is sitting across the table from me. I can hear the inflections, the smile in his voice as he relates this episode of telling his then two year old daughter the tale that is so familiar to so many of us growing up. "Again, again, again."

I also laughed at the lines near the end where he says:

These days my sympathy's with Father Bear.
Before I leave the house I lock the door,
and check each bed and chair on my return.

The Problem of Susan was my problem story this week. Neil Gaiman is certainly not the only author to take a swipe at the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis. From memory Philip Pullman has had his fair share of things to say about the books and the fact that they are an allegorical representation of Christianity. I guess the thing that I find a bit distasteful about this story is not so much the fact that he is critical of the Chronicles of Narnia,  because lets face it Gaiman knows more about storytelling than I will ever know, but rather the obvious glee he gets from doing so and from taking the imagery and spoiling it in ways that would be completely unsuitable and unimaginable for the target audience of the book. I guess it just feels disrespectful of others beliefs. Christianity doesn't work for some, but there are a great many who it does work for and who might well be offended by the contents of this story.

At first I didn't realise that the Susan that the problem refers to is Susan from The Chronicles of Narnia, the Susan who gets left behind when the other members of her family enter the "new Narnia" because "she's too fond of lipsticks and nylons and invitations to parties".

I guess your reaction to this story may well depend a lot on your own religious beliefs and where you are at in life. I am a Susan! I was bought up in a religious (Christian) environment, but chose to walk away from the church for a number of reasons, not least of which being that the church failed to act on it's duty of care to two vulnerable young girls. I am perfectly fine with that a lot of the time and for the most part have absolutely no interest in going back to that life with the associated guilt and expectations and necessity to become something other than I am now. However, every now and again enough of the religious indoctrination that I had makes me wonder what if. What if it is true and what if my decision to be a Susan does lead me to missing out on "new Narnia" and then I don't think about it for years again and all is well!

Earlier in this book there were a couple of poems that didn't work that well for me and so I was prepared to make a blanket judgement to say that none of the poems were really going to do so. Instructions was the second poem in this week's reading, and I liked both of them, so obviously that isn't really the case.

This poem is a set of instructions about what to do if you find yourself in a fairy tale and their are nods to all sorts of fairy tales and mythology. I loved the references to earlier stories that we have read. For example,

"In the clearing beyond the castle the twelve months sit around the fire,
warming their feet, exchanging tales"

seems to be a direct reference to the story October in the Chair which we read in the first week of the readalong.

How do you Think it Feels is the story that isn't in my edition of the book. I will make more of an effort to find that story that is missing from next week's reading.

Head over to Stainless Steel Dropping to read Carl's thoughts about this week's reading and to find links to other participants.

Sunday Salon: Road trip!

Not to long ago I read a book which featured the main characters travelling around a few of the small towns in country Victoria. The book, Sex, Gossip and Rock'n'Roll by Nicola Marsh, reminded me that there are lots of places that aren't too far away that I have been wanting to go to for a long time!

Then, I found out that at the Bendigo Art Gallery they currently have an exhibition on which is called White Wedding Dresses: Two Hundred Years of Wedding Dresses. I knew that one of my friends would be interested in attending, and so a day trip was born! The original plan though was that it was going to be a train trip! My intentions were that the little chef and I would catch the train to Bendigo (a couple of hours away), I would be able to catch up with some of the reading that I am behind on, and would be nice and relaxed at the end of the day. Unfortunately, they decided that this weekend they would replace the trains with buses, and given that I can not read in buses without feeling sick, the day turned into a road trip instead.

I really enjoyed the exhibition (not sure the 13 year old boy was quite so thrilled but what can you do!). There were some absolutely gorgeous gowns on display, some of which had come from the V & A Museum in London and including  a couple of celebrity dresses. There were also some shockers that you would definitely know that the grand kids would be looking at and thinking oh my goodness what were they thinking!  I think one of my favourites was a World War II wedding dress which was made out of upholstery material, because that wasn't rationed, but it was absolutely gorgeous! (If you are interested you can get a glimpse of the exhibition on their Facebook page.)

After a quick, very average lunch, my friend went home and that left the boy and I free to do some exploring that was more suited to his interests! We walked through the gorgeous gardens and went to the Golden Dragon museum, which is all about the influence of the Chinese immigrants who came to the Goldfields during the gold rush in the 1860s. I have also been to a Chinese museum in Ararat which focused more on the life of the Chinese miner, but this one was more about the artifacts, and is home to a couple of Chinese dragons that are used during various celebrations during the year. The Golden Dragon museum was one thing that was specifically mentioned in the book. I hadn't heard of it before! In addition there are also gardens and a temple that are open to all.

After walking back through more gorgeous gardens, and a quick trip to the top of the viewing tower for the boy, it was time to go home, after a stop off at Kmart. It was only when we got home that I realised that I didn't have a single book with me the whole day, well, until I bought one in Kmart.

The boy really enjoyed our day out, and I am pretty sure if I was to say to him that we might move to Bendigo he would be happy enough. He was particularly impressed that they had all the major fast food outlets, including 3 McDonalds that we saw just on the way into town plus an EB Games and two bookstores! After a very rainy start to the day it turned out to be a lovely sunny afternoon, which was just perfect for a day of wandering around finding new places.

We will definitely be visiting Bendigo again. In fact, next year they are having an exhibition about Grace Kelly at the Art Gallery, and so we might just do a day trip to see that, although the boy may choose to stay at home this time!

Currently Reading

I am struggling with reading at the moment because my glasses broke and so I am having to read using my old ones. They are very unstylish, but better than nothing, but my eyes still hurt after a bit.

the books I currently have on the go are Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart, Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson, Jane Austen Made Me Do It anthology, Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears.

Reading Next

I really need to read Imperial Highness by Evelyn Anthony in the next couple of days. It is an interlibrary loan so I can't extend it but I haven't started it yet.

Weekend Cooking: Thai Pork Burgers and Pineapple Relish

The cake is a Beyblade inspired cake. No idea what I was doing!

It's hard to believe but the little chef turned 13 a couple of weeks ago! That's right...I have a teenager in the house.

For his birthday celebrations we said that he could have family and a couple of friends over for dinner, preferably a barbecue. He got to choose the main dishes of the menu and make them, and then we made the other standard stuff like sausages and potato salad. We also had some spiced roast beef which took a bit longer to cook but was oh so good!

For his choice, he chose Curtis Stone's Thai Pork Burgers with Pineapple Relish, and I have to say the burgers were awesome and I wasn't the only one who thought that. I wasn't quite as thrilled with the accompanying Thai flavoured slaw. That was however probably my own fault because I made one batch as per the instructions and then tossed it together and thought it looked too dry so made up another lot of dressing and then it was a bit too strong!

It looks like a lot of ingredients below but if you follow the instructions it actually came together quite easily.

The little chef did all the preparation except for the slicing of the vegetables which I got left to do.

In the video that I have included below, Curtis Stone includes a tip for checking how hot a chilli is and also for making burgers. I have a tip of my own. I usually use a quarter cup measuring cup to ensure evenly sized burgers. They come out perfectly shaped and equal every time. Of course, two weeks after the event I suddenly remembered that somewhere in this house there is a Tupperware Hamburger Press that I could use too!

I can definitely see us making the burgers again for a barbecue even when it is just the two of us!

For dessert we had melted chocolate that we dipped pineapple, strawberries, marshmallows and snake lollies into....yum, and then my sister did her normal stellar job of making a birthday cake as seen above.

Thai Pork Burgers and Pineapple Relish

For the Burgers

650 g Pork Mince
2 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp Fresh Ginger, finely chopped, peeled
2 tsp Fish Sauce
2 tbsp Hoisin Sauce
1/4 tsp Sesame Oil
1 tbsp Olive Oil

For the Relish

2 cups Diced Fresh Pineapple, cut into 1cm cubes (about ½ pineapple)
1/4 cup White Sugar
1/4 cup Rice Wine Vinegar
1/4 cup Water
1 tsp Fresh Ginger, finely chopped, peeled
1 Red Chilli, seeded and finely chopped

For the Slaw

1 Carrot, peeled and julienned
100 g Snow Peas, ends and strings removed, julienned (or substitute with 100g steamed green beans, julienned)
1 small Pak Choy, end trimmed
1 cup Wombok Cabbage, julienned
1 Spring Onion, cut into 2mm slices, greens and whites separated
1/4 cup Fresh Mint Leaves
1/4 cup Fresh Coriander Leaves

For the Vinaigrette

1 tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar
1 Lime, zest and juice
2 tsp Soy Sauce
1 tsp Sesame Oil
3 tbsp Olive Oil


For the pineapple chutney, place all ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a low simmer and cook covered until liquid has almost completely evaporated and pineapple is soft, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes. Transfer to a food processor and pulse to form a chunky consistency, reserve.

Mix all the ingredients for the burger (except the olive oil) in a medium mixing bowl until just combined. Form the mixture into 4 burger patties.

Preheat a grill pan over medium-high heat and brush patties with 1 tablespoon of oil. Cook patties for 4 minutes per side or until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from pan and rest for 3 minutes.

For the vinaigrette, whisk all the ingredients in a mixing bowl along with the whites of the spring onions.

Toss all ingredients for the slaw in a large mixing bowl with enough of the vinaigrette to coat.

Mound the slaw onto serving plates, place a burger next to the slaw and spoon the pineapple chutney over. Serve.

By the way, a couple of weeks ago I was talking about wanting to try the recipe for Pasta Pomodoro and compare it to a similar sounding recipe from a four ingredients or less cookbook. We made the Pomodoro this week, and oh my goodness, there was no comparison. It was oh so good, and the little chef is already asking when we can make it for dinner again, so I guess that makes it a winner all round!

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

Foal's Bread Readalong - Preamble to Chapter 6

I don't know about you, but I find readalongs are a bit like London buses! You don't do one for months and months, and then suddenly you find that you are participating in three at once and there is another you just completed!

1 November is the release date for Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears - the first novel by this author in more than 16 years! I hadn't read her before, but I jumped at the opportunity. (oh, dear. This is a book about show jumping amongst other things - the pun was not intended!). There were a couple of reasons for doing so. The first was that it was a new to me Australian author which is always good, the second is that the setting is between the two World Wars which is a time I find very interesting, and the third was the chance to share the experience with a group of Australian bloggers some of which were familiar to me and others that were not! Special thanks go to Danielle from Book Nerd Club for hosting the readalong. I will list the other bloggers at the bottom of the post.

I was interested to see when I started researching for this book that there were interviews with the author as far back as 2002 where she talked about a book of this title being her next book. It would be interesting to learn how much the idea has changed during the intervening time, how much of a struggle it was to write the book and what made now the right time for it be published.
This week we are reading from the preamble to chapter 6, and will post about the rest of the book in the coming few weeks.

Perhaps I will start with the blurb from the publisher's website and share my thought using that as a jumping off point:

The long-awaited new novel from the award-winning author of The Grass Sister tells the story of two generations of the Nancarrow family and the high-jumping horse circuit prior to the Second World War. A love story of impossible beauty and sadness, it is also a chronicle of dreams 'turned inside out', and miracles that never last, framed against a world both tender and unspeakably hard.

Description

The sound of horses' hooves turns hollow on the farms west of Wirri. If a man can still ride, if he hasn't totally lost the use of his legs, if he hasn't died to the part of his heart that understands such things, then he should go for a gallop. At the very least he should stand at the road by the river imagining that he's pushing a horse up the steep hill that leads to the house on the farm once known as One Tree.

Set in hardscrabble farming country and around the country show high-jumping circuit that prevailed in rural New South Wales prior to the Second World War, Foal's Bread tells the story of two generations of the Nancarrow family and their fortunes as dictated by the vicissitudes of the land.

It is a love story of impossible beauty and sadness, a chronicle of dreams 'turned inside out', and miracles that never last, framed against a world both tender and unspeakably hard. Written in luminous prose and with an aching affinity for the landscape the book describes, Foal's Bread is the work of a born writer at the height of her considerable powers. It is a stunning work of remarkable originality and power, one that confirms Gillian Mears' reputation as one of our most exciting and acclaimed writers.

I am not sure what I was expecting when I was opening this book but it most definitely wasn't the opening chapter that we got. Noah is a young girl who is helping her father drove some pigs to market. They stop at a farm called One Tree Farm on their journey. Noah has no way of knowing that the farm is going to play an extremely prominent part in her life in future. Even without knowing the links that will bind her to this land in the future, she had already left a part of her heart and a secret behind on the Nancarrow family's land.

Fast forward a few years and Noah and her father have joined the show jumping circuit which at the time was quite lucrative for the winners, and there she meets Rowley. She likes him straight away but it is only later that she finds out that not only is he the local show jumping champion - he is Australian champion. Rowley is impressed with Noah's skills, and so begins a romance that leads her back once more to One Tree Farm.

I am still undecided as to what I think about this book so far.

What I do like - as I mentioned before the years after World War I and before World War II are years that aren't written about enough in my opinion. The world is still hurting from the Great War, and yet the machinations that are leading up to the second World War have begun. Individuals like Rowley's mother still hurt at the loss of individuals. In her case it was her older son Dunc, lost to the fields of France. And yet, there was technological advancement that was starting to become more than just a dream for many Australians as evidenced in the way that the Nancarrows were striving towards owning their own truck.

In some ways there is a touch of the fantastical to the story, with certain symbols within the text taking on almost magical qualities - the foal's bread of the title, the biscuit tin which features a picture of Rowley and Noah completing a tandem jump and more.

The language to me feels very colloquial, and I would think that is a very definite choice on the part of the author in showing the traits of the characters. For example, there were several times when the name Nancarrow is mentioned in speech and when that happens it is written as Nancarra in terms of pronunciation. It can sometimes take a while to understand the somewhat broader and older style of Australian language as it is quite different to what is in use today.

One thing that is very interesting is the pacing of the book. We have covered a lot of ground in this opening section and some times it has felt a bit rushed especially when the text jumps forward a number of years very rapidly, but as I am now reflecting on the section that I read earlier it does have a lingering after taste of lyricism!  There does also seem to be quite a bit of foreshadowing as we are reading along. Sometimes that works as a technique but other times not so much. I guess I will have to suspend judgment until I get further into the book!

I did feel uncomfortable with the opening parts of the book - mainly because I didn't really relate to Noah's reaction to what had happened to her and the consequences of those events.I am interested to see if Noah is going to have some kind of delayed reaction as the story progresses.

To read other posts for the readalong, visit the following blogs and see their impressions of the book so far:

The Book Nerd Club
The Talking Teacup
My Journal of Becoming a Writer
Fantasy vs Reality
Slightly Addicted to Fiction
The Book Nook

Love by Numbers series by Sarah MacLean

One thing that I am sometimes a little guilty of when it comes to romance is reading the same authors over and over so this year I have been trying to read a few more of the authors I have heard good things about but not yet tried. Sarah Maclean was one of those authors.

First thing though....are these just about the longest titles for romances? I get the gimmick but didn't think that the titles rolled off the tongue too well and are too difficult to remember when you are trying to talk to others about them. I also thought that by the end of the last book it had been overused a little bit by the time we go through Callie's list and Juliana's scandals amongst others.

If you are looking for something highly original in historical romance, then these books are probably not the best place to look. There are numerous tropes that abound throughout the books - arrogant dukes, wallflowers, to do lists are just some of them - but the thing about this series is that the tropes and cliches are done well, and therefore this reader is prepared to keep reading! If you start seeing the tropes and cliches and they are not written well, then that is when you lose readers.

The covers are pretty standard in terms of romance covers too, but I have to say I really didn't like the cover to the last book in the trilogy. It took me at least a couple of attempts to figure out the dress because the pink sash just looked not quite right.

A lady does not smoke cheroot. She does not ride astride. She does not fence or attend duels. She does not fire a pistol, and she never gambles at a gentlemen's club.

Lady Calpurnia Hartwell has always followed the rules, rules that have left her unmarried—and more than a little unsatisfied. And so she's vowed to break the rules and live the life of pleasure she's been missing.

But to dance every dance, to steal a midnight kiss—to do those things, Callie will need a willing partner. Someone who knows everything about rule-breaking. Someone like Gabriel St. John, the Marquess of Ralston—charming and devastatingly handsome, his wicked reputation matched only by his sinful smile.

If she's not careful, she'll break the most important rule of all—the one that says that pleasure-seekers should never fall hopelessly, desperately in love . . .

When you are a wallflower, you really have two options. Most accept their status as fate, but Lady Calpurnia Hartwell has decided that she has followed society's rules for far too long and she is therefore going to have some fun. She creates a list of things she would like to do. Smoke a cheroot, fence, gamble are all on the list, as is engage in a passionate kiss.

Callie has long been in love with Gabriel St John so she chooses him to help her achieve her goals. St John, Marquess of Ralston has needs of his own. His family name has long been tainted with scandal, most especially because his mother abandoned her family years before. Now, the half  Italian sister he didn't know he had has turned up on his doorstep and he needs someone to show her the ropes so that she can be introduced to society. He therefore proposes a trade - Callie gets her passionate kiss, he gets someone to teach his sister all that she needs to know about the ton.

Ralston finds himself drawn into Callie's adventures albeit after being initially mindful that he doesn't find his family linked to yet more scandal. More and more though he finds himself drawn to Callie herself even though he has long believed that he should not fall in love.

Funny, warm and romantic, I was glad that I already knew that there were two more books ready to be read!

Rating 4.5/5

“Lord Nicholas is a paragon of manhood.
And his eyes, Dear Reader! So blue!”

Pearls & Pelisses, June 1823

Since being named “London’s Lord to Land” by a popular ladies’ magazine, Nicholas St. John has been relentlessly pursued by every matrimony-minded female in the ton. So when an opportunity to escape fashionable society presents itself, he eagerly jumps—only to land in the path of the most determined, damnably delicious woman he’s ever met!

The daughter of a titled wastrel, Lady Isabel Townsend has too many secrets and too little money. Though she is used to taking care of herself quite handily, her father’s recent passing has left Isabel at sea and in need of outside help to protect her young brother’s birthright. The sinfully handsome, eminently eligible Lord Nicholas could be the very salvation she seeks.

The name Nicholas St. John is on the list of every mother in the ton who has a daughter to be married off. Never mind that the Ralston family has a few scandalous secrets in it's past. Nick has a heroic reputation after his war service, is twin brother to a marquess, he is knowledgeable when it comes to antiques and he has an innate ability to find lost objects.

When Simon Pearson, the Duke of Leighton, asks Nicholas St. John to find his wayward sister Georgiana,  he jumps at the chance to escape from the unwanted attention of the ton. Nicholas tracks the girl to the home of Lady Isabel Townsend. To say that Isabel is distrustful of men is an understatement. The book opens with Isabel turning away yet another man who says her wastrel father sold her to him as a bride. Soon after however, we learn that Isabel's father has died, leaving an eight year old boy as his heir. The estate is falling apart, there is no money for repairs and Isabel has a houseful of people that she feels very responsible for.

She decides to sell of some of the collection of antiques to raise some cash and Nicholas agrees to value her statues (and yes, that might be a euphemism). He knows that there is something not quite right but he can't quite figure out what. Isabel is desperately trying to protect the secrets of Townsend Park and the inhabitants, protect her brother's title but she can't protect herself from loving Nicholas.

Rating 4/5

She lives for passion.

Bold, impulsive, and a magnet for trouble, Juliana Fiori is no simpering English miss. She refuses to play by society's rules: she speaks her mind, cares nothing for the approval of the ton, and can throw a punch with remarkable accuracy. Her scandalous nature makes her a favorite subject of London's most practiced gossips . . . and precisely the kind of woman The Duke of Leighton wants far far away from him.

He swears by reputation.

Scandal is the last thing Simon Pearson has room for in his well-ordered world. The Duke of Disdain is too focused on keeping his title untainted and his secrets unknown. But when he discovers Juliana hiding in his carriage late one evening—risking everything he holds dear—he swears to teach the reckless beauty a lesson in propriety. She has other plans, however; she wants two weeks to prove that even an unflappable duke is not above passion.

If you were to draw a picture of what a young lady of the ton should be, you wouldn't end up with a picture of Juliana Fiori! No simpering miss here. Juliana is beautiful, she is outspoken, she is unconventional, her parentage is questionable - in short she is scandalous. And things get even worse for her when her runaway mother returns much to the derision of society.

Simon, Duke of Leighton is doing everything he can to avoid scandal. There is enough hidden scandal in his family, and he really needs to get married to someone beyond reproach before his secret gets out, so why is it that he is drawn to Juliana like a moth to a flame. Even becoming engaged to the perfect ton girl is not enough to stop him from being attracted to Juliana.

Leighton is your quintessential cold fish duke, a man who believes that he doesn't need passion in his life. He does everything he can to ensure that his life is ordered, so when scandal touches his own family he is really unsure of how he should deal with it. This leads him to make decisions that I as a modern reader found difficult to fathom, particularly in relation to his sister. We see glimpses of the man underneath the ducal veneer but it is really only once this situation is somewhat resolved that this reader sees that it is possible for him to be the man that Juliana has seen him to be.

In terms of Juliana, she just can't seem to help herself from landing in trouble, whether it be ending up in a duke's coach at the end of a party, falling into a lake in Hyde Park...falling in love with a man who is engaged to another. Simon gives Juliana two weeks to try and prove to him that you can't live life without passion, but maybe it is Juliana who will learn that passion can often lead to love.

Rating 4/5

I now count myself as a fan of Sarah Maclean and can't wait to see what her next book brings. A Rogue by any Other Name is due out next February and I was really pleased to see that Penelope gets her turn to star in the next book! I am hoping that Georgiana will get her story in due course.

Tiger Hills by Sarita Mandanna

The year is 1878. As the first girl to be born to the Nachimandas in over sixty years, beautiful, spirited Devi is adored by her entire family. She befriends Devanna, a gifted young boy whose mother has died in tragic circumstances. The two quickly become inseparable, 'like two eggs in a nest', as they grow up amidst the luscious jungles, rolling hills, and rich coffee plantations of Coorg in Southern India; cocooned by an extended family whose roots have been sunk in the land for hundreds of years.

Their futures seem inevitably linked, but everything changes when, one night, they attend a 'tiger wedding'. It is there that Devi gets her first glimpse of Machu, the celebrated tiger killer and a hunter of great repute. Although she is still a child and Machu is a man, Devi vows that one day she will marry him. It is this love that will gradually drive a wedge between Devi and Devanna, sowing the seed of a heartbreaking tragedy that will have consequences for the generations to come.

Whilst I haven't seen a lot around about this book, apparently it was a pretty big deal in India. The author received the biggest advance for a debut novel in Indian publishing history and has been translated into numerous languages as well. It seems to me that it also quite unusual for a piece of Indian historical fiction written by an Indian author makes it into English. I love reading historical fiction set in India but generally those books will be mainly focused on the British characters rather than the Indian characters. In this book, it is very much the other way around, with issues relating to colonisation taking only a small, but pivotal, role in the book.

The story starts in 1878 with the birth of the first girl to be born to the Nachimanda family for sixty years. Her name is Devi, and she is treated as a princess by the family - princess, not only when she is a child but also when she is older. Her childhood companion is a boy named Devanna. He practically becomes a member of the family after a tragedy leaves him an orphan. Devi and Devanna are inseparable!

Once they start to go to school, it is clear that Devi is a very clever young man and he is taken under the wing of the German missionary who runs the local school. Devi takes an avid interest in many subjects, but most especially in botany. Devi's future is so bright that there is even the prospect of an overseas education, until that choice is taken away from him before he even knows of it.

Devanna has long been in love with Devi and knows that they are feted to be together but unfortunately for him, she has set her sites on his cousin Machu, the tiger killer and she will settle for no one else.

When Devanna's education is cruelly cut short and Devi's choices are even more cruelly taken away from her, so begins a lifetime of hurt and pain for all the characters involved, and even for future generations.

This book has been compared to other famous sagas like The Thorn Birds and Gone With the Wind and to be honest it was this comparison that compelled me to want to read the book when I heard an interview with the author on NPR. Whilst it never quite reached the same heights in terms of the romance aspects, it was most definitely a book that I loved reading!

I would classify this book as more literary style of historical fiction. Amongst it's strengths were the use of the land and traditions of Coorg, a region in India now known as Kodagu and apparently referred to as the Scotland of India. During the span of 60 years or so, we see the changes that take place in India, including the battles fought by the British colonists, the establishment and importance of the coffee crops, culture superstition and class,  important national events such as the first Indian hockey team to play in the Olympics and many more. I suspect that Indian readers would really love some of the name checking of people that I have never heard of but who may well be important characters in Indian history.

There were certain scenes in the book that were so well written that my heart was in my mouth as I was reading them. For example, I am not sure that I will ever forget the scene where Machu is fighting alongside the English during a battle in the mountains.

There were however also weaknesses with the book as well though. The first, and biggest for me, was definitely Devi. She is portrayed as being so beautiful and so perfect, but by the end of the book she has become a hardened crone and she treated people, specifically her family pretty badly. She did have a hard life and was undoubtedly treated unforgivably, but then she made decisions that left her in the same situation ongoing. It took her many, many years to even think of what it was that Devanna has also suffered. Believe me, I am not excusing Devanna for his actions in the events by any stretch of the imagination, but it dragged out way too long.

The other thing that wasn't that strong was the very end of the novel. It really annoys me when an author carries a particular plot line and then suddenly in the last couple of pages turns everything on its head. It could well be that there is a sequel in the works, but I was left feeling manipulated by the last chapter or so.

There are also a few typos within the text, including in the back cover copy which is not the author's fault but is disappointing.

If you enjoy beautiful imagery, family sagas, books set in India, or just historical fiction with a setting outside of the more common European countries, then this may well be a book that you will enjoy.

Rating 4/5

Library Loot: October 5 to 11

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader 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 was intending to go to the library again tonight but the fact that our clocks sprung forward over the weekend has thrown me a little. I was enjoying the sunshine and sunset when suddenly I realised that it was 8 minutes until closing time and there was no way I was going to make it.

Oh well. Will just have less loot to show you, because there is still loot given that I generally make more than one trip to the library each week.

Here's my loot for this week:

We'll Always Have Paris by John Baxter - Not sure if you can see the subtitle of this book or not, but it is Sex and Love in the City of Lights. Not my normal read, but I recently read one of John Baxter's other books so I know I like his voice so I thought I would give this one a go.

Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear - the second Maisie Dobbs book.

What loot did you get this week? Add your link to Mr Linky below:

Teaser Tuesday: Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart

Mary Stewart has been a great influence on a number of authors I like to read and so I thought it was about time that I found out for myself what the fuss is all about!

This book was suggested as a great place to start and also as being suitably gothic enough to qualify as a read for the RIP IV challenge.

My teaser comes from page 108. It is actually a bit further on in the book from where I am up to so I haven't actually met Raoul myself, but I have heard from other Stewart fans that he is quite the man. I hope so. 

It was to have been expected. It would be a very odd Cinderella indeed who can be thrown out of such dreary seclusion as the orphanage had offered me, into contact with Raoul de Valmy, without something of the sort happening. A man whose looks and charm were practically guaranteed to get him home without his even trying, had exerted himself to give a very lonely young woman a pleasant evening. An evening to remember.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!

Storm Front Readalong Part 3

Harry Dresden--Wizard
Lost items found. Paranormal investigations.
Consulting. Advice. Reasonable rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties, or Other Entertainment.


Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he's the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the "everyday" world is actually full of strange and magical things--and most of them don't play too well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a--well, whatever.


There's just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name. And that's when things start to get... interesting.


Magic. It can get a guy killed.

This is the last week of the Storm Front readalong which is being hosted by Carl as part of RIP IV. If you want to see the previous week's readalong post then click on the Storm Front Readalong label below.

1. Were you disappointed that we didn't get see any more of Bianca and Harry together?

Not really. For me the more interesting relationship that I think has the most potential going forward is the uneasy relationship between Harry and Murphy.  I suspect that we haven't seen the last of Bianca in the series though.

2. We finally get to see Harry go on the magical offensive in this section of the book. Any favorite action moment?

I think my favourite scenes were in the elevator and then when he used the broom at the lake house. My main reasons for liking these scenes is that Harry was down to his last options in terms of his power. It really was just Harry against the world. No staff. No rod. Just Harry drawing from deep within himself to fight to stay alive. I also thought that even within the storm of action, Butcher still managed to infuse humour into the situation, particularly in relation to the use of a cleaning spell in the big crescendo scene at the house!

3. How did you feel about where Harry and Murphy's relationship was at when the book ended?

For me, this is the most interesting dynamic in the book. Murphy needs Harry's expertise and his information, Harry needs to protect the paranormal secrets as much as he can and so really can only give her information on a need to know basis which pisses Murphy off. In addition though, Harry really needs the income that working for the department provides. So they both need each other, but they both also protect themselves from the other as much as they can.

4. (This question morphs somewhat into Jeff's 'Harry and Murphy' question, but) How did you feel about the wrap up after the climax, the brief mentions of various characters as part of Harry's closing narration?

I guess all the loose ends have to be tidied up! I tell you that  I would love to read some short stories of what exactly it is that Bob gets up to when he gets out of the skull! They would obviously have to be a little censored because I think he likes to party very hard, but they would be really fun to read!

5. Now that you've seen Harry in all three acts of a story arc, what are your thoughts about him as a character, particularly in light of this being a debut novel for the series.

Harry seems like a great character to hang a series from, a fact that seems to have been born out by the longevity of the series. This book was published in 2000 and the 13th novel was published this year, not mention that there are several short stories in various anthologies.

I think this passage really shows us about Harry's character and innate honour. How could you not like a guy like this (from page  291):

I took deep breaths, struggling to see clear of the anger, the hate, the deep lust that burned within me for vengeance and retribution. That wasn't what magic was for. That wasn't what magic did. Magic came from life itself, from the interaction of nature and the elements, from the energy  of all living beings, and especially of people. A man's magic demonstrates what sort of person he is, what is held most deeply inside of him. There is no truer gauge of a man's character than the way in which he employs his strength, his power.

6. Any finally, a two-parter: Discuss your overall experience with the book and/or the group read and will you be reading the next book in the series?

This was a reread for me, and I have to say I enjoyed reading the book a bit more this time around. I am not sure if it was the questions that made me think things through a bit more, the fact that I didn't rush through it  as I tried really hard to keep to the reading schedule, or perhaps even the fact that I knew what to expect having read the next couple of books in the series as well.

I will be rereading Fool Moon as well and I hope to continue on with the series. I meant to keep reading the series before but I kept on borrowing Summer Knight but never actually getting to read it! This time, I will (probably).

Having read the first book I hae also been prompted me to watch the Dresden Files TV series. It's different to the books and the jury is out, but it's not too bad a way to spend some time.

Thanks to Carl for running the read along and to his friends for coming up with the discussion questions.